this is "nightline". >> tonight, threat to democracy. >> what does it say that you are the county clerk in this county and you have to come to work every day with body armor? >> the midterm elections are in the final sprint and poll workers are increasingly at risk. this mother and daughter targeted by election deniers. >> they were saying that i should be hung, me and my mom will die. >> revealing their traumatic experience in an exclusive interview with abc news. plus, selena gomez -- the "lose you to love me" singer now sharing her darkest moments.

>> just be who you are, selena. no one cares about what you're doing. it's about who i am. >> hoping to help others going through similar struggles. and honoring lena. the trail blazer broke new ground in classic movies like "stormy weather." now broadway is paying tribute in an historic first. >> announcer: "night line" will be right back. biofreeze, the number one clinician recommended menthol topical pain relief brand. works fast. lasts long. cool the pain with biofreeze. super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide hygenic clean free. it's gentle on her skin and out-cleans our old free detergent. tide hygenic clean free. hypoallergenic and safe for sensitive skin.

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. ♪ ♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. on election day next tuesday, countless americans will be working to make sure the voting process goes smoothly. but poll workers are increasingly in the line of fire facing dangerous and sometimes deadly threats. a mother and daughter revealing their harrowing ordeal of harassment in their first tv interview and a county clerk now wearing a bullet proof vest to work and the suspicious package mailed to a county office just this week. >> for the past two years ruby freeman and her daughter shea mss have lived in fear, their names splattered across conservative media. >> that's ruby's daughter. >> all because of a lie. >> going to pass that usb off.

>> they quite obviousliy passin around usb ports as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine. >> ruby freeman is a vote scammer. >> the pair were falsely accused of trying to rig the outcome in joe biden's favor in 2020 when they were election workers in fulton county, georgia. in the summer of 2022, they went to capitol hill to share their story with the january 6th committee. >> ms. moss, how has this experience of being targeted by the former president and his allies affected your life? >> it's turned my life upside down. >> i've lost my sense of security all because a group of people starting with number 45 and his ally rudy giuliani s decided to scapegoat me and my daughter shea. >> they're not the only ones under attack. across the country, election

official versus endured threats and confrontations over false accusations ever since the 2020 elections. >> you frauded out america of a real election where donald trump blew your [ bleep ] out of the water. we'll kill you, [ bleep ] liar. >> you know what happens to corrupt democrat politicians and election officials? they learn firsthand the hard way why the second amendment exists. >> the threats, though scattered, are serious enough that even the department of justice is taking notice. now ruby and shea are sharing their story in their first tv interview. it's a harrowing preview of what could come. >> i don't want this, but i have no choice because of the big lie. >> the big lie. former president donald trump's false and frequently made claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him still reverberates two years on.

less than a week before election day, threats of political violence are on the rise. >> house speaker nancy pelosi's husband attacked with a hammer inside their home. the suspect was yelling "where's nancy." >> we get an inside look at how election officials are trying to keep the process and themselves safe. before 2020 being an election officer was a source of pride for shea. did you feel over the years that people were grateful for what you did? >> yes. >> what kind of reaction did you get before 2020? >> like the monitors, the observers, they were happy to see me. we had people that would bring us lunch. they would send us candy and flowers after the election thanking us. >> so when in 2020 did you get the feeling something different is happening? >> the monitors, there were maybe three times the amount as normal and they were not so

friendly. >> how so? >> they told me that they're here representing the republican party and this is what i need to do for them. i just had to constantly call upper managements and ask them, you know, what to do after i did the obvious which was ask them can you please stay behind here or do not touch the envelopes. you can't take pictures of this process. you can't videotape. you can't just walk freely in between. >> that's all according to law and regulation? >> mm-hm. >> when the initial tally showed joe biden winning georgia by fewer ■than5,000 otes, a recount was triggered by law. the results of that recount still showed a biden win. then president trump requested a second recount, which again reaffirmed the results. >> authorities are ordering a recount by hand. >> trump and his associated also

looked for evidence of wrongdoing by pols. in early december, 2020, video began circulating on conservative media outlets that would change shea and ruby's lives forever. >> she's looking over here. >> i was working the normal post election work when my supervisor showed me the video. i was just confused, because they showed me a video of us doing our work. >> this video allegedly showing ruby passing shea a usb drive of stolen votes. you were a little under the weather? >> yes. >> talking about the far left there, ms. ruby. >> what did you pass her? >> i have ginger mints in my purse. that's what i have. that's all i had to give her and

know this is going to make her feel better. >> she got it. >> ginger mint. >> this is what rudy giuliani said was an attempt to rig the election. >> yeah. >> rudy giuliani helped amplify the false description of these videos, appearing in front of the georgia state legislature. >> it's a tape earlier in the day of ruby freeman and shea freeman moss and one other gentlemen quite obviously passing around usb ports as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine. >> no, sir, you don't know what you're talking about. >> i just got so sad. how dare you compare us to drug

dealers. i was done. >> trump himself also repeated the outrageous accusation in a phone call to georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger. >> we had at least 18,000 that's on tape. we had them counted very painstakingly, 18,000 voters having to do with ruby freeman. she's a professional vote scammer and hustler. >> i was like, really? you're gonna call me out like that? what are you talking about? >> from the moment those videos went viral online, ruby and shea started getting threats. shea said her facebook was filled with messages from total strangers. >> i have to admit i looked at every single one. they were saying that i should be hung, me and my mom will die

and, you know, like burning crosses. it's a slap in the face. very hateful things. >> the threats escalated to the point that the fbi told shea and ruby to go into hiding ahead of january 6th, 2021. >> i don't know where i'm going. i don't know what i'm doing. i'm just out here. i feel homeless. i don't have anywhere to go. i don't know nothing. yeah. i was just out there for a moment. >> how did you deal with that? >> by the grace of god. >> in the hotly contested state of colorado, adams county clerk josh ziglebalm had to overhaul his workplace. >> this is headquarters. >> yes, this is the elections office. these windows are brand new. >> these windows here? >> yes. it was about a $50,000 project to improve the security of our elections office.

