The election system shuddered in 2020. Now, there are fears of an attack within

If you really break it down, a national election in America consists of one basic interaction, repeated millions of times.

A voter checks in with an election worker. The election worker gives the voter a ballot. This is what allows voters to vote.

It is democracy at its most elemental level, and it's important that it works.

That's why a couple dozen poll worker trainees streamed into a conference room in a government complex surrounded by farms in West Olive, Michigan on a recent Wednesday night. Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck wants to make sure that the tens of thousands of poll worker interactions in his county go off without a hitch.

"They're the face of our democracy," he says.

This year, for the first time, Roebuck is preparing his poll workers for the possibility that one of those among them could try to sabotage democracy — by interfering with an election.

It's a scenario that seems more plausible than it did a few years ago, thanks in part to a video of Ryan Kelley, a Republican candidate for Michigan governor, that made headlines this year.

"If you see something you don't like happening with the machines, if you see something going on, unplug it from the wall," he told the audience.

Roebuck, who is also a Republican, brought up those comments at his poll worker training. There was a stunned pause after he