(CNN) -
"I'm a hunter, and I think you should be hunted."
So said a woman in a voicemail sent to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in September.
"You'll never be safe in Arizona again."
Or there is the man who spat, "Die bitch, die! Die bitch, die!"
repeatedly on the phone, in another of several dozen angry and threatening voicemails directed at the Democratic secretary of state and shared exclusively with CNN by her office.
Officials and assistants at the Secretary of State's offices in Arizona and other states who were targeted by former President Donald Trump in his attack on last year's election results told CNN they lived in constant terror: nervously watch. to the people around them at events, checking their rear view mirrors, the cars that follow them home and sitting at night wondering what will happen next.
Law enforcement agencies have never had much thought to protect secretaries of state, let alone allocate hundreds of thousands of dollars on security, track and trace.
Their jobs used to be mundane, boring, and bureaucratic.
These are small offices in a handful of states with enormous power in administering elections, from sending ballots to monitoring voting machines and tracking votes counted.
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US Postal Service advises states that ballots may not be delivered on time under current election rules
Neither was prepared to be publicly attacked.
They don't have the budgets to monitor threats, and certainly not to suddenly protect officials who never had to be protected before.
There were no systems in place at the state or federal level to support them, and the Justice Department admits that the federal government does not yet have the infrastructure to handle the situation.
Staff members in the offices say they deal with long-term emotional and psychological trauma after a year of constant threats, in person and virtually, to secretaries and themselves.
"Bullet," read a tweet response to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, in September.
"That is a six letter word for you."
An email sent to his office over the summer said, "I'm really looking forward to seeing your purple face after you've been hanged."
When asked by CNN last week if she feels safe at work and in her day-to-day life, Griswold paused for nearly 30 seconds before answering.
"I take these threats very seriously," he finally said, choosing his words carefully.
"It's getting absolutely worse," he added.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (AP Photo / Ross D. Franklin, Pool, File)
The threats come from their home states and across the country.
Few seem to be coordinated or organized and instead are often driven by momentary, angry reactions to a news or social media post.
But some get very specific, citing details and details that make secretaries and their staff rush to report them to authorities.
Most anticipate that threats will increase starting next year, with Republicans across the country making conspiracies of electoral doubts a central pillar of their campaigns, and with many of these secretaries of state poised for reelection in contests that they are already garnering more attention than ever, with the expectation that they will be the front line of potentially attempting to reverse the upcoming presidential election.
But Griswold's problem was, ironically, summed up in one of the tweets his office tracked down: "Your security team is too thin and incompetent to protect you. This world is unpredictable these days ... anything can happen to you. any".
He ended with a shrug emoji.
Griswold's vulnerability is greater than that person imagined: for now, he has had to hire private security, and only for official events, squeezing money from his small office budget.
With everything that's been coming towards her, that's what she has.
Little protection
Griswold told Gov. Jared Polis, a fellow Democrat, that he needs more protection.
But so far, the state has not allocated resources for it.
The state police protected Griswold for two weeks, then detained and shelved an investigation into the threats.
The governor's office and state police did not respond to requests for comment.
A state ethics board denied his request to raise external funds for security, arguing that this could lead to an inappropriate mix of political and government activities.
The state police, according to Neil Reiff of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, have failed to provide security for Griswold because the threats have not reached the threshold for state police support.
Meanwhile, Griswold moves between frustration and fear, asking why her state government and others, as well as federal authorities, are not moving faster to address threats that she says are particularly intense for her and her friends. female colleagues in battleground states in 2020.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (AP Photo / David Zalubowski, File)
Constantly nervous, she has tried to maintain a normal schedule at work, in politics, and in her personal life.
Every day you make decisions about how much and what you can do.
"When I am at the center of a national QAnon conspiracy and the same people who have stormed the Capitol are threatening me, it is very concerning. When someone says they know where I live and that I should fear for my life, I take that as a threat and I think the state of Colorado should do that as well, "Griswold said.
