WEST PALM BEACH — Against a backdrop of nearly 200,000 vote-by-mail ballots , Palm Beach County’s top election official described a climate of distrust intensifying ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
It manifests at public hearings, she said, where attendees come armed with accusations but are uninterested in hearing answers. It collects outside of polling places, where loiterers question voters’ eligibility. It culminated at least once in a threat to her personal cellphone.
“I used to work late at night,” Wendy Sartory Link said Friday as employees hauled the first batch vote-by-mail ballots onto a U.S. Postal Service truck. “I don’t do that anymore.”
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Unfounded claims of voter fraud have emboldened those seeking to undermine the election process, Link said. A series of recent incidents involving the Supervisor of Elections Office hasn’t helped, either. Link used Friday’s ballot send-off as an opportunity to address both.