Arizona election official Bill Gates Revealed in 2023 He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress due to threats associated with his job.

But he doesn’t want to focus on that. A soon-to-be-retired Maricopa County supervisor wants to talk about his new role training the next generation of election workers.

“I don’t like how every article, and I know this one does, says, ‘Bill Gates has been diagnosed with PTSD.’ I don’t want people to know about this experience, but… , I think it’s so important and I don’t regret for a moment that I told this story,” he said.

Gates serves on the five-member board of commissioners in Maricopa County, Arizona, which oversees elections. Maricopa County is the state’s largest county, including Phoenix, and is known for its close races and election denialism.

Gates, a Republican, has decided not to run again for the board, and his term ends early next year. But he won’t completely walk away from elections. He will help launch a new lab at Arizona State University (ASU) called the Institute for the Mechanics of Democracy, which will focus on issues of elections and democracy. He helps mentor current and future election officials with the goal of starting a degree or certification program. The institute will also host events and training on these issues in counties where threats to democracy are not going away anytime soon.

“There’s no better place to do it than in Maricopa County, where so much has happened,” he said.

Gates is one of many election officials who have faced increased threats and harassment since 2020. Gates faced harassment and threats after Joe Biden won the 2020 Arizona election and after Donald Trump-allied candidates lost key statewide races in 2022. . One of the people who threatened to poison him was declared He will be given a three-year trial period early this year. Those threats were factored into Gates’ decision not to seek another term, but they were not a deciding factor.

Several officials at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Recorder’s Office will resign from their positions, either by choice or due to election defeat. Four of the board’s five members and the registrar are all Republicans, part of a pressure campaign by Mr. Trump and his allies to overturn the results in 2020 and beyond. Already, community members have exhibited harassing behavior at board meetings this election cycle, resulting in Strengthening security measures.

Gates said he often hears from people looking for jobs in running elections, a field that people have fallen into over the past few decades.

“This is an opportunity to really take that spark of interest that’s there and really help it germinate and develop into great careers for people, because it really is,” he said. . “Everyone who is participating in elections, despite enduring the hardships of the past few years, loves them.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What factors played into your decision to retire now?

Fifteen years from the Phoenix City Council to the Board of Supervisors is a very long time in elected office, especially considering our experience over the last four years. In a sense, it was a great initiative. To tackle such important issues, we need to understand that now is the right time to take the next step.

It’s been reported that I’m on the run because of death threats or something, but that’s not true at all. It’s much more complex decision making than that. But I’m very relieved and excited about my decision.

Did intimidation, harassment, or just constant surveillance affect your desire to move forward?

It’s not fair to say it played no role. Indeed, being an elected official at the local level in Maricopa County has changed a lot over the past 15 years. So you could say it was a factor, but it wasn’t a driving factor or a determining factor.

Do you ever get tired of talking about all the threats? Is it a burden for you to keep having to go through that when talking to reporters and other people?

I don’t give a shit about it because I think it’s important to talk about it and for people to be aware of it. It is important that this does not become the norm. But I sometimes worry that I don’t want that to be the story all the time. We want the story to be about our election team and the great work they’re doing, or about specific things we want people to know.

Perhaps the biggest issue we’re considering heading into the November general election is the fact that the ballot will be two pages, or actually two sheets of paper. So we want to make sure that people understand that they’re going to work on it, that they’re basically budgeting in the time that they need to think through all of this. We just want to make sure those kinds of messages don’t get lost.

You had decided to open up about your PTSD from the threat. Why did you make that decision?

This was not an easy decision to make, but we knew that hundreds, if not thousands, of election officials across the country were grappling with the same problem. And election officials, election officials generally are people who keep their heads down and don’t want to get involved, but I really appreciate that and I think it’s important. I think so. But by me speaking up, other people who are involved in this can see that and say, “Look, I’m going through something similar, and I can take some strength from that.” I thought he might say, “Yo.”

And again, this cannot be normalized. I’ll deal with this. Other election officials have been working on this issue for years, and sometimes it feels like everyone else knows, but they don’t.

But honestly, I don’t like how every article, and I know this article will, says, “Bill Gates has been diagnosed with PTSD.” I don’t want people to know this experience that I went through, but I don’t regret for a moment telling this story because I think it’s very important. As I was actually speaking to others in the election, I was overwhelmed by the number of people who reached out to me and shared traumas they had experienced in other professional settings. Some of them are certainly traditional. For some reason, this resonated with me, not just veterans and first responders, but even people who have experienced workplace trauma in corporate environments.

That seems to impact what we’re working on at ASU, like the threat environment, but also the idea of ​​how we move forward.

Yes, definitely so. God willing, we will move on from here, and there will come a time when this will be a memory, but I hope these stories live on. People need to be made aware that something like this happened in our country so that hopefully it never happens again.

Why would people want to work in elections right now?

Now is the perfect time to get involved in election management. People know how important it is, how democracy depends on democracy, and that there are good people in it. I don’t recommend it if you want to make a lot of money. It’s not a profession. But if you want to effect change at the most basic level of democracy, this is the place to do it.

Have you identified it yet? as Republican?

i will do it. yes. This is my party, the party I joined in the late 1980s. I have no intention of leaving this party, even though the priorities of many elected officials are not my priorities and certainly not the ones I brought to this party. The party I attended. But I’m not leaving.

The work you are trying to do at ASU is part of the solution to election denialism. But what else can you do?

Elected officials and people in politics believe that promoting election conspiracies to raise money or get votes in the short term is harmful to our system and our ability to protect ourselves in the long term. We need to understand that we will continue to cause great harm to the system. The system cannot accept it. Executives will be required to take some responsibility.

It is unrealistic to think that things will return to their previous state in two years. People’s trust in our system has been severely damaged. That’s why I think working with and educating the next generation is the best way to spend my time. We educate not only the next generation, but also those who choose to come to this university with a little more experience. Learn more about the system by taking a class at Arizona State University. Continuing to debunk conspiracies, and in some cases debunking conspiracies in advance, is a long-term effort. Because I think having information can only help improve the situation.