Election workers being trained how to deal with harassment, threats
World
Election officials faced harassment since 2020 election
(Web Desk) - National groups have started training election officials for the trauma they may face in their roles as threats and harassment against election workers begins to ramp up again ahead of the 2024 election, according to a new report.
Election officials, particularly women and people of color, have faced ongoing harassment since the 2020 election when Donald Trump and his supporters railed about baseless claims of voter fraud, the Guardian reports.
Former Michigan elections clerk Tina Barton, for example, said she has lived in fear the last few years after one particularly frightening threat to "f---ing kill her."
It wasn't until three years after the 2020 election that the man who threatened her was identified and arrested.
Barton now works with a national organization, The Elections Group, hosting seminars on how to deal with harassment and threats.
Other groups are providing similar resources for election workers, with attention to mental wellness amid an often-ugly atmosphere ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
Many of the threats against the workers are borne out of the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
There has been no evidence that fraud took place on a large enough scale to swing any race that cycle, and every court case challenging the election has either been thrown out or lost.
Rudy Giuliani recently lost a defamation lawsuit brought by mother-and-daughter election workers whom he had accused of fraud.
Giuliani's very public claims triggered horrifying threats that made the women too frightened to leave their home. A jury found him liable for $148 million in defamation damages in the case.
Election offices have already been targeted across the country this election cycle with fentanyl-laced envelopes.
