The threats to a true US election result

As the US presidential election approaches, there’s a scramble to hire poll workers, many of whom fear for their safety in an extremely polarized race.

“The challenge [comes from concerns about] the safety and security of poll workers,” Isaac Cramer, executive director of the election board in Charleston County, South Carolina tells The Financial Times. “I know that was a top concern of people who have left.”

Poll workers faced a barrage of threats after the 2020 election result put Joe Biden in the White House, with Donald Trump supporters maintaining the poll workers had failed to report fraud at the ballot box.

This claim was dismissed by the courts, but result denial is expected to be a big problem in an election that could be decided by mere decimal points.

According to Reuters, more than 100 threats of death or violence were made to US election workers and officials in the year following 2020, said to be inspired by Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was rigged.

An investigation by the Brennan Center for Justice found that 38% of election workers have experienced threats, harassment or abuse, with seven in 10 reporting a rise in threats since 2020.

Forty percent of election administrators said they had tightened security measures to keep staff safe in election offices and polling stations, including the installation of bulletproof glass and panic buttons.

Aside from the prospect of barefaced intimidation, the election result could be skewed by factors such as partisan supporters being encouraged to become poll workers in order to “monitor” the vote and check there’s no cheating.

According to The Financial Times, this is happening with rightwing groups such as True the Vote, many of whom contest the result of the 2020 election.

The Guardian reports that Republican national committee chair Michael Whatley claims to have recruited almost 200,000 poll watchers, poll workers, and volunteer lawyers.

Other issues that may interfere with the election include local officials refusing to certify the result and activists muscling in on previously non-partisan boards.

In Georgia, Trump supporters on the state board of elections recently attempted to push through a raft of new rules that would work in their favor and create a climate of uncertainty.

Georgia judge Thomas Cox ruled against seven of the changes, including hand counting the vote, calling them “illegal, unconstitutional and void,” The Guardian reports.

Photo: screenshot from Superior Court of Fulton County video.

“These local board meetings are now full of [Trump supporters] who get up and scream at the board members if they disagree with them,” according to Sam Levine, the Guardian US voting rights reporter.

Meanwhile, Trump champion Elon Musk tried to get a conspiracy theory off the ground that Democrats were trading votes for citizenship among illegal immigrants, a theory which has since been debunked.

Regarding immigrants, 14,000 registered voters in areas with a dense ethnic population were asked for proof of citizenship in Tennessee.

In Alabama, the state tried to bar 3,200 people from voting, claiming they were non-citizens before admitting that 2,000 of them were eligible.

Finally, there is the question of Republican party lawyers. In 2020, they refused to get on board with Trump’s bid to overturn the result. Now, Christina Bobb, a high-profile 2020 election denier, is at the helm of the Republican national committee’s election litigation team.

Never miss a story! Click here to follow The Daily Digest.