The situation got so bad for Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's Democratic secretary of state, that during periods when threats against her spiked and became targeted, she received regular 24-hour police protection.
But when that security declined, the threats continued.
Benson had dozens of people showing up outside her home last December as she sat inside with her husband and young son, on the phone with the Michigan attorney general, who was trying to get a police response.
In the end, it took authorities 45 minutes to arrive at the scene.
This has become his life.
"Create an air of apprehension wherever you go and about everything you do. You're always looking back and over your shoulder," he said.
When asked if she feels safe, Benson said, "Sometimes."
And that's mainly because a year has passed since the last election and a year until the next.
She indicated that she is concerned that there have been no more arrests.
"Lack of accountability means one thing - we have to anticipate that it will continue, and then as we get closer to the elections next year and 2024, I think it will just continue to increase, unless there are real consequences."
"I didn't feel comfortable walking the dog down the street"
Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat who was Pennsylvania secretary of state until February, received protection that began the week before the election last November, at the urging of her staff and state capitol police.
But the threats against him increased significantly after he certified Joe Biden's election later that month, when Trump and his allies attempted to make Pennsylvania the first major battleground for their electoral lies.
The protests against Boockvar were announced on the right-wing social media website Parler.
"Damn crooked bitch. You're done," said a man who left Boockvar a voicemail that was shared with CNN.
Boockvar and her husband felt unsafe at home and decided to stay elsewhere.
Several law enforcement jurisdictions were involved to help protect Boockvar as the threats continued, he said.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (AP Photo / Julio Cortez)
"I didn't feel comfortable walking the dog down the street," she told CNN.
Boockvar resigned for reasons unrelated to the elections, and while the threats mostly subsided in the months since, they have not completely disappeared - threats against him continue to appear from time to time.
The threats aren't just for Democrats or women.
Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state in Georgia whom Trump has privately pressured and publicly singled out for failing to overturn the election results in his favor, has been inundated with threats since the November election, including those directed at his wife and family.
Raffensperger told CNN he is frustrated with Trump-allied elected officials who have continued to spread the former president's lies about the election theft - lies that lead Trump supporters to direct their ire at officials like Raffensperger.
Trump has endorsed Republican Rep. Jody Hice, who has defended her baseless claims of voter fraud, against Raffensperger in next year's primaries.
"Some people have commented that it 'comes with the territory.'
I find it beyond the limits, "Raffensperger said." What you're talking about is not just me, but also my wife, my daughter-in-law, my family. "
GEoriga Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (Dustin Chambers / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Raffensperger said he has seen more actions recently by law enforcement in response to threats to poll workers.
They told him that the FBI had knocked on the doors of people in Alabama and the Midwest as part of investigations into those who had sent threats to him.
A spokesman for the FBI's Atlanta field office declined to comment on any investigation into threats against Raffensperger.
However, no one has been arrested in connection with the threats made against Raffensperger.
Several other officials declined requests to discuss their experiences, telling CNN through representatives that security teams had advised them not to risk drawing more attention to their vulnerabilities or that they were too shaken by the experiences to discuss what happened in public.
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Many have had to rely on impromptu threat monitoring on their own.
In Colorado and California, for example, the secretary of state offices had already been following conversations about attacks on electoral infrastructure on the dark web.
Now, that has been expanded to include the following talk on threats to the safety of the officials themselves.
But without funds to do this, employees without safety training do it part-time, hoping to catch what they can and properly assess when they do.
An acknowledgment that the response has been inadequate
The Justice Department launched a new task force this summer to address increased threats to election officials.
But there is a concern that you are not prepared to do enough.
John Keller, head of the task force and senior deputy director of the department's Public Integrity Section, told the summer meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State in August that "it is recognized that in this last election cycle there were a greater number of of election related threats this country has seen before. "
And he added: "It is also recognized that the response has been inadequate."
The presentation followed a cheerful video of an astronaut on the International Space Station, talking about how easy it was to vote by mail.
