Threats and harassment are causing a crisis for election workers and could endanger the integrity of upcoming elections, speakers said Monday at an annual gathering of local officials from around the country.
The problem is personal for Bill Gates, a member of Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors who has repeatedly shared his own experience with threats in Arizona. But it goes beyond any one county and reflects “a time today very different than what we had in the past,” he said.
“We have to be concerned with the physical security of our workers,” Gates told guests at the Washington Hilton hotel during a panel discussion at the National Association of Counties, or NACo, legislative conference.
