...this in the United States as reported in the Guardian.
More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a justice department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote.
Government employees are being bombarded with threats even in normally quiet periods between elections, secretaries of state and experts warn. Some point to Donald Trump and his allies repeatedly and falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen and spreading conspiracy theories about election workers. Experts fear the 2024 election could be worse and want the justice department to do more to protect election workers.
The justice department had created the taskforce in 2021 led by its public integrity section, which investigates election crimes. John Keller, the unit's second in command, said in an interview with the Associated Press the department hoped its prosecutions would deter others from threatening election workers.
Already:
More people are expected to plead guilty on Thursday to threatening election workers in Arizona and Georgia.
The unit has filed 14 cases and two have resulted in years-long prison sentences, including a two-and-a-half-year sentence for an Iowa man charged with leaving a message threatening to "lynch" and "hang" an Arizona election official.
This seems like a sensible way forward. These are threats against workers simply doing their job. Albeit in the hyper-partisan context of the US (and with a Republican Party that seems semi-detached in its acceptance of the rule of law) one wonders what happens if there is a change of government.
But I wondered, have we seen similar in the Free State/Éire/Republic at any time since its foundation?
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