When Griswold raised her concerns directly, asking what is being done to track threats to officials like her on social media, Keller responded, "Just as it's overwhelming for you, especially to do it on a national scale, there is still no infrastructure set up to do so. a comprehensive national ongoing review of anything potentially threatening in the electoral space. "
Griswold suggested that the Justice Department start simply by monitoring the social media accounts of her and others who have faced the most intense responses.
Keller gave the secretaries of state an 800 number and a website to report threats, and encouraged them to contact local FBI offices.
Aides have spent months sending threats to the FBI and their local authorities.
But amid the incoming threats, your feelings of security and support come and go.
"People are potentially out of control," Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, Democrat, warned Keller at the event, asking for more help.
Officials from various offices tell CNN they feel they are in what they describe as a victim's guilt circle, and law enforcement officials say they cannot help them because the offices cannot keep up with all the information and bring it along. to the authorities.
Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray told more than 1,400 poll workers during a virtual discussion in August that Wray had directed FBI agents in all 56 field offices to work with state and local election officials on the threats.
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Last month, the Department of Justice conducted training with FBI agents and assistant federal prosecutors across the country that focus on enforcement of the electoral crimes law.
"Of course, we are under no illusions that our expressions of concern and the allocation of resources to enforce the law have solved this problem," Garland said in August.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department said the task force collects and analyzes reported information to try to develop national trends related to common tactics and actors, even if the threats come from text messages, voicemails, calls or social networks.
The spokesperson said the Justice Department was committed to ensuring that all threats to election officials and workers were evaluated, including targeting victims and FBI intervention when warranted.
"Historically, threats against poll workers have been handled primarily as a state or local matter, generally without significant federal involvement," Keller said in a statement to CNN.
"This is changing rapidly in response to increased threats across the country since the last election cycle. The Department of Justice now supplements state and local efforts with resources, national coordination, training, and intelligence, as well as specially designated federal and prosecutors. in every jurisdiction in the country. "
Part of what secretaries face is the line that law enforcement agencies tend to draw when assessing a threat: a person who fantasizes about how great it would be to see an official hurt is seen as protected by freedom of expression, and is not the same as a person who poses a specific threat about how and when to hurt an official.
That's not much comfort to Griswold.
"I realize most of it is probably bravado, but the only worrying thing is it's not," he said.
A Reuters analysis last month found that of 102 death or violence threats against election officials, it could only confirm that four had resulted in arrests.
'A breaking point'
Hobbs was one of several state and local election officials who testified at a Senate hearing Tuesday on threats to the elections and poll workers, warning of the consequences of the elections.
"We are already seeing high turnover among election staff and I fear that many more will reach a breaking point and decide that this line of public service is no longer worth it," Hobbs told the Senate Administration and Rules Committee.
Griswold said that in addition to safety concerns for her and her counterparts, up to 40% of poll workers in the nation's largest jurisdictions have so far said they will not return to work because of their own fears.
Other states are also experiencing declines.
Nearly one in three local poll workers said they felt unsafe because of their jobs, according to an April poll on behalf of the Brennan Center for Justice, and about 17% of those who responded said they had received threats.
The Biden administration announced Tuesday that Washington State Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican who criticized Trump's electoral lies, would lead the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to defend electoral systems from foreign and domestic interference. although that is independent of protecting election officials from threats of violence.
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In the face of what are expected to be mounting threats, these officials are trying to remain optimistic and determined about their duties.
It has not been easy.
Hobbs is running for governor of Arizona next year, and mocking her for her administration in last year's election has become a central part of the campaign against her.
"I think it should be locked up," Republican candidate Kari Lake, backed by both Trump and fabulous election chief Mike Lindell, said at an event in Arizona earlier this month.
And the threats kept coming.
"To say that we should not take it seriously is to lose what is happening in this nation. And what is happening in this nation is the dismantling of democracy," Griswold said.
"And the threats to poll workers and those of us who are fighting to prevent a political party from tipping future elections in their favor to steal these seats is part of it."