Gunfire you have been fired entered the Kamala Harris campaign office in Arizona. Repeat to be killed sites against Donald Trump.
Suspicious packages to election officials more than 20 statescontaining written threats or white powder.
Election workers are given gloves to handle mail; their liaison offices with the FBI, Department of Justice and Homeland Security; employees are trained in reducing the quality.
Welcome to the 2024 US election. Like early voting it startsso have threats about elections.
“It’s just not a fun place to work,” North Carolina’s board of elections executive director, Karen Bell, told reporters this week.
“[But] We’re not going to be intimidated by this.” He added a reminder to anyone sending those packets: the election workers you’re threatening might include your former teacher or your neighbor.
The 2020 US election presented a threatening situation that has not subsided, a new reality revealed by Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the final result.
The Brennan Center think-tank has a list of them 14 threats in this year’s election, based on actions from the 2020, 2022 and 2024 primary election cycles.
Their list includes to interrupt with machinery; flood offices with challenges to voter registration; threats against the election employeeswho drew points erase or take precautions, such as sheltering in place undisclosed location; again many, many casesone of them delayed briefly voting by mail this year in North Carolina (finally it continues).
The FBI is investigating allegations of an attempt to kill former president Donald Trump while he was playing golf in Florida. A man who was hiding in an area near the golf course and pointed a high-powered rifle at Trump has been arrested.
One threat is gaining public attention: Regional unrest. In particular, the certification process in Georgia has become national news.
‘I think people are waking up … in 2020’
It is a surprising change for those who have long monitored these once routine election processes.
“I’ve been in this job for 14 years and until 2020 I never asked a question about certification. So it’s a new topic,” said Wendy Underhill, director of elections for the National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL), an advisory and advocacy arm of state lawmakers.
“I think people are aware of that [new reality] in 2020.”
Underneath pressure from TrumpA tooth and nail fight is happening in 2020, some states and regions just a little confirming that year’s election.
Trump’s gamble has been drawn a criminal cases. He is accused of working illegally to delay the 2020 certification, hopefully that the Republicans in Congress will announce that he won.
This strategy continued after 2020.
Many district officials they have since refused to confirm the election results. Two years ago, the couple became charged with a crime in rural Arizona.
One of the suspects in Arizona admitted that his suspension had nothing to do with the problems in his state. It’s been a long time protesting after the Democrats did well in the 2022 midterms, and he wasn’t happy with the way the election was being conducted outside of Phoenix.
New Mexico, another Aligned with Trump who denies the election he explained why he tried to block the results of the 2022 primary: “It is not based on any facts,” he said. He was shocked when he heard that something was wrong.
These are summaries from more than 3,000 other states in the US In Pennsylvania alone, some states have tried to block the certificate 2022 the primariesintermediate and 2024 terms the primaries.
Which brings us to recent events in Georgia.
What happened in Georgia
A pro-Trump majority on the state board of elections, two months ago, passed laws that would delay certification at the county level, a necessary prelude to guaranteeing a statewide outcome.
In August, they he made the law allowing any officer, on any election board, in any Georgia 159 regionsto start their investigation before confirming the vote.
The genesis of this is Trump ally’s refusal to confirm presidential primaries this year in his Atlanta district until he can investigate fraud.
Then, this month another rule from the provincial board requires all neighboring polling stations to count the votes to ensure that the total number is the same as that from the electronic counter. The law does not fully explain what happens in the event of a collision.
The board is facing charges and not just Democracies but also Republicansand the judge is there expected to hear challenges in a few days.
Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, is a well-known Republican resisting pressure from Trump to overturn the result of 2020, called rules illegalcontrary to the law of the land and a threat to the security of votes.
District officials say this double counting system has been tried before and it’s a mess. Some complained at the board’s meeting this month that it will not work.
But the board praises one notable Republican: Trump. At a campaign event in August, he singled out three Republican board members by name, inviting crowds to cheer for one as he stood and waved.
“They’re on fire. They’re doing a great job,” Trump said of the election board. “All pitbulls.”
The meetings have grown contentious at grassroots level. Georgia board members shoot each other while sitting on their podium.
Another accused the media and Democrats of not knowing the public well about his intentions. Janice Johnston explained that the new rules are not as difficult as they are made out to be; poll workers only need to count the total votes, not total the votes of each party.
Another is upset that he is being insulted in the discussions of another board member.
“He’s attacking our reputation – our integrity,” Janelle King said. “They call us MAGA extremists. They don’t even know who we are.”
King is a conservative podcast host and former Republican executive who questioned the results of the 2020 election and still has it appears of events with Trump, praising his work as president. Johnston, his colleague, was the one who raised his hand to the crowd in his front row seat at a recent Trump rally.
Checks and balances in the system
This legal melodrama would not be worthy of international interest if not for its role in electing the most powerful office holder in the world: the US president.
So how likely are these riots to stop the election, spur get-out-the-vote efforts and allow Congress to elect a president?
Electoral experts aren’t that worried – yet.
“Is it a risk? Maybe. Is it a big risk? No,” said Wendy Underhill of the NCSL.
His intelligence is carefully supported report from legal the group Responsible Citizens and Ethics in Washington.
It lists many possible ways to overcome arbitrary electoral obstacles, in one dynamic after another. For example, states have statutory penalties, both criminal and civil, as evidenced by Arizona criminal cases.
In addition, state election boards have the power to take over the process. And, finally, the report says, the federal government can step in, under the laws of voting rights, civil rights, criminal conspiracy and several sections of the Constitution.
Trey Hood, an election expert at the University of Georgia, says he can’t foresee state courts overturning the Georgia board’s rules, or putting them on hold until they are reviewed.
As for the content of the law changes, Hood called them inexplicable. “Busy work” was how he described them.
Asked what’s motivating all these changes, he gives pro-Trump board members some benefit of the doubt: he doesn’t think they intend to cheat.
Instead, he consistently points to the polls the show a clear majority of Republicans believe the 2020 election is rigged, as Trump keeps telling them. Because of this, these officials are creating, in his view, new methods of monitoring that are unnecessary or complicated.
“There is a widespread belief [the 2020 election was stolen],” Hood said. “I don’t think that’s ever going to change, unfortunately.”
In a situation like this, certification is just one taste of the trouble. For the 2024 US election, there are about a dozen others.