Comment Since the 2020 election, threats have followed Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) on her Facebook and Instagram pages, in her email inbox and Twitter feed, and on fringe social networks. “Watch your back,” said one Facebook message. “I KNOW WHERE YOU SLEEP, I SEE YOU SLEEP. BE AFRAID, VERY AFRAID.” “Penalty for treason? Hanging or firing squad. You can choose Griswold,” said one Instagram comment. Griswold’s office has identified hundreds more threats against her since 2020, when she says Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the election results opened a floodgate of abuse. Although her office is in contact with major tech companies to address harassment and misinformation, she said it’s clear that Silicon Valley is not responding adequately. “The ‘big lie’ and misinformation about elections have been used to pass voter suppression, destabilize elections, erode trust and lead to political violence,” Griswold said. “It’s a huge problem.” The midterm elections are a new test for American democracy after two years under fire The flood of online harassment Griswold has experienced over the past two years is indicative of a tide of threats targeting election officials at all levels, from secretaries of state to poll workers. Election experts say the threats are a direct result of false narratives about the 2020 election that spread in part on social media and have catapulted once-obscure governors and county officials into the center of viral hoaxes and conspiracy theories. Cyber-targeted election officials and law enforcement officials are bracing for another wave of threats on Election Day and beyond, when fresh allegations of voter fraud are expected to lead to more violent rhetoric online. The FBI declined to comment for this story. Last month, the agency issued a warning about threats against election workers and said it continues to “prioritize the detection, mitigation and investigation of threats targeting election workers.” He asked the public to submit tips about election crimes through local offices or his website. Jen Easterly, director of the government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said during a forum last week that local law enforcement also plays a critical role in securing elections. CISA spent several weeks doing trainings nationwide on how to de-escalate situations. “Securing elections is a non-partisan activity and there is no room for threats,” he said. “It is unacceptable”. Election officials across the country, including in competitive states like Arizona and Pennsylvania, say the threats are coming in waves and are watching what’s in the news. Allie Bones, Arizona’s assistant secretary of state, said her office expects Election Day week to be “active.” This year, GOP election naysayers got a free pass from Twitter and Facebook The ongoing harassment has contributed to high turnover among election officials across the country. According to research published earlier this year by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law, 1 in 5 elected officials are unlikely to continue serving through 2024. Politicians’ attacks on the system and stress are the main reasons that plan to leave, according to the study. “It’s a challenge every day,” said Lisa Deeley, who as chairwoman of Philadelphia’s city commissioners oversees that city’s elections. “The job has changed so much because every day they throw the kitchen sink and all the vegetables in the fridge and all the sheets and towels in the closet. Election officials across the country say they are in contact with major tech platforms to address any new threats. Election officials in states like Arizona, New Mexico and Pennsylvania say they’ve had conversations with representatives of companies like Facebook and Twitter where the issue of election-related threats has been discussed. Twitter, which recently laid off most of its communications staff, did not respond to a request for comment. The company has long had a policy prohibiting threats against election officials and continues to enforce it, said a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss candidly the company’s election plans. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, earlier this year shared guidance with CISA and the 50 election offices outlining how to help election officials protect themselves online. “We encourage anyone who encounters potentially infringing content to use the many reporting tools we have right in our apps so we can quickly review it,” said Meta spokeswoman Dani Lever. “We have also expanded our policies to address coordinated harassment and threats of violence against election officials and poll workers.” But most states and counties don’t have dedicated staff to monitor the range of threats taking place. On Election Day, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office will rely on a team of interns to monitor what’s happening online, though their focus will be primarily on addressing any questions people have about voting. “We don’t have security staff monitoring all the comments,” Bones said. “It’s very traumatic to have to go through all that and see what people are saying about you, your office or your boss.” And fringe social networks, or more private chat channels, where researchers say much of the most violent rhetoric occurs, remain a blind spot for most election officials. In the run-up to the election, there were multiple threats generally against people counting ballots on sites like Gab and .win forums. On Gab, people shared images of guns with captions such as “When it takes too long to count the ballots and another day goes by” and “When the windows are boarded up to count illegal ballots.” Women of color running for office face higher rates of violent threats online Since the 2020 election, there have been increased efforts to combat threats against election officials, both online and offline. The Department of Justice in 2021 launched a task force focused on protecting election officials. As of August, the task force had reviewed more than 1,000 “harassment contacts” directed at election officials, and about 11 percent met the threshold for a federal criminal investigation. The task force said it is charging four federal cases and joining another case. There were also many state prosecutions. But election officials on the front lines say these prosecutions are only a fraction of the threats they receive. At the state level, there is an increased push to pass legislation. Washington state recently passed a law that would make it a felony to threaten an election worker online, and Colorado now has a law that would make it illegal to post election official information online to harass. Other states are considering similar measures. Online threats and slander against election officials were the focus of Congressional Committee hearings on January 6. Al Schmidt, a Republican former Philadelphia city commissioner, told the committee that after Trump tweeted about him, he and his family received death threats. Shaye Moss, a Georgia poll worker, said she was stunned to see horrific threats flood her Facebook Messenger inbox after Rudy Giuliani, then a top Trump campaign lawyer, publicly claimed she and her mother had cheated the election result. “A lot of death threats, telling me I’m going to be in jail with my mother and saying things like, ‘Be happy it’s 2020 and not 1920,’” he said. David Becker, executive director and founder of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the threats come not because officials “did something wrong, but because they scored the biggest hit in the history of democracy” in 2020. “There’s a real toll on real human beings,” Becker said. “There is no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. Election officials don’t get rich and famous. Your best case scenario as an election official is anonymity.” Tim Starks contributed to this report.
