Thread by @NBCNews

Election workers weren't surprised by the Capitol riot.

Former President Trump's supporters targeted them first.

Reporting by @janestreet: nbcnews.to/3tkRH4K

(1/6) #NBCNewsThreads

@janestreet A dozen election officials and workers interviewed by @NBCNews told a similar story: Nightmarish months of trying to put aside violent threats to do a vitally important job that had already been made more difficult by the pandemic. (2/6)

@janestreet “You could see the logical train going from point A to point B, and if you didn’t, again, that’s irresponsible,” top Georgia election official Gabe Sterling says. (3/6)

@janestreet “At one point there were a lot of threats about people who were going to gun us down in our office. Those calls were pretty disturbing to the staff,” says Richard Barron, elections director in Fulton County, Georgia. (4/6)

@janestreet “Something would be tweeted and we’d end up getting hundreds of calls. We want to help the voters – and we couldn’t do any of that because our phone lines were filled,” says Janine Eveler, the elections director in Cobb County, Georgia. (5/6)

@janestreet “Just like [how] people were repeatedly told with the fraud and there was bad stuff going on, we have to start beating that drum back,” says Lisa Deeley, one of three commissioners in Philadelphia who run the city’s elections. “It's a fair and free election.” (6/6)