For ads-free news, click here.
From Fox News: The Justice Department is deploying district elections officers across the nation ahead of Election Day to ensure poll workers can “do their jobs free from threats and intimidation.”
The elections officers are expected to work in coordination with the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, which was created in June 2021 by Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco to address alleged violence against election workers.
The task force, since its inception, has been engaging with the election community and state and local law enforcement to assess allegations and reports of threats against election workers, according to the Justice Department. The task force also partners with FBI field offices and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the U.S.
This week, U.S. attorneys offices announced their district elections officers, which are selected each election cycle, to coordinate with the Elections Threats Task Force and federal, state and local law enforcement on Election Day. The coordination will ensure reports on the ground regarding any election-related complaints are coordinated with appropriate authorities, officials said.
The Biden administration’s Justice Department announced in a press release Monday morning:
The Department of Justice has an important role in deterring and combatting discrimination and intimidation at the polls, threats of any kind directed at election officials and poll workers, and election fraud. The Department will address these violations wherever they occur. The Department’s 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.
Federal law protects against such crimes as threatening violence against election officials or staff, intimidating or bribing voters, buying and selling votes, impersonating voters, altering vote tallies, stuffing ballot boxes, and marking ballots for voters against their wishes or without their input. It also contains special protections for the rights of voters, and provides that they can vote free from interference, including intimidation, and other acts designed to prevent or discourage people from voting or voting for the candidate of their choice. The Voting Rights Act protects the right of voters to mark their own ballot or to be assisted by a person of their choice (where voters need assistance because of disability or inability to read or write in English).
The Justice Department has been rolling out posts on social media, in a veiled threat against anyone who might dare question an election official.
On Friday, the DOJ posted a short video and captioned it, “What to do if an elected official receives a threat?”
Justice Briefs: #ElectionThreats
What to do if an elected official receives a threat? pic.twitter.com/PTCjZS5su1
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) October 18, 2024
Another video on Thursday is captioned, “When does free speech cross the line into criminal conduct?”
Justice Briefs: #ElectionThreats
When does free speech cross the line into criminal conduct?
Watch the rest of the #JusticeBriefs conversation at https://t.co/fS6vPZbbKh pic.twitter.com/YseghUefrc
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) October 17, 2024
The video clips are all taken from a longer video released on YouTube back in March.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL DML NEWS APP READERS ABOUT COMMENTS ON ARTICLES:
PLEASE ALLOW A FEW MINUTES FOR YOUR COMMENTS TO APPEAR, as the feature on our website that automatically approves comments is currently down. We are hoping it will be fixed soon, but it is out of our control. We are making every effort to come in every few minutes and manually push all pending comments out. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your patience and understanding until this matter is resolved. Please DO continue posting your comments. Your interaction and feedback is still very important to us. As usual, comments calling for violence or death toward any individual are not permitted.
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.