The Department of Justice (DOJ) is deploying district elections officers nationwide before Election Day to ensure poll workers can “do their jobs free from threats and intimidation.”
The elections officers are expected to coordinate with the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, which was created in June 2021 by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Attorney General Merrick Garland, to address alleged violence against election workers.
According to the DOJ, the task force has been engaging with state and local law enforcement and the election community since its inception to assess reports and allegations of threats against election workers. The task force additionally partners with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and FBI field offices throughout the United States.
This week, U.S. attorneys’ offices announced that their district elections officers—selected each election cycle—will coordinate with local, state, and federal law enforcement officers and the Election Threats Task Force on Election Day. The DOJ claims the coordination will ensure that reports on the ground regarding any election-related complaints are coordinated with the appropriate authorities.
District elections officers are additionally responsible for overseeing their district’s handling of voting rights concerns and Election Day complaints, election fraud, and threats of violence to election staff or officials, said officials.
“The Department will address these violations wherever they occur,” said the Justice Department.
The Department of Justice added that its “longstanding Election Day Program furthers these goals and also seeks to ensure public confidence in the electoral process by providing local points of contact within the Department for the public to report possible federal election law violations.”
Only last month, AG Garland convened a public task force meeting, saying there has been an “unprecedented spike in threats against the public servants who do administer our elections” since 2020.
DOJ has charged almost two dozen individuals related to election threats
Since the creation of the task force, the DOJ has charged nearly two dozen individuals related to alleged threats to election workers.
“These cases are a warning: if you threaten to harm or kill an election worker or official or volunteer, the Justice Department will find you,” said Garland last month. “And we will hold you accountable.”
Just this year, the DOJ charged a person for an alleged shooting spree that targeted the homes of a candidate for office and elected officials and an individual for sending threatening communications to an election official in Michigan, along with others.
Garland said the DOJ will continue to build on its work leading up to November 5’s Election Day by holding meetings with election officials across the U.S.
The attorney general also announced that prior to Election Day, the FBI will host federal partners at FBI headquarters to address possible crimes, events, and issues related to the elections.
“Election officials and administrators do not need to navigate this threat environment alone,” said Garland. “We are here to support them and make sure they can safely carry out their critical work.”
