Brennan Center: Election Officials Under Attack

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larry norden
@LarryNorden
Today, @BrennanCenter and @BPC_Bipartisan release a new report: Election Officials Under Attack, which details unprecedented attacks against election officials for defending American democracy, but also provides concrete solutions for how to defend them.
Crosshairs over a ballot box
Election Officials Under Attack
Scapegoated for election outcomes that some politicians and voters did not like, election officials have been under unprecedented attack. Here's a plan to protect them.
brennancenter.org
6:16 AM · Jun 16, 2021

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/election-officials-under-attack

Al Schmidt, the Republican city commissioner of Philadelphia, might seem an unlikely lightning rod for the 2020 election. The married father of three, described by local media as a “bespectacled” bureaucrat, is one of three commissioners responsible for overseeing election-related affairs for the city. A decades-long Republican, he prided himself on bringing transparency to Philadelphia’s election processes.

Threats against Schmidt and his board of elections colleagues began before Election Day, November 3, 2020. About a week prior, someone left an ominous phone message stating that the board members were “the reason why we have the Second Amendment.” Shortly after that, police arrested two men in Philadelphia “after receiving an FBI tip that they were making threats against the Pennsylvania Convention Center,” where ballots were being counted. The men were armed with “two loaded semi-automatic Beretta pistols, one semi-automatic AR-15-style rifle, and ammunition” at the time of the arrest.

In the days after Pennsylvania was called for Joe Biden, Schmidt appeared in the media to defend the integrity of the election. President Donald Trump and his campaign called out Schmidt and members of his staff. Stalkers tracked down the cell phone numbers of Schmidt and a staff member, who is Jewish, which “ignited . . . [a] wave of menacing and often anti-Semitic attacks."

Schmidt and his family received death threats. One text message, which mentioned his wife and children, read, “You lied. You a traitor. Perhaps 75cuts and 20bullets will soon arrive.” His wife received the following threats via email the next morning: “ALBERT RINO SCHMIDT WILL BE FATALLY SHOT,” and “HEADS ON SPIKES. TREASONOUS SCHMIDTS.” A 24-hour security detail remained at Schmidt’s and his parents’ houses well into 2021. For their safety, his wife and children left their home after the election.

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