Amid ‘culture of harassment and violence,’ Minnesota poll workers get new protections

Published 1:58 pm Thursday, August 1, 2024

“There has been sort of this increasing level of this kind of culture of harassment and violence, intimidation, kind of across the board, but especially around our elections administration,” said Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL-Plymouth.

Added Westlin, in an interview with MPR News, “We have seen a reduction in the folks who are willing to continue to serve. And so by doing this, we are certainly taking steps to try to ensure that folks who do this work feel safe.”

Since the 2020 presidential election, these workers nationwide have dealt with threats, intimidation, harassment and even legal charges fueled by former President Donald Trump’s false rhetoric of rigged elections.

In early 2023, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon urged lawmakers to codify protections for the thousands serving as election judges, which the Legislature did in both 2023 and 2024.

Last June’s new law made it illegal to intimidate elections workers, interfere with election administration, bar a worker from getting to the polls, tamper with voting equipment and ballot boxes, access the statewide voter registration system without authorization and disseminate an election official’s personal information. As of Aug. 1, the definition of personal information expanded to include an official’s phone number, personal email address, home ownership information and names and pictures of minor children.

“We expanded doxxing protections in particular,” Westlin said. “It’s just to ensure that the folks who are administering our elections, including those who volunteer as election judges, are protected and that we’re doing what we can to ensure that they can do their jobs.”

Also new: Swatting, or making phony 911 calls saying there’s a serious crime at person’s home, was upgraded from a gross misdemeanor to a felony on Aug. 1.

Westlin said swatting incidents have been on the rise across the country, and lawmakers wanted to “take that seriously.”

While she hasn’t dealt with doxxing or swatting firsthand, Westlin said she’s seen her colleagues go through it.

“I do think that women candidates and women elected officials seem to be particularly targeted, especially on social media. It’s really pretty vicious,” she said. “We want to make sure … whether they are volunteer election judges from our communities and neighborhoods all the way up to people who may run for office, that everybody is participating in our democracy without the threat of intimidation, without the fear that someone is going to harm them.”