In their new book, “The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It,” authors Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague focus on the everyday people doing their jobs who got caught up in the controversy.
For example Ruby Freeman in Georgia, who proudly worked sorting and counting ballots part-time but ended up accused of being a professional vote scammer.
She was among the many election officials singled out by supporters of Donald Trump for unfounded accusations of vote tampering, which were repeatedly disproven.
Leading up to the 2022 election cycle, Teague said he believes local communities are prepared for another round of contentious elections, because they must be.
“Elections are the source of our agony in a sense, but they are also our salvation,” Teague said. “They are the thing that is fascinating and wonderful about our system of government — that it replaces itself every few years.”
