Credit: Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post / Getty and Joe Raedle / Getty
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, supported the unsuccessful effort to block former President Donald Trump from her state’s ballot — on the grounds that he had engaged in “insurrection” by inciting the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In return, she received an escalating torrent of abuse and violent threats.
In the seven months since Colorado residents first sued the state to keep Trump off the ballot, bringing Griswold in as a co-defendant, the number of serious threats leveled against Griswold increased more than 600 percent, according to data her office provided to Rolling Stone. The threats directed at Griswold spiked amid the high-profile Colorado court case designed to block Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment, which bars insurrectionists from holding office — an effort that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier […]
In my opinion the most important part of the article is left until the end: ““Many who are threatening [officials] are walking the line to avoid accountability,” Griswold notes, but she says the files released by her office contain “prosecutable threats.” She argues law enforcement and prosecutors are not taking the threats against secretaries of state and election workers seriously.
“There has been a failure to adequately protect the secretaries of state and election officials who are at the front lines of protecting our democracy, and adequately prosecute the people who are trying to intimidate us out of our jobs,” Griswold says.”
We cannot have a functioning Republic if officials, while conducting their public duties, are threatened and law enforcement does not act. The message must be made clear that this is unacceptable and will be prosecuted. To do anything less is to invite violence into the public sphere.