An election worker processes mail-in ballots for the California state primary election at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center on June 05, 2026, in City of Industry, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Faith leaders and an Arizona Supreme Court justice gathered at the state Capitol a week away from the midterm election to call for the respectful treatment of election workers.
Justice Maria Elena Cruz said she empathizes with election workers because, like judges, they endure vitriol from the public. She denounced the harassment of public servants and said Arizonans should appreciate the months of effort that goes into preparing for and carrying out an election.
“When ballots are counted accurately and results are reported faithfully, the public rarely pauses to think about the thousands of careful hands that made it so,” she said.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.
The push to back election workers comes as the Trump administration seeks to cast doubt on election security, in a repeat of messaging made during the Republican’s first term that inspired a spate of threats against election officials.
And this election cycle is already seeing a similar result. On Oct. 15, more than 100 elected leaders, including election officials, and political organizations received suspicious letters, many of which contained unknown substances, in a nationwide threat wave. The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office was forced to evacuate after a worker opened a letter containing white powder.
While threats against election workers escalate, a federal task force meant to investigate the harassment against them has gone dormant. The U.S. Justice Department has shifted its focus to ferreting out noncitizen voting — a focus of President Donald Trump’s — even though research shows that election workers continue to struggle with intimidation and harassment. A 2026 Brennan Center for Justice survey found that 1 in 3 election workers have experienced threats, harassment or abuse because of their job and 23% reported a fear of being assaulted.
Arizona, a swing state that has seen tight races in recent years, is no stranger to election threats. Since 2022, the DOJ has pursued and won convictions in 12 cases involving threats against election workers. Half of them were based in Arizona.
The Rev. Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan spoke out against the harassment of election workers during Monday’s news conference, urging Arizonans to support them instead.
“No matter who a vote is cast for, they work hard to make sure that every vote is accurately counted,” she said. “Election officials, staff and poll workers dedicate their time and talents and they deserve our gratitude and respect, but unfortunately that is not always what they receive.”
And the Rev. Jeff Procter-Murphy, a member of the Valley Interfaith Project, a community activism group, added that election workers spend multiple hours running the state’s elections and lamented that so many face threats.
“Election workers give long days, they arrive before dawn and often leave after dark,” he said. “They help the first time voter, the elderly neighbor, the tired parent with kids in tow. They do it with patience and integrity and in recent years too many of them have done it under pressure and even under threat.”
The most vocal election skeptics have been Republicans, who have modeled themselves after Trump and echoed his claims of election fraud. But Gregg Edgar, who served as the Arizona lottery chief under Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and is now the state lead of Principles First, which advocates for center-right candidates, said that he has complete confidence in Arizona’s elections. Edgar said that he’s voted in dozens of elections since 1990 and has never doubted the security of elections in the Grand Canyon State.
“In the nearly 50 times that I have voted, I have certainly lacked confidence in the candidates I have chosen but I’ve always had full faith and confidence that my vote would be counted,” he said.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Courtesy of Arizona Mirror
