The U.S. Department of Justice this week announced charges against a man who allegedly threatened Colorado and Arizona election officials. The case highlights mounting threats against officials ahead of Election Day.
According to a survey of nearly 1,000 election workers this year by the Brennan Center for Justice, one out of 3 election workers say they’ve personally experienced threats, harassment , or abuse. Seventy percent say those threats have increased since former President Donald Trump repeatedly lied that the 2020 election was stolen.
Though election workers’ concerns about safety declined in 2023, they have risen back to 2022 levels.
“The number of threats and abuse and harassment that they're facing in such a big election year like 2024 is unfortunate,” said Liz Howard, the director of partner engagement for the Brennan Center’s elections and government work. “And, they're reporting that this abuse isn't just from anonymous online trolls.”
In response to threats, the Department of Justice formed a special task force in 2021 to crack down on violence toward election workers.
“This was an important message to people that want to threaten election officials, that that sort of illegal conduct would not be tolerated,” said Howard, who previously served as the deputy commissioner for the Virginia Department of Elections.
The task force’s efforts recently led to the arrest of Colorado’s Teak Brockbank , who is accused of making threats on social media against election officials.
For example, in September 2021, Brockbank is said to have posted to the social media site Gab in response to a post about an official “destroying” election data: “I live in Communist Colorado and this Crazed liberal and many others in Communist Colorado needs to- No has to Hang she has to Hang by the neck till she is Dead Dead Dead.”
This post and several others were allegedly targeting Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, as first reported by the Montrose Daily Press and confirmed by KUNC. The complaint outlines additional posts against “Arizona Election Official-1,” Colorado state judges , and federal law enforcement agents. If convicted, Brockbank faces up to five years in prison.
The federal elections task force has received more than 2,000 reports of threats against election officials, but as of March of this year, only about 20 people had been charged.
T he Brennan Center’s survey also found that 45% of election workers who experienced threats on the job did not report them to law enforcement.
Since 2020, many states have enacted laws to specifically protect election workers.
For example, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada now allow election workers to keep their addresses and personal information confidential and have criminalized the doxing of election officials.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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