An Election Worker Was Demoted for Chatting with Jon Stewart, According to New Lawsuit

It’s obviously a tough time to be an election worker right now, seeing as how they’ve faced an unprecedented barrage of needless harassment and cruel threats, thanks to a certain Little Rascals star’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. 

Even though there’s reportedly been a shortage of poll workers this year, at least one qualified employee, a poll supervisor from Denver, won’t be working this election. That’s because she was allegedly removed from her position, simply for having a chat with the fifth-billed lead of Death to Smoochy.

Former Denver Elections employee Virginia Chau just filed a lawsuit against the city and county of Denver, as well as Clerk and Recorder Paul López, and her former boss, alleging that her First Amendment rights were violated after she was interviewed by Jon Stewart. 

Back in 2022, Chau appeared as a panelist on the Apple TV+ show The Problem with Jon Stewart to discuss how poll workers grapple with threats to their safety during elections. More critically, she outlined how a problematic lack of training leaves vulnerable workers with no tools for dealing with crises. Which seems pretty important! One survey from earlier this year found that nearly 40 percent of election officials have reported experiencing “threats, harassment or abuse.”

Despite the fact that nobody on the planet that we’re aware of watches Apple TV+, somehow Chau’s boss found out about the interview and flipped out (allegedly). According to the suit, Chau was told that she was “being removed as a polls supervisor because of her comments on the show.” Instead, she was to be “demoted to a hotline representative.” (I guess he’s more of a Kilborn guy.)

Why the demotion? Per the lawsuit, “the office did not want anyone to recognize her from her appearance on the program.” Again, this likely wouldn’t have been a problem since the show was on AppleTV+. That’s like complaining about attracting publicity by taking a city bus at 2 a.m. on a Monday.

Chau refused the demotion and instead complained to López. But he allegedly “never responded to her messages.” She isn’t just looking for financial compensation with the lawsuit, which claims that “her right to free speech, denied her due-process over the termination, and harmed her in multiple ways,” she’s also asking for her old job back, and is insisting that the city “improves training and diversity for the elections staff.”

That means this segment from The Problem with Jon Stewart may indirectly end up having a lasting impact on Denver’s electoral system. Not bad for a show that literally everybody forgot all about once Stewart started hosting The Daily Show again.

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