Law enforcement on alert for Election Day threats, new report says

(NEW YORK) — Election workers across the country are being bombarded with threats, and law enforcement agencies nationwide are dedicating “substantial resources” to ensure public safety during the election, according to a new threat assessment obtained by ABC News.

The document, transmitted Monday by the NYPD Intelligence Bureau, encapsulates the full picture of Election Day threats, including the risk of physical violence and disinformation generated by foreign governments. Potential targets include “election personnel and government officials, campaign offices, as well as voting-related sites, infrastructure, and technology,” the assessment said.

“Individuals may employ a variety of tactics that could include physical attacks, threats of violence, delivery of suspicious packages, swatting, arson, and property destruction, harassment, as well as cyberattacks and mis/dis/mal-information campaigns,” the assessment also said.

The FBI has received more than 2,000 threats to election workers and “opened at least 100 investigations into these unlawful actions” as of April, the assessment said, citing a September report by the U.S. Department of Justice, with more than 20 people charged.

In the last week alone, multiple individuals in separate states have faced charges related to threats against election officials, according to the assessment:

• Teak Brockbank, 45, of Colorado, pleaded guilty to transmitting interstate threats after he made a series of online threats against election officials in Colorado and Arizona, a judge in Colorado, and federal law enforcement agents.
• Richard Glenn Kantwill, 61, of Tampa, allegedly made threats against an election official.
• John Pollard, 62, of Philadelphia, allegedly threatened to kill a state party representative who was recruiting poll watchers online.

Threats and hostile rhetoric against election officials have proliferated online, according to the assessment:

• Last month, the NYPD Intelligence Bureau found users on several platforms that accused Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of attempting to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, and called for his execution.
• A user in an online extremist messaging channel called for a “national militia for the defense of the Republic” to ensure “election integrity.”
• In September, suspicious packages containing powder were sent to secretaries of state and state election offices in at least 15 states.

“Each state runs elections a little bit differently but the commonalities across all the states are that election officials are professional, they follow the laws of their state, and the process is transparent,” Benjamin Hovland, chairman of the bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission, told ABC News.