Personal threats, election lies and punishing new laws rattle election officials, raising fears of..

[Nevilledog]

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Seth Bluestein
@SethBluestein
“My biggest concern now is the damage this is doing to our institutions and democratic system. The easiest thing anyone could do to restore confidence in our elections is to simply stop lying about the election being stolen because it’s not true.”

Personal threats, election lies and punishing new laws rattle election officials, raising fears of...
Election officials are asking hard questions about their professional futures as they become political targets in an era of widespread falsehoods about election fraud. Experts fear a massive exodus...
amp.cnn.com
7:03 AM · Jul 21, 2021

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/07/21/politics/election-officials-exodus/index.html

(CNN) — Maribeth Witzel-Behl had run elections in Madison, Wisconsin, for 15 years when the 2020 election arrived, bringing challenges like no other: a global pandemic, a crushing workload, lawsuits and a recount.

Then the threats started. Wisconsin rules require the initials of the municipal clerk to appear on absentee ballots, but during a recount last November, people noticed her initials and seized on them as a sign that some kind of mischief must have occurred.

An online discussion thread began weighing the weapons and ammunition to use against her, Witzel-Behl said. There was also discussion of lynching.

So, when it came time to renew her employment contract, she struggled.

"Every day for over a year, I just kept going back and forth," the 47-year-old said recently. "Is it worth it? Is it time to do something else where there is less stress, more reasonable work hours and certainly no death threats?"

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