They aren’t marching in the streets but they’re threatening election workers to do their bidding.
This is horrific and yet it’s sanctioned by virtually every Republican official:
Businessman Robert Beadles claimed he had found evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Then he went on the attack, targeting a 48-year-old woman who runs elections in Nevada’s Washoe County.
“Now, let’s talk about treason. That’s right, treason,” Beadles told a Feb. 22 county commissioners’ meeting in Washoe, the second-largest county in this election battleground state. The Republican activist falsely accused the registrar of voters, Deanna Spikula, of counting fraudulent votes and told commissioners to “either fire her or lock her up.”
After the meeting, Spikula’s office was flooded with hostile and harassing calls from people convinced she was part of a conspiracy to rig the election against former U.S. President Donald Trump. On March 2, a caller threatened to bring 100 people to the county building to “put this to bed today.” Spikula, under severe stress, stopped coming into the office. A post on Beadles’ website said she was “rumored to be in rehab.” That was false, she said; she was at home, working on a state elections manual.
By late June, fearing for her family’s safety, she’d had enough and submitted her resignation.
Beadles’ campaign in Washoe is part of a wave of efforts by pro-Trump activists to gain control of voting administration by replacing county government leaders with election conspiracy theorists. Some are spending big money. In Nevada, Beadles has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns targeting opponents of Trump’s false rigged-election claims and backing Republicans who believe them.
The goal: to profoundly change how U.S. elections are run. Right-wing activists want to eliminate voting machines and return to hand-counting of paper ballots, which experts say would make elections more prone to fraud, not less. Trump allies have also targeted the ballot drop boxes and mail-in voting that Democrats embraced in the 2020 election.
Last year, as documented by Reuters, U.S. election officials endured an onslaught of intimidation by Trump’s supporters after the 2020 election. This year, they’re facing well-funded campaigns such as the one in Washoe. Officials who resist baseless stolen-election claims have faced accusations of treason or other crimes.
Reuters identified 44 counties in 15 states where local officials have faced efforts to change rules on voting since the 2020 election. All of them were led by Trump loyalists or Republican Party activists driven by false voter-fraud theories.
The campaigns are having impact. In Washoe, Beadles’ attacks helped drive out Spikula. Ten of Nevada’s 17 counties, including Washoe, have seen their top election official resign, retire or decline to seek re-election since the 2020 vote, which the state government calls a drastic exodus. Four of the officials told Reuters that harassment or sustained efforts to challenge the 2020 election results were among their reasons for leaving.
Beadles told Reuters in an interview that he is only seeking to have “a fair and free election,” regardless of who wins. He called it “absurd” to suggest that he is responsible for any threats or intimidation.
“I’ve never called for violence; I’ve simply asked questions,” Beadles said. “I just want to make sure our votes count, period. Correctly. Legitimately.”
“You just feel like you’re fighting for your life.”Former Washoe County election official Deanna Spikula, describing threats from election deniers.
Other states also report mass departures of election staffers, according to Reuters interviews with election officials in 13 states. In Pennsylvania, more than 50 county election directors or assistant directors have left in the state’s 67 counties since the 2020 vote. In South Carolina’s 46 counties, 22 election directors have left office. And 30% of Texas election officials have exited over that same time period; in one county, the entire elections staff resigned. Many officials in those states said threats, harassment and incessant voter-fraud claims were driving factors in the resignations.
American elections are administered locally, and there is no authoritative nationwide count of resignations by election officials and staffers.
Spikula said she and her family faced escalating threats, including someone following her home and strangers calling her husband’s cell phone.
“You just feel like you’re fighting for your life,” she said.
These are nothing less than fascist intimidation tactics. I know that many people are brainwashed into believing these election workers are part of the Deep State that’s bent on destroying Donald Trump and all they hold dear, but I still find it shocking that so many other Americans may know this is a problem but need to incoherently protest the high gas prices by voting to empower the people who are doing this.
The old Winston Churchill saying “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others” is sadly correct. It depends upon people being at least somewhat rational. But what’s the alternative?