We defend our democracy by doing democracy

Those of us who live in big Democratic cities in Blue states may not realize how rough it is out there in more politically contested areas. Election officials in much of the country feel under assault from the radical elements of the Republican Party who believe any election is rigged if their side doesn't win. And further believe that election officials must be part of a fraud conspiracy ...

Here in Reno, the Registrar of Washoe County resigned July 31. Deanna Spikula left the job as the stress on her mounted. She used to enjoy traveling around the county making presentations about how the county system worked. No longer.

It’s really been just since the beginning of this year. The speaking engagements were no longer a platform for sharing information and having a productive conversation. We’d go out there and just get beat up. 

... I don't think I ever would have imagined that elections would get to this level of intensity and difficulty in just being able to perform your normal functions without harassment. But it’s so much more than that. A lot of it works on your nerves. What really gets hard is you're trying to get a job done and you're constantly being distracted and pulled away from that to do things that are not conducive to performing the functions of administering an election. 

There were a couple of incidents. We've had calls where people who have said, “I'm gonna come down there and you're going to be sorry,” that kind of stuff. There was one email that we got saying, “Count the votes as if your life depends on it because it does.” You start to get that fight-or-flight feeling when you're on the receiving end of that stuff. When you're trying to talk to somebody and they're belligerently yelling at you, you get a little worried. In this day and age, you don't know what somebody's going to do.

You might think these pressures only surface in Red states, but they exist even in Blue areas of very Blue states. 

The town of Aquinnah sits at the far end of Martha's Vineyard Island, off the Massachusetts coast. It's home to many members of the Wampanoag tribe, as well as a goodly number of white residents. Most people who have heard of Martha's Vineyard think it as a playground for liberal Democratic celebrities and they wouldn't be wrong. Kennedys and Clintons go way back on the Island and the retired Obamas have purchased a classy getaway. But in the offseason, when the tourists and the summer people depart, the Vineyard population shrinks by 90 percent, leaving a sprinkling of New England towns with their working class four-season residents and citizen town meeting governments. 

There are plenty of somewhat conservative people, but this is not where you'd look to find the MAGA Republicans. But you might be surprised. According the to the Martha's Vineyard Times:

During a Tuesday meeting, the Aquinnah select board unanimously approved town clerk Gabriella Camilleri’s request to have a police presence during the state primary and state elections, which take place at the town hall from 7 am to 8 pm on September 6 and November 8 respectively. The officer would also stay during the vote counting until 10 pm. 

In an email to the board, which was read aloud during the meeting by board chair Juli Vanderhoop, Camilleri stated in the almost five years as the town clerk, she had “never felt any concern for my safety or the safety of our poll workers or voters.” However, “some of the negative tone coming from certain groups” regarding the elections and voting system led Camilleri to make the request.  

“Oh, yeah … I can see her concern,” board member Gary Haley said after seeing an example Camilleri put from another town, which read “(expletive) you Biden cheated” scrawled on a vote by mail application form.

If you can do nothing else to help defend democracy in the upcoming elections, consider being a volunteer poll worker in your home town, even if home is a Blue city. We maintain our democracy by engaging with its processes.