RENO, Nev. (AP) — One morning last month, Cari-Ann Burgess did something completely unremarkable: She made a quick stop at a coffee shop on her way to work. For Burgess, the top election official in a northern Nevada county, such outings could be precarious.
As she waited for a hot tea and breakfast sandwich, an older woman approached. “She proceeded to tell me that I should be ashamed of myself — that I’m a disgrace, I’m an embarrassment to Washoe County, and I should crawl into a hole and die,” Burgess said in an interview with The Associated Press the following day. A morning stop at the coffee shop would be no more.
It was added to a growing list of things Burgess no longer did because of her job. She already had stopped shopping for groceries and other basic necessities. Meals were eaten at home.
If she and her husband did eat out or go shopping, they would travel an hour away from their Reno neighborhood. “I go to work, I go home, and I go to church – that’s about it,” Burgess said. “I’m very cautious now about where I go.
” Still, Burgess said she was looking forward to November and overseeing the presidential election with her team in Nevada’s second most populous county. That came to an end one day toward the end of September, when she was called into a meeting with county officials. The county said Burgess requested medical leave to deal with stress and it has referred to her departure as a personnel matter.
In a statement, the county said.
