As his time in the White House came to a close, former president Donald Trump became obsessed with one office in downtown Atlanta and the workers there, making the Fulton County elections department a target of conspiracy theories and lies, which led to violent threats and intimidation.

Fulton County employees, as well as election workers around the country, are still grappling with the emotional and psychological trauma they suffered as a result of Trump’s disinformation campaign about the 2020 election, and it may have lasting consequences for recruiting and retention in the vital, but often under-appreciated field.

Online threats led to real world dangers. Law enforcement were posted outside the homes of some election officials. To feel safer, at least one official’s family moved in with in-laws. In more disturbing cases, election workers heard strangers knocking at their front doors, and menacing voices on the other end of the phone who uttered racial slurs and promised hangings.

Before Trump’s disinformation campaign began in earnest, election departments around the country were already battered as they struggled to handle the myriad repercussions of the pandemic.

In the Fulton County office, 62-year-old Beverly Walker died from the virus. Walker had worked at the county for two decades, where she had a reputation as a maternal figure, thanks in part to her goodie drawer filled with tea, coffee, and snacks.

“It was just so unexpected,” said coworker Shaye Moss, “and just so fast, and just so crazy.”

Moss took Walker’s death hard. Walker was a close friend and mentor to Moss, who invited Moss over for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Things got more challenging for the Fulton County election team in the weeks ahead of the November election. 23 workers in the county’s warehouse tested positive for COVID-19, and the department barely got all the voting equipment delivered before the polls opened.

“We coming for you”

Trump falsely claimed victory in Georgia on election night, even though Fulton County alone had yet to count tens of thousands of mail-in ballots. Reporters and partisan observers flocked to the counting center.

With all the attention came conspiracies. Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr. retweeted a 30-second video of a temp election worker in Fulton named Lawrence Sloan. In the video, a narrator falsely claimed Sloan threw away a mail-in ballot, attracting at least five million views, along with racist comments, and calls for Sloan to be identified and arrested.
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Soon after Sloan saw the video and the comments, he stepped outside Fulton County’s mail-in ballot operation for a break but got scared when he saw Trump supporters protesting outside.

“Even if it’s not about me, I’m standing outside, and they know what I look like,” Sloan remembered. “Every second that goes by, more people are going to see this. Me just being here is automatically just not the best.”

He left the scene, and stayed with friends for the night, changing his appearance so he wouldn’t be recognized.

As Georgia’s recount of the presidential votes wound down, Trump and his allies focused their attacks on the Fulton County elections department, where all the staff, except for the director, are Black.

“People who do this job do it because they believe in it, because they have strong convictions when it comes to exercising democracy and serving,” she said, “but we’re certainly seeing an exodus.”

Morrell is especially worried election departments may struggle to recruit the thousands of low-pay temp workers necessary to pull off elections every two years if those potential workers are worried about being threatened.

“I’m horrified to think that this could be the new norm,” Morrell said. “I think it’s really important that we talk about it, and figure out how do we stamp that out.”

When Morrell talks to local election officials, she hears frustration. They tell her about politicians who are undermining the very system that put them in office, and sometimes even undermining the idea of democracy itself. Thoughts like these have been weighing on Barron especially after pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol.

“I don’t know if you want to call it an existential, internal crisis I’m having,” he said, “I just feel like I have a role in this that doesn’t matter anymore.”

The 2020 general elections were some of the most well run in Fulton County’s history, Barron said, but Trump and his allies made them feel like a disaster.