DOJ: Election Workers Faced More Than 1,000 'Hostile' Contacts in Last Year

There have been more than 1,000 reported cases of "hostile" contact between election officials and the public during the last year, according to a Justice Department task force.

The Election Threats Task Force (ETTF) issued a release Monday saying it had reviewed more than 1,000 contacts reported as hostile or harassing by the election community.

"Approximately 11% of those contacts met the threshold for a federal criminal investigation," the release said. "The remaining reported contacts did not provide a predication for a federal criminal investigation.

"While many of the contacts were often hostile, harassing, and abusive towards election officials, they did not include a threat of unlawful violence."

ETTF said election officials in states with close elections were more likely to receive threats. In fact, 58% of the total of potentially criminal threats were in states — i.e., Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin — that underwent 2020 post-election lawsuits, recounts, and audits.

The probe also found that situations in which the source of a reported contact was identified — less than 5% of the total number of reported contacts — the source contacted the victim on multiple occasions in 50% of those cases.

ETTF said it had charged four federal cases and joined another case that was charged before the establishment of the task force last year by the Biden administration.

There have also been multiple state prosecutions to date, the task force added, with additional prosecutions anticipated.

The release was issued on a day Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. convened a virtual discussion with a bipartisan group of approximately 750 election officials and workers to provide an update on the ETTF’s work.

The Washington Examiner reported that some states have passed, or are considering, legislation to protect poll workers and election officials before the 2022 midterm contests.

The Oregon Legislature passed a bill in March that allows election workers to keep their home addresses from public disclosure and makes harassment of an election worker punishable by a maximum of 364 days in prison and a $6,250 fine, the Examiner said.

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