Seven months afterelection conspiracy theories consumed a rural area of central Virginia and left residents without a functioning democracy, the voters of Buckingham County are again casting ballots.
Early voting for next month’s elections is underway, and the new registrar is preparing polling sites and training workers to serve on Election Day. Political signs dot the streets of this conservative community, which is home to more cattle than voters.
But things are far from normal: A part-time deputy registrar resigned this month, after weeks of recruiting reticent poll workers who fear they will be harassed at the polls. And a former general registrar is scheduled to appear in court later this month over allegations that he violated a no-trespassing order by banging on the door of the elections office, in an incident that left employees rattled.
Years after then-President Donald Trump first launched election conspiracy theories into the mainstream, communities and election workers across the country continue to feel the aftershocks. For Buckingham, where baseless claims drove four people from their jobs, residents say the community is struggling to heal, in part because they are worried it could all happen again.
Rumors and resignations
In April, NBC News reported that the entire elections staff in Buckingham County had resigned. Allegations of voter fraud, wrongdoing and “treason” that had been advanced by local Republicans ricocheted in the community for months, upsetting the staff and angering many in the community.
Lindsey Taylor, the registrar at the time, told NBC News that she kept hearing “rumors” about how she had done something wrong and she might soon face legal trouble.
“Mentally, I just — I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said at the time.
Taylor resigned in the spring, after it became clear that the Buckingham County Electoral Board that oversees her office — newly controlled by Republicans — wanted her out. (That board later said the allegations were mistakes or misunderstandings, and it had not found any wrongdoing.)
Taylor’s departure left the office shuttered for weeks, until a resident named Luis Gutierrez, who had advanced claims of voter fraud against Taylor and her staff, was hired. Gutierrez spent less than a month on the job before the electoral board fired him in May, saying he’d lied on his job application. (In a previous interview with NBC News, Gutierrez refused to say what his professional experience for the job was. He did not return a request for comment on this piece.)
Gutierrez’s deputy, Ginger Chiesa, replaced him, and she continues in the role to this day. Chiesa, who had worked elections in another county, has earned praise from Republicans and Democrats alike, and given the community a much-needed sense of normalcy.
As general registrar, she has worked to separate herself from the conflict, which she has said had made people doubt the integrity and safety of elections.
“I truly did not know, nor did I care to know, the details of what had happened to cause this mistrust,” she said at a Board of Supervisors meeting in August. “I only wanted to help reassure every voter that they could and would have a fair, by the code of Virginia, election office, and the election with integrity in November.”
‘We have lost a lot of good people’
But what happened nonetheless colors Chiesa’s work, as lingering tensions and mistrust within the community affect how voters regard her office and whether residents want to spend Election Day staffing the polls.
“I’ve been working the early polls, and every day that I’m there it seems like somebody’s harassing them in some shape or form,” Johnny Tyler, 68, said, noting that voters question how they can be sure their vote will count. Tyler said he’s an independent voter.
Former and current poll workers say that some residents are refusing to work the polls in the upcoming election because of what happened in the 2022 elections and Taylor’s ousting. Republican poll observers made a number of allegations about wrongdoing in the last election, some of which involved individual poll workers.
“A lot of people said ‘I’m not going to put up with this,’” Woody Hanes, a Democrat on the electoral board, said. “We have lost a lot of good people.”
Hanes said they’re reminding poll observers in both parties of the rules dictating their work but said this year’s election will be worked by less-experienced poll workers than usual.
Randy Biggars, a 52-year-old Republican, served as a poll worker for the last seven years.
“I’ve decided not to go back. With everything that happened, I just didn’t want to feel like I was going to be told what to do by someone else other than the registrar,” he said. “I’m not the only one.”
Biggars worries the registrar’s office could see more resignations if the coming election doesn’t run smoothly. With less-experienced poll workers and elections with a high number of write-in candidates, he’s anxious that history could repeat itself and draw further fraud allegations.
Allen Ross, a 74-year-old Democrat, chose not to work the polls after 12 years of volunteering.
“I just decided I didn’t want to get involved in politics, playing games, stuff like this. I decided I was not going to work the polls because of that,” Ross said. “It was kind of dirty the way everything went down.”
Joyce Gooden, 73, said she is working as a poll worker this year, even though she was falsely accused in January by a Republican poll observer of being ineligible to serve as a poll worker last year. She’s an Independent, but she’s volunteered to serve as a Democratic poll worker this year, because one of the complaints local Republicans advanced last year was that there were too many Independent poll workers. (Virginia law requires parity in poll workers “if practicable.”)
“I’m not afraid — what are you going to do, you’ve already lied about me. What more can you make up?” she said.
Still, she knows a half-dozen former poll workers — both Republicans and Democrats — who won’t be working the polls this year.
Some people are more fearful though, particularly when it comes to ongoing tension with Gutierrez, the former registrar.
On Aug. 31, Chiesa called the sheriff’s office to report that Gutierrez was banging on the door of the elections office. According to a police report, Chiesa told officers that Gutierrez had left threatening voicemail messages and was barred from the premises by a no-trespass order.
According to the police report, Gutierrez was arrested later that day; he is expected in court to face charges of trespassing on Oct. 27, according to court records. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment, either.
Chiesa and a part-time deputy registrar were in the election office at the time. The deputy, who declined to speak with NBC News but asked not to be named for privacy reasons, later quit.
Hanes said she fears more employees might quit and added that they’ve reached out to state police about increasing the police presence at the polls.
Bob Abbott, a 48-year-old disabled veteran working as a precinct chair and poll-worker trainer this year, said anxieties are so considerable in early voting that he started instructing poll workers on what to do in an emergency or active shooter situation. Abbott said he votes in Republican primaries, but considers himself an Independent.
“Some of the election officers feel very uncomfortable to the point where they don’t want to work the elections, because as they’ve said — it’s scary,” he said.
Thomas Jordan Miles III, a Democrat on the Board of Supervisors who spoke out against the allegations of fraud and Taylor’s ousting earlier this year, said he believed forward movement was restoring most people’s confidence — even if some people remained anxious.
“They’ve got training happening, people are voting. I don’t think the sky is falling,” he told NBC News. “I think things are looking up.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
