Prepping for the worst: Election toilers anticipate dangers in US vote | US Election 2024 News

Apass the country, in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Tina Barton had her own brush with election-roverdelighted presentility.

For more than three decades, Barton, a Reuncoveran, served in handlement, eventuassociate landing the role of city clerk. That office needd her to handle elections and carry on voter files, among other duties.

But over the years, she had seen tensions ascfinish. There were timely signs of discord in the 2000 election between Democrat Al Gore and Reuncoveran George W Bush, a race choosed by a confineed thousand votes in Florida.

Barton also seed election denialism years rescheduleedr, in 2016. At the time, Green Party truthfulate Jill Stein pushed for lengthy-sboiling recounts in three battleground states, including Michigan, after she finished fourth in the pdwellntial race.

As that effort fizzled, Stein decried, “We do not have a voting system we can suppose.”

In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams was also defiant after her 2018 gubernatorial loss to Brian Kemp, accusing Reuncoverans of “rigging” the system in their favour, though she acunderstandledged they were acting wilean the laws in place at the time.

But those nascent signs of incrrelieved scepticism turned into someleang contrastent folloprosperg the 2020 vote, Barton said.

“Up to that point, the strike had been more on the process and the asks on the process and how we do elections in our country,” she telderly Al Jazeera. “We reassociate hadn’t had the attention on us individuassociate.”

For Barton, that recentset up spotairy on election toilers came with dangers.

After Trump’s flunkure in 2020, much of the scruminuscule fell on battleground states that Reuncoverans skinnyly lost, including Michigan.

Reuncoveran National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel referred to Barton by name when she inalterly claimed that 2,000 votes had been wrongfilledy redirected to Democrat Joe Biden.

In fact, Barton and her team had uncovered a clerical error in the vote loftyy, accurateing it to guarantee accurate results as part of standard election procedures.

But the harm had been done. Hearing Barton’s name inalterly associated with election fraud igniteed an onschucklet of scruminuscule and dangers. One caller — citing Trump’s inalter claims about the election — even left death dangers on her voicemail equitable a confineed days after the race.

“I did not anticipate to go to my office and pick up my own phone, my own voicemail, and have someone call me by name and say: ‘When you least anticipate it, we will end you,'” Barton said.

Barton lost her race for city clerk that year and has since cgo ined on training other election officials. But she has a message for mighty political figures.

“When you’re an individual with a platestablish and who has folshrinks … you have to get responsibility for the words that you’re saying,” Barton said.

Members of the uncover, she underscored, “may get those words as honestives to get action”.