A staunch Trumpian and Big Lie believer had to quit his job in Arizona as an election director — because even his deep-rooted MAGA beliefs weren't strong enough for the folks in Conchise County.
Yes, Bob Bartelsmeyer believed the 2020 election was stolen and had even pushed memes about it on social media. But the 67-year-old election worker still got harassed by suspicious, angry Trumpers after he tried to make voting easier in his county by proposing an accessible vote center and "mail-only elections for special districts," according to CNN.
"I've been ridiculed, disrupted and intimidated," he said. "My reputation and ethics have been called into question. And I could not continue to work in an environment like that." So after only five months on the job, he resigned and took a job in another county.
And now, although he still considers himself a Republican, he has begun to believe Biden might have actually won. Call it a wake-up call.
The "awful" experience also has him worrying about the country's democracy. "We're going backwards," he told CNN. "We're going to a primitive time period."
"2024 is going to be very brutal." he added. "Going to be very hostile."
If only all MAGA zombies could experience what it's like to be an election official, even if just for a few days.
From CNN:
Bartelsmeyer, who had previously been the election director in Arizona's much smaller La Paz County, ran into a buzzsaw of opposition to his actions and proposals. …
To Bartelsmeyer, they were common-sense moves that followed the law, made it easier to vote, saved money and were in line with regional and national election trends. What's more, they were practices the county had already enacted in prior years without controversy. But to the dozen or so vocal detractors who showed up to Cochise Board of Supervisor meetings, they smacked of the kind of voting policies that aroused their suspicion that Trump was robbed in 2020. …
The critics tended to be light on specifics and heavy on suspicion when articulating their opposition. In general, they wanted to turn the clock back to a time when people showed up in person to an assigned neighborhood precinct to cast a ballot on paper that would be counted by hand. Some pointed out that most people in France still vote in this way. (However, that country also makes it easier to get to the polls by holding elections on Sundays.)
"I believe that if we continue to take these easy choices, and we go down this path of least resistance in the name of convenience, it's not going to be too long before every vote is by mail," said an attendee at the September meeting. … "The reason we didn't speak up when they put in these voting centers and things and vote by mail is because we were asleep at the wheel; now we're awake," said another. "You woke up a sleeping giant."
Fed up with it all, Bartelsmeyer – who said the stress of the job exacerbated a health concern – resigned in September and returned to his former post as elections director in La Paz County.
