In September, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, told CBS News: “We’re daily receiving threats, whether it’s through voicemails, emails, social media or in person,” including to her personally, “and it’s escalating. . . . They’re all rooted in lies and misinformation, which is always disappointing and sad, but at the same time, it’s real.” CBS also interviewed Kim Wyman, a top election official at the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security (CISA), who said that she’s received threats like “we’re going to hang you” and “I hope somebody puts a bullet in your head.” Another CISA elections official, Cait Conley, told VOA that the set of security concerns surrounding this year’s election represent the “most complex threat landscape yet.”
Officials warn that other public servants are getting a growing number of threats, too, including law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and elected officials and candidates. Bill Gates—not the one you’re thinking of, but someone with the same name, a Republican member of the board of supervisors for Arizona’s Maricopa County—has spoken publicly about his need for professional therapy to deal with the threats. He told CBS: “This has unfortunately become a way of life, and we’ve invested as a board in metal detectors, in fencing, in cameras. . . . I wish we didn’t have to do this, but we do.” Republican Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for Georgia’s office of secretary of state, who rose to fame for his press conferences countering Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election in Georgia, similarly said that “the biggest thing I worry about” in 2024 “is the possibility of violence by people who lose.” Sterling explained that poll supervisors in his state “are given a direct line to report trouble,” such as “is it somebody yelling at people in the parking lot or is it somebody with a gun?”
