Election officials nationwide are trained and ready to count votes, despite threats
RENO, Nev. ‒ In this swing county of Washoe, in the swing state of Nevada, intense scrutiny is focused on the election process after years of staff turmoil, denial of the 2020 results, bitter lawsuits, and criticism of how ballots are cast and counted.
But experts say that the nation's election infrastructure is strong: Even in places like this where there has been substantial turnover election officials are trained up, prepared and ready to count votes.
On Monday, they came in a steady stream, a man in a flag shirt and MAGA hat and a woman in sandals carrying a Harris-Walz sign among them, dropping off ballots and picking the next president of the United States.
Tens of millions of Americans have already voted, and tens of millions more are now casting ballots for either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris in a nail-biter of an election.
Many election offices nationally have seen significant staff changes since 2020 after Trump challenged the results and hostility toward election workers reached a fever pitch. Federal prosecutors have arrested, charged and convicted dozens of people for making death threats against workers, and elections offices across the country have been mailed envelopes containing white powder and threats.
The day before Election Day, however, the Washoe County elections office showed no sign of its challenges, which include a complete staff turnover since 2020, and more recently, the abrupt departure of the interim registrar who said she was forced out by county officials in September. County officials declined to comment on the reason for her absence and said other staff is filling in.
"We haven't skipped a beat," said George Guthrie, a spokesman for the Washoe County elections division, citing the work of newly hired staff. "They know what they have to get done and that’s what we've been doing."
A 50-state analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center found that, even in jurisdictions that have seen turnover, election officials are well-prepared to administer the election.
The center noted that in jurisdictions with recent turnover, new chief election officials have taken the helm with an average of eight years’ experience in election administration.
They've also had had access to extensive training by national and state election official associations, said Tammy Patrick, chief program officer at the National Association of Election Officials.
“It's not whether the election will be accurate and legitimate or whether they will administer it properly,” Patrick said. “I have no doubt that will happen, because there are so many checks and balances in the system.”
Around Reno and across Washoe County, candidates and their surrogates are battling for votes, with billboards looming overhead and yard signs festooning medians, and back-to-back radio ads painting the other side as extremists.
Inside the elections department, partisan observers are watching processing with binoculars from within a glass-fronted observation chamber, built so that they can't physically harass workers.
And not everyone is confident in the county's process. Washoe County Commissioner Mike Clark told Paste BN he has significant concerns about the reliability of the election, given the former registrar's abrupt departure and lack of public explanation. He called her absence "very poor timing," and called for an investigation. Clark has repeatedly raised concerns about the process by which the county sends out mail ballots and tallies votes.
In a sign of how heated things are, a Washoe County voting site manger used her panic button to call 911 several days ago after a voter initially refused to remove a political hat when he entered the polling site, county officials said.
Workers asked the man to remove his hat and when he refused, other voters who apparently shared his sentiment "kind of ganged up" on the site manager, and she pressed the button, said Washoe County Deputy Registrar of Voters Andrew McDonald.
Eventually, he said "they calmed down and were able to vote."
In an era where any error – real or imagined – can be exploited to undermine voter confidence, Patrick said she remains concerned.
"People have been excited and enthusiastic" at the voting booths, she said. "Hopefully any issues will be limited, and they won't be severe. We know that law enforcement stands ready, and justice will be swift."