Election officials brace for disruptions as midterms loom
As early voting is underway in Georgia’s first general election since the razor-thin 2020 presidential contest, law enforcement and election officials are watching for disruptions by radicalized individuals feeding off conspiracy theories and disproven allegations of fraud.
This year’s election could be at risk of threats, interference and misinformation that has been building over the past two years since the proliferation of stolen election claims by former President Donald Trump and his supporters has taken hold, experts say.
“We’re definitely concerned and prepared,” said Ben Popp, a researcher for the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.
Popp tracks extremist groups in the Southeast and said there are reasons to think the period leading up to and immediately following the midterm election could be disruptive. How and where that disruption might occur is more difficult to predict, he said.
“It’s largely election fraud narratives,” he said. “We haven’t really seen specific threats toward specific election workers, but the generalized rhetoric is there.”
Popp said the largest source of concern does not come from extremist groups like the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers or fringe political ideologies like neo-Nazism. Instead, the growing concern has been individuals spurred to action by online far-right influencers warning a grand conspiracy is afoot by Democrats to steal the election, he said.
State and federal officials are preparing to respond to tactics aimed at election workers and voters. On Oct. 12, the FBI issued a warning that it would prioritize investigations into threats made against election workers. And Wednesday Ryan Buchanan, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, appointed one of his assistants to spearhead the handling of complaints regarding the election.
“Every citizen must be able to vote without interference or discrimination and to have that vote counted in a fair and free election,” Buchanan said. “Similarly, election officials and staff must be able to serve without being subject to unlawful threats of violence.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office issued guidance this month to county election officials clarifying that a voter’s eligibility cannot be challenged at the polls and must be in writing. Only then can county election officials review the challenge and determine if probable cause exists to investigate further, the bulletin states.
Raffensperger’s office also set up a text message line for poll workers to report problems by sending a five-digit number that relays information to county and state election officials working closely with law enforcement to respond.
“We want to ensure that we keep polling places safe, and I think this shows our concern. We’re placing a premium on election security,” Raffensperger said. “We want to protect our election workers because they’re the true heroes of democracy.”
Local election officials have already seen the effect disinformation is having.
“We have gotten a lot of folks showing up to make public comments and peppering us with emails. A lot of it is rooted in conspiracy theories, so that does concern me,” said Dele Lowman Smith, chairwoman for the DeKalb County elections board. “As it persists, it starts to get a hold and people begin accepting it as truth.”
‘A HOSTILE ATTITUDE’
This month, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who spearheaded the “Stop the Steal” movement after the 2020 presidential election, issued a call to the listeners of his internet talk show to volunteer as poll workers and poll watchers during the midterms. In an interview on Bannon’s show, Trump attorney Cleta Mitchell named DeKalb County as a location where volunteers were needed.
“This is about settling this,” Bannon said, suggesting, without evidence, that votes might be cast by noncitizens and that other democratic safeguards were not in place. He urged challenges to residency and signature verification on individual ballots.
“We want Republicans to have steely resolve when they get in the room, to not back down,” he said.
While volunteering to be a poll watcher is a traditional civic activity for Republicans and Democrats alike, Madeline Peltz of the left-wing watchdog group Media Matters for America said the context of the callout matters. Bannon has continued circulating conspiracy theories about the previous election in the runup to the midterms, she said.
The call to members of his audience to volunteer represents “a sort of hostile attitude towards voting, rather than one that is meant to sort of facilitate the smooth process of democracy,” Peltz said.
Some of the anxiety around the election has been fueled by the debunked documentary “2000 Mules,” which claimed a virtual army of people fraudulently stuffed ballot drop boxes with fake presidential ballots in Georgia and elsewhere. Despite widespread criticism of its methods and conclusions, “2000 Mules” and the rhetoric behind the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was fraudulent is having an effect on the election process.