Senator Wyden, colleagues urge DOJ to protect election workers in upcoming election

WASHINGTON (KTVZ) -- Senator Ron Wyden said Thursday that he and Senate colleagues are urging the U.S. Department of Justice to take further action to counter threats targeting election workers ahead of the upcoming election.

“We write to express serious concern about ongoing and persistent threats against election workers and to call on the Department of Justice to take additional steps to protect election officials, workers, and volunteers as we approach the election in November,” the senators wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. 

“In recent years, we have seen an ongoing barrage of threats and abusive conduct targeting election workers, and, as noted in the Department’s Election Threats Task Force briefing in May, these threats to our public servants ‘endanger our democracy itself.’”

“We appreciate the steps that the Department has taken to address these concerning threats, including establishing the Election Threats Task Force and working to raise awareness of federal resources, but more must be done to counter these persistent threats and ensure that election workers can do their jobs,” the senators continued. “It is for these reasons that we urge the Department to continue to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of threats against election workers, including by allocating sufficient resources to meet these threats head on.”

From 2021 to 2022, the Department of Justice Election Threats Task Force reviewed more than 1,000 cases that election workers reported as hostile or harassing, and found that 11 percent of the cases met the threshold for a federal criminal investigation.

Wyden has joined Senate colleagues as an original cosponsor of the Preventing Election Subversion Act, legislation that would make it a crime to intimidate, threaten, coerce, or harass an election worker or to release any personally identifying information of election workers or their families.

Wyden is also an original cosponsor of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which includes protections for election workers and election infrastructure, such as polling places and election offices.

The letter was led by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Dick Durbin (D- Ill.). In addition to Wyden, the letter was also signed by Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), , Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Angus King (I-Maine). 

The full text of the letter is here.