Local election workers fear threats to their safety as November approaches. A group is trying to help

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The group gathered inside the conference room, mostly women, fell silent as the audio recording began to play.

The male voice, clearly agitated, protested what he thought was a fraud that cost the former President Donald Trump reelection four years ago.

“You will pay for this,” the man said, filling his message with expletives and suggesting that his target’s throat be slit with a knife. “We’re… going to take you out. Your family, your life.”

The call was directed to one of them, a city employee who oversaw the 2020 elections in his suburban Detroit community. The former secretary, Tina Barton, played a recording of the call she received to an audience that included several dozen local election officials and a few police officers who gathered recently in the conference room of a northern Michigan office building.

“I want you to understand that this voicemail is the same kind of thing we see all over the country and it can find you anywhere – small community, large community, Michigan, Arizona. He can find you,” said Barton, who was supervising elections in Rochester Hills when he received the voicemail a week after the 2020 presidential election.

The recent gathering in Traverse City, a picturesque community on the shores of Lake Michigan in a county that voted twice for Trump, was part of a national effort to train local election officials on how they can respond to threats and work with election enforcement. law to combat them.

As the nation moves toward another highly charged presidential election, the threats to election offices that have been an alarming consequence of Trump’s false claims about his 2020 defeat are posing as a dangerous unpredictable card for the thousands of government employees. who will oversee the country’s essential infrastructure. nation’s democracy this fall. Constant threats and harassment have contributed to an exodus of election workers across the country.

Barton left his job in Rochester Hills shortly after the 2020 election and later became part of the newly formed Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Since she joined, she has given around 100 performances across the country.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press had rare access to the committee’s training session in Traverse City and was able to observe the scenarios election workers are likely to face this year and discussions about how they and law enforcement can prepare for them.

“None of these scenarios are sensational. These are all things that have already happened in some form across the country,” Barton told the group. “To say, ‘Oh, that could never happen.’ These things are already happening.”

Barton’s training partner is Justin Smith, the former sheriff of Larimer County, Colorado, who signed up after retiring last year and hearing directly from local election officials about the onslaught of threats they have faced since 2020.

During training, Smith often speaks directly to the police and sheriff’s deputies in the room, explaining the role they play in elections and how the environment has changed since 2020. In years past, election officials would likely handle issues on their own. , such as protesters or undisciplined citizens seeking to promote their candidates at polling stations.

“It’s not that simple anymore,” Smith tells the group. “We need to be at the table and be part of the solution.”

To election officials, he explains how law enforcement has historically sought to stay away from anything related to elections, mindful of First Amendment concerns and not wanting to interfere with anyone’s right to vote.

Barton walks election officials through several scenarios and encourages them to reflect on their responses, when it makes sense to alert election officials, and when to consider releasing information to the public.

“I know there has been some discontent, perhaps across the country, on the part of some election officials who feel they have not gotten the response from election officials that they felt officials should give,” Barton told election officials. “So these conversations help us understand what they can actually do in these scenarios and what they can’t do.”

She said election offices can handle everything from threatening emails and phone calls to an AI-generated robocall sent to election workers telling them to stay home on Election Day. One of the scenarios Barton presents to the group reflects events that unfolded in the days immediately after the elections last fall, when local election offices in a handful of states received letters in the mail that contained fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, whose office helped sponsor and coordinate the training in Traverse City, said it is imperative that law enforcement and election officials work together to ensure a smooth election in November.

Benson said his office has been providing grants to election offices to help them increase security. The federal government is also engaged in the effort. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will assess the physical security of local election offices and has developed written guidance for workers on how to de-escalate tense situations.

Michael D. Shea, the sheriff of Grand Traverse County, said he was surprised by how vulnerable election workers can be due to the requirements associated with their work. He said it was understandable to have some concerns about the election, especially with the use of technology in parts of the voting process, but said he trusted experts and local election officials.

“The goal is a safe, secure and fair election,” said Shea, who participated in the training. “And we intend to make that happen.”

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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Nicholas Riccardi in Las Vegas; Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

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