[continued from previous message]   
      
   speech and crossing into the territory of a prosecutable threat.   
      
   The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment on specific ongoing   
   investigations but said it has opened dozens of cases nationwide involving   
   threats to election workers. Eight people face federal charges for   
   threats, including two who targeted Maricopa County officials.   
      
   DOJ spokesperson Joshua Stueve said that while the “overwhelming majority”   
   of complaints the agency receives “do not include a threat of unlawful   
   violence,” he said the messages are “often hostile, harassing, and   
   abusive” towards election officials and their staff. “They deserve   
   better,” Stueve said.   
      
   ONLINE INSPIRATION   
      
   Misinformation on right-wing websites and social media fueled much of the   
   hostility towards election staff, according to the internal messages among   
   Maricopa officials.   
      
   On July 31, the Gateway Pundit, a pro-Trump website with a history of   
   publishing false stories, reported that a Maricopa County election   
   official allowed a staff technician to gain unauthorized access to a   
   computer server room, where he deleted 2020 election data that was set to   
   be audited. The website published the names and photos of the official and   
   the tech; readers responded with threats against both.   
      
   “Until we start hanging these evil doers nothing will change,” one reader   
   wrote in the Gateway Pundit’s comment section. Another suggested death for   
   the computer tech identified in the story: “hang that crook from (the)   
   closest tree so people can see what happens to traitors.”   
      
   The tech hadn’t deleted anything, according to a Maricopa spokesperson.   
   The county election director had instructed him to shut down the server   
   for delivery to the Arizona State Senate in response to a subpoena. A   
   review of server records confirmed nothing was deleted, the spokesperson   
   told Reuters, and all data from the 2020 election had been archived and   
   preserved months earlier.   
      
   Election employees singled out in Gateway Pundit stories “tend to see a   
   surge in being targeted” for threats and harassing messages, Moore, the   
   county’s information security officer, said in a Nov. 18, 2021, email to   
   the FBI. Those stories, he added, are often “flagrantly inaccurate.” A   
   Reuters investigation published last December found the Gateway Pundit   
   cited in more than 100 threatening and hostile communications directed at   
   25 election workers in the year after the 2020 election.   
      
   Other right-wing news outlets and commentators elicited similar hostile   
   comments in response to their allegations against Maricopa officials. In   
   August, right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk posted a comment in Telegram   
   accusing Richer, the county recorder, and “his cronies” of making   
   Arizona’s elections “a Third-World circus.”   
      
   “When do we start hanging these people for treason?” one reader commented.   
   Another simply added, “Kill them.”   
      
   The Gateway Pundit and Kirk did not respond to requests for comment.   
      
   After a security assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in   
   late 2021, Maricopa strengthened doors, added shatterproof film on windows   
   and bought more first aid kits, according to the documents.   
      
   But the harassment has continued.   
      
   “This goes beyond just onsite security. It is a mental health issue,”   
   Jarrett, the county elections director, wrote in an email to county   
   officials two days after the primary.   
      
   “I very much respect freedom of speech and welcome public scrutiny,”   
   Jarrett added. “However, allowing this predatory activity to occur is   
   damaging and threatening the viability of the elections department.”   
      
   (Reporting by Linda So, Peter Eisler and Jason Szep; Editing by Suzanne   
   Goldenberg)   
      
   https://sports.yahoo.com/kill-them-arizona-election-workers-110418686.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)