The bulwark of our election system is the election workforce. From Secretaries of State, to local election commissioners and managers, to people who work the polls (who in some states are volunteers), we rely on these dedicated workers to assure that elections run fairly and smoothly. Traditionally, these people had the respect and appreciation of the community.

However, during and after the 2020 election, a wave of hostility inundated many of them. Entirely unproven accusations that the election was stolen have led to a huge number of direct threats to election workers, generally through hostile and occasionally grotesque phone calls, emails and social media posts. Election workers’ personal information has been shared; their families have been harassed and intimidated.