North Carolina: Partisan attacks are undermining the efforts of election workers | Rusty Jacobs/North Carolina Public Radio
Annie Risku thought she had a lot to celebrate on election night, back in 2020. She had just taken over as Wayne County’s director of elections that July. And despite a pandemic, the state experienced historic voter turnout. In Wayne County, Risku’s office successfully processed more than 10 times the typical number of absentee-by-mail ballots. “We were so focused on COVID, preparing for the pandemic, keeping the voters safe, keeping their hands clean, keeping them from breathing on one another,” Risku said with a wry laugh during a recent interview in her downtown Goldsboro office. Then came the wave of intense skepticism about the elections process, including from voters in this county that Donald Trump carried. She says it caught her a little off-guard. “We had, after 2020, a lot of individuals who didn’t trust that we had actually counted all the votes,” Risku explained. One woman demanded to enter her office to watch Risku count ballots, even though no such thing was happening or ever happens. Ballot counting is conducted according to state law in a prescribed manner and in public view. For example, county boards begin processing mail-in ballots at weekly meetings starting five weeks before Primary and General Election Day. And county boards hold public meetings to process ballots during the 10-day canvas period after Election Day, which culminates in the certification of official results.
Full Article: Partisan attacks are undermining the efforts of North Carolina’s election workers | WUNC