really tried to harden the office as a target as much as we could. >> for josh, those safety measures extend way past the doors of his office. >> i have had some incidents in the past where people have followed me back to my neighborhood. a bit nerve-racking. that prompted me to start talking with the sheriff about personal safety. he recommended that i wear a ballistic vest whenever i feel necessary. i wear one pretty much every single day. >> what does it say that you are the county clerk in this county and you have to come to work every day with body armor? >> it says that our democracy isn't as probably healthy as it should be right now. >> shea and ruby are now moving to new neighborhoods. they say they still just don't feel safe. >> i don't know. >> they say they'll never do election work again. >> that's a great job.

it's a great feeling of accomplishment to help someone, especially knowing that before my grandmother, they didn't have that right and it was like a law that you don't have that right. so, yes, i'm very proud of that. it's unfortunate that it was taken away from me. >> our thanks to terry. for more on the threat to democracy, stream "impact by nightline" on hulu. new episodes drop every thursday. up next, selena gomez offers fans an unfiltered look inside her mental health journey. to help protect from hiv, i prep without pills. with apretude a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of hiv without daily prep pills. with one shot every other month, just 6 times a year. in studies, apretude was proven superior to a daily prep pill in reducing the risk of hiv. you must be hiv negative to receive apretude

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♪ the pressures of fame have been a constant companion for selena gomez. she famously quit instagram when she was the most followed person on the planet. now she's giving fans a raw and personal look inside her mental health struggles. here's juju chang. >> reporter: selena gomez. ♪ i needed to hate you to love me ♪ >> actress, philanthropist and pop star with chart topping hits like "lose you to love me". at just 13 she landed a role on "wizards of waverly place." now she's starring with steve martin and martin short. >> we have two options.

i slap you across the face or we skip to the part where you say thanks kid, that was tough to hear. >> on hulu's hit comedy "only murders in the building." despite the raise to fame and fortune, selena had a secret. >> she had a mental breakdown. >> no one cares about what you're doing. it's about who i am, being okay with where i am. i am grateful to be alive. >> the director of "truth or dare" partnering with selena in the new apple plus documentary "selena gomez, my mind and me ♪ shot over six turbulent years, including a stay in a mental hospital. >> when i first got out, i didn't know how i'd cope with my diagnosis. what if it happened again? what if the next time i didn't

come back? >> her inner turmoil laid bare. >> she's the first to admit, you know, she's broken. >> what do you think motivated her to reveal all of this? >> i still think she feels discomfort about the level of vulnerability that she's given in exposing all these parts of her, but that is transcended by her deep desire to try to make a difference in someone else's life. she talks about that in the film where she says, sometimes i don't want to be famous, i don't want any of this stuff, but i know i have to use it for good. >> i spoke to selena and her mother earlier this year after bravely sharing her diagnosis of bipolar disorder. >> it was really freeing to have the information. it made me really happy, because i started to have a relationship with myself.

i think that's the best part. >> you say you now live with bipolar and you don't suffer from it as much anymore. how did you go about learning how to live with bipolar as opposed to suffering from it? >> well, i do the necessary things. you know, i see a therapist. i have tons of workbooks like a nerd. i write music. i try to take what's going on and turn it into something beautiful in the best way that i can. >> she'd launched the company wonder mind along with her mother and business partner. its mission, to destigmatize mental health crises. >> i love the rare reminders that i read about with your sticky notes. >> it can be something that i need to validate my feelings with, maybe something along the lines of like, today you are enough. i'll put it visually somewhere and i'll keep it there until that's like in my mind.

>> how do i learn how to breathe my own breath again? >> filming had to be stopped when selena was hospitalized in 2018 following a nervous breakdown. >> take us to what brought you back to filming? >> after she came out of the facility, i suddenly realized there's a really fascinating story, because she is just out and in recovery herself and the fact that she's still very much the patient. >> i needed to keep learning about it. i needed to take it day by day. >> in this exclusive clip given to abc, selena dealing with severe anxiety triggered by a flare-up of lupus before her performance at the american music awards. >> i hadn't been on stage in over two years and i still didn't know if i was ready. what good is having a song if i was too scared to sing it? ♪ i needed to lose you to love me ♪ >> she's always had issues performing and performing live. her anxiety really flares up

then and that voice comes back that says you suck, but it's all connected, the anxiety, the lupus, the live performance and eyes being on her. ♪ >> you said she's brave. >> there's a fragility to her, but she can also soar. and she has that ability to really in moments surprise you by her power to kind of soar. >> our thanks to juju. coming up, honoring lena. the legendary singer and actress is a permanent fixture on broadway. when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis persists... put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill.

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♪ finally tonight, lena horne is now the first black woman to have a broadway theater named in her honor.

the former brooks atkinson theater is now the lena horne teater. horne was in movies, television and on broadway. she appeared at the march on washington. she was awarded a special tony for her show "the lady and her music" in 1981. lena horne died in 2010. and that's s"n