DOJ deploys district election officials to handle ‘threats and intimidation’

The Justice Department is deploying district poll workers across the country ahead of Election Day to ensure poll workers can “do their jobs without threats or intimidation.”

Election officials should work in coordination with the Justice Department’s Election Threat Task Force, which was created in June 2021 by Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco to respond to allegations of violence against elections officials. election workers.

The task force, since its inception, has engaged with the election community and state and local law enforcement to evaluate allegations and reports of threats against election workers, according to the Department of Justice. The task force also works in partnership with FBI field offices and U.S. Attorneys’ offices across the United States.

This week, U.S. Attorneys’ Offices announced their district election officials, who are selected each election cycle, to coordinate with the Election Threat Task Force and federal, state and local law enforcement on the day of the ballot. The coordination will ensure that field reports regarding any election-related complaints are coordinated with the appropriate authorities, officials said.

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District election officials are also responsible for overseeing their district’s handling of Election Day complaints about voting rights issues, threats of violence against election officials or staff and voter fraud, officials said.

“The Department will address these violations wherever they occur,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

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The DOJ added that its “long-standing Election Day program furthers these goals and also seeks to ensure public confidence in the election process by providing local points of contact within the Department for the public to report possible violations of federal election law.”

Last month, Garland called a public meeting of the task force, saying there had been an “unprecedented increase in threats against public officials who administer our elections” since 2020.

Since the task force’s creation, the DOJ has charged nearly two dozen people related to alleged threats against election workers.

“These cases are a warning: If you threaten to harm or kill an election worker, official or volunteer, the Department of Justice will find you,” Garland said last month. “And we will hold you accountable.”

Just this year, the DOJ charged an individual for an alleged shooting targeting the homes of elected officials and a candidate for office; an individual for sending threatening communications to a Michigan election official; and more.

Garland said the Justice Department will continue to expand its work ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5 by holding on-the-ground meetings with election workers across the country.

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Garland also announced that prior to Election Day in early November, the FBI will host federal partners at FBI Headquarters to discuss election-related events, issues and potential crimes.

“Election officials and administrators do not need to face this threat environment alone,” Garland said. “We are here to support them and ensure they can carry out their essential work safely. »