In July 2021, DOJ launched a task force to help address the threats and as of this month, the department has reviewed over 1,000 threats, brought charges against five people, and secured one conviction, according to Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr.īut a recent survey by the Brennan Center for Justice found that the problem is much larger than the Justice Department has reported. Since the 2020 election, elections officials across the country have faced an unprecedented number of violent threats. “They have made funds available, but they haven’t made them accessible, and I think that’s a pretty significant difference,” she said. “More can be done to ensure that the funds are indeed allocated for this purpose.”Īmy Cohen, the executive director of the National Association of State Election Directors, which is made up of election officials across the country, said federal agencies need to do more to ensure that election officials can obtain the money. “It is a positive step that Byrne JAG funds may now be used to protect elections and election officials,” the Colorado secretary of state’s office said in an emailed statement. While Colorado was able to acquire emergency funding, no other Byrne JAG funding recipients have reported using the funds for election security as of the end of March reporting period, the most recent data available, according to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the DOJ department that oversees the grants. But publicized efforts by the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security to provide financial support to state and local election officials appear to have fallen short, with election officials saying they haven’t seen and can’t access the money. The officials say they need support from the federal government to help protect themselves and their offices. The threats have led to mass resignations, leaving their offices understaffed for future elections. With less than three months until the midterm election, many election officials across the United States say a continuing onslaught of violent threats makes them worried about their safety and that of their colleagues. The board did award the secretary of state’s office $160,000 of a requested $241,000 in emergency funding to combat threats through the end of September, but the funds will expire before the November election. According to the denial email, the board thought the proposal lacked sufficient content and details, and the project duplicated services or research that is already available or being done. “We are, simply stated, facing a threat environment that is unprecedented for election officials and staff.”īut in June, the office learned that the advisory board of mostly law enforcement leaders considered and denied the secretary of state’s application for funding for the coming fiscal year.
“There is a clear threat to Colorado Department of State (CDOS) staff, including the Secretary of State,” Beall wrote in a letter to the Colorado Department of Public Safety, which oversees the grant. In May, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Beall made a presentation to the board that determines grant recipients. The office requested $396,000 to pay contractors to monitor social media for threats and to enhance physical security for the secretary of state’s office staff and county clerks through September 2023. Department of Justice would allow funding through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program to be used by state and local election offices to combat threats, they submitted an application in March. So when the Colorado secretary of state’s office learned early this year that the U.S. Colorado’s election officials, like so many across the country, faced a surge of violent threats after the 2020 election.įederal authorities are prosecuting a man who pled guilty to threatening a Colorado election official on Instagram, where he wrote: “Do you feel safe? You shouldn’t.” And Colorado police arrested a man accused of calling Secretary of State Jena Griswold and saying that “the angel of death is coming for her.”
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