By james art For Burgess, the top election official in a northern Nevada county, such exits can be uncertain. While waiting for hot tea and a breakfast sandwich, an older woman approached.
“She kept telling me that I should be ashamed of myself — that I’m a disgrace, I’m a disgrace to Washoe County, and I should crawl into a hole and die,” Burgess told The Associated Press the next day.
There would no longer be a morning stop at the cafeteria. It was added to a growing list of things Burgess no longer does because of his job. She had already stopped shopping for groceries and other necessities. Food is eaten at home.
“I go to work, come home and go to church — that’s it,” Burgess said. “Now I’m very careful about where I go.”
Still, Burgess said he’s looking forward to November and watching the presidential election with his team in Nevada’s second-most populous district. That ended one day in late September when she was invited to a meeting with county officials.
The district said Burgess requested medical leave to deal with stress and characterized her departure as a personnel matter. In a statement, it said it was “focused on holding smooth and fair elections.” Burgess said she was forced out after she refused to agree to staffing changes requested by the county manager’s office. She said she repeatedly begged to stay, even provided a doctor’s note vouching for her health and hired a lawyer.
Overseeing the office now is Burgess’s deputy, the fifth person in four years to lead the county’s election operation. All staff are new since 2020. Turnover is one symptom of a district that has been tightly divided politically and has been subject to election conspiracy theories since Republican Donald Trump lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Burgess, in his first public remarks since his sudden departure, told the AP last week that he was worried about his team and didn’t know what to do next.
“I gave 110% of who I was, who I am to this job. And then all of a sudden I come out and I don’t understand,” Burgess said as he considered his next steps. “I don’t understand how we got here.”
AP reporters were in Reno in September, a week before she left, and spent several days with Burgess, which included time at the Washoe County elections office and at her home. As with those before her, Burgess and her team were on a roll under pressure, under fire at public meetings and forced to answer conspiracy-fueled claims about voting machines, boxes and electoral rolls.
Working with elected county committee members who do not believe in elections made the job even more difficult.
Burgess was an extreme example of the kinds of challenges local election officials across the country face after four years of false allegations that have undermined public trust in elections and those who run them. Across the country, election officials have faced harassment and even death threats, and this year took extra security measures that included adding bullet-proof glass and panic buttons.
In the three days the AP spent with Burgess, she gave no indication that she planned to quit her job.
“I didn’t think I’d be where I am now — so front and center and at the center of this election, but I’m grateful,” Burgess said as he sat in his living room surrounded by inspirational Bible passages and Christian symbols. “I am grateful for the opportunity. I am grateful to be able to serve my country again.”
The Washoe County Elections Office is located in a complex of government buildings a few miles north of downtown Reno. Burgess’ office before she left was decorated with American flags, a copy of the U.S. Constitution and red, white and blue decorative stars that spell out freedom, liberty and America.
“Election Heroes Work Here,” read a sign outside her office door.
She was the fourth person to lead Washoe County’s elections office since 2020, appointed interim registrar of voters in January on a 3-2 vote by the county commission.
In parts of the United States, local election officials, exhausted by the harassment and demands of the job, are retiring or leaving the profession altogether. Even Burgess had stopped running for a while after being publicly harassed by people upset about Trump losing in 2020, even though he easily won the Minnesota district where she was working at the time.
Arriving in Washoe County, where the Sierra Nevada transitions to the high desert, Burgess encountered a county mired in voting conspiracy theories. County meetings are often delayed by members of the public who oppose Burgess’ hiring and who distrust the voting equipment.
“It feels like you’re on the front line, but it’s a different front line. This is the front line of democracy, not the front line of battle,” Burgess said. “But the way the country is divided right now, it feels like a battle because every day you’re fighting some kind of misinformation.”
A few days before his departure, Burgess hired a consultant to train staff on how to manage stress. Among the many other things on her to-do list was improving security at the electoral office.
Among the recommendations was putting a film over the glass that could slow but not stop bullets.
“That’s when I realized I had a much more dangerous job than I actually expected,” Burgess said. “It should never, ever be like this.”
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