With Election Day less than two months away, and former President Trump persisting in unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen, concerns about election integrity are expected to stay prominent in the minds of many voters, CBS News reports. Election officials from seven battleground states convened in Atlanta last week to compare notes and prepare for Election Day. Four of them — one Democrat and three Republicans — spoke about the stress and anxiety of their jobs, and also their conviction that elections are conducted freely and fairly. Asked what emotion this year's election fills him with, Republican Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for Georgia's office of secretary of state, said, "I feel like it should be joy, but there's some angst." "The biggest thing I worry about is the possibility of violence by people who lose," he said. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said, "We're daily receiving threats, whether it's through voicemails, emails, social media or in person." Benson said she personally is receiving threats, "and it's escalating."
Republican Bill Gates, a member of the Board of Supervisors for Arizona's Maricopa County, has spoken openly about his need for therapy in the face of hostility driven by election denialism. "This has unfortunately become a way of life, and we've invested as a board in metal detectors, in fencing, in cameras," he said. "I wish we didn't have to do this, but we do." In Georgia, poll supervisors are given a direct line to report trouble. It's a text tool that will "notify the state election's office, the county election's office and the local sheriff's office if there's an issue," Sterling said, noting the system is in place for a range of problems that could crop up. Asked about the concern some voters have about the possibility of undocumented immigrants voting, Benson said, "I understand the fear, but it's an unfounded fear." Gates agreed, calling the specter of widespread voting from undocumented immigrants "a bogeyman." Gates said he wishes he could do away with "the conspiracy theory that our tabulation machines are connected to the internet. They're not."
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