Thank you for covering from the
white house and the capital.
As we have been reporting.
-- As we have been reporting
local and state election
, officials continue to face
unprecedented pressures.
Nearly 1 in 3 know someone who
has left their job because of
threats or fears for their
safety.
That is according to a survey
released by the Brennan center
for justice.
I'm joined now by two people who
have experienced those
challenges.
New Mexico secretary of state
Maggie tolouse Oliver, a
Democrat, has battled with
election deniers in her state.
And former Kentucky secretary of
state trey Grayson is advising
local officials who are
preparing for potentially
contentious elections this fall.
Welcome to both of you.
We appreciate you being here.
Ms. Oliver, what stood out
today?
When you listened to what the
election officials had to say,
what stood out the most?
>> Thank you for having us here
and for the question.
I can relate very deeply to a
lot of what secretary
raffensperger and Gabe sterling
and the election workers come
the speaker of the house in
Arizona, I have been through a
lesser version of what they have
gone through, and it is deeply
disconcerting and troubling for
me.
But I will also say that
everything said today really hit
the nail on the head,
particularly the Arizona speaker
of the house when he referred to
not being willing to violate his
oath of office, particularly on
the basis of feelings and
assumptions and not evidence.
That was critical testimony we
heard today.
Judy: Trey Grayson, what
resonated the most with you from
what you heard today?
>> The election workers from
Fulton county.
I was more familiar with what
secretary raffensperger and the
speaker from Arizona were going
to say but those two women, we
need people like that.
That is how we run our election.
It is low pay or volunteers and
there are thousands of them
across the country.
They do not sign up to get
harassed or have to move.
It was moving testimony and
watching your coverage, I teared
up listening to them because our
system does not function without
folks like that and in some
respects, election officials, we
have kind of signed up to deal
with this but those who are
making things work on the
ground, it was stirring
testimony.
Judy: It was very hard not to
tear up, listening to the women
who worked as election workers
in Georgia.
In New Mexico, how much training
do most election officials go
through?
Is there a standard for what you
have to learn before you work in
elections?
>> There is a standard.
They go through a certain amount
of training.
It is not very much.
If you are a brand-new election
worker, depending on what county
you are working in and how
complicated the individual
processes are, you might go
through three to five hours of
training and online training.
Returning workers have been
through elections many times and
this is an incredibly important
reason why we need to retain our
election workers.
These are not necessarily
full-time workers.
They do not live and breathe
elections.
They are essentially volunteers
that come out once or twice a
year to help run democracy and
the more experience they get,
the better they are at their
jobs and the more they know.
Judy: Picking up on that, trey
Grayson, from Kentucky, I jotted
down the statistics that
something like one in six
election workers have
experienced a threat.
Does not surprise you -- does
that surprise you?
>> Today it was announced that
20% of the elect did officials
are retiring this year.
Even in Kentucky, we are seeing
this.
They had trouble recruiting poll
workers in our recent primary
because a lot of people want to
step aside.
And public health concerns, the
pandemic played a role but these
threats have changed the
dynamic.
It is unfortunate but the impact
will be felt at the local level
I Republicans and Democrats and
these clerks are questioning why
they are doing it.
It's not worth it.
Judy: What does that mean for
this fall elections?
Midterm elections, all elections
matter, these matter.
What does all of this mean?
>> It means county clerks in new
Mexico are going to be
struggling to recruit poll
workers.
And we cannot have an election
without bipartisan and
nonpartisan groups of people,
friends and neighbors, people
who are just dedicated to doing
their civic duty who come out
and give up their time for very
little money if any to help our
elections.
So they are going to struggle to
make sure they have the staffing
necessary to support the voters
who come out and to process the
mail ballots.
These county clerks already have
a big challenging job and not
being able to find enough
individuals to conduct this
process is a real threat.
>> I am a Republican, so this
hits me personally and it
bothers me to see members of my
party applying this much
pressure, without evidence,
without facts, without the law
and the negative consequence it
is having.
That is when the reasons I
continue speaking out.
We need people in my party to
stop doing this.
Our democracy is at risk.
Judy: Very powerful words.
Trey Grayson and Maggie Oliver,