Threats, pressures faced by poll workers pose 'existential threat to our democracy,' experts warn

Threats against poll workers in the wake of the 2020 election have led to resignations across the country, prompting concerns about future elections.

A steady clip of threatening messages has inundated the Milwaukee Election Commission in recent months, forcing the once-sleepy office to divert attention from its official mandate -- administering free and fair elections -- to a more pressing concern: ensuring the safety of its employees. "Usually, we are thinking about election security and what we can do to protect everyone's vote," said Claire Woodall-Vogg, the commission's executive director. "But after November 2020, we are actually having to look at our own physical security, which is sad ... but it's definitely necessary." State and local election offices across the country are facing similar challenges, in many cases prompting mass resignations up and down their ranks -- and stoking fear among some experts that their replacements will put partisan loyalties above a commitment to democracy. In the eight months since the 2020 presidential election, the plight of election workers -- propelled by misinformation surrounding the results of the election and a wave of Republican-led state-level voting reform efforts -- is posing an "existential threat to our democracy," warns Larry Norden, an elections expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, a bipartisan public policy institute.