"VOTE DONT WORK. NEXT TIME BULLETS."
Elections are under attack.
Conspiracies. Complaints. Harassment. Threats.
It happened here, too, in Southern Oregon.
On November 24, three weeks after the 2020 election, Jackson County Clerk noticed something painted on the asphalt of the parking lot across from the Elections Division. Vandals left a five gallon paint bucket, a paint brush, and these words: "VOTE DONT WORK. NEXT TIME BULLETS.”
County Clerk Christine Walker said, "This incident was alarming and a concern to all staff and myself." She said she reported it to the County Sheriff, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and Oregon's Secretary of State. It was one more incident in a pattern of harassment and attacks on elections nationwide. "As discussed with colleagues around the country, we are not alone in receiving threatening/intimidating messages. This behavior is a very disturbing trend."
Walker said she understood the value of getting the information about harassment in front of the public, but wanted to do it "without sensationalizing incidents such as this [and] without empowering or validating the behaviors."
She said her hope was that by being transparent about the procedures within her election office people would be given confidence in election security. She wished that voters concerned about election integrity would "reach out and get the fact from the trusted source, your local election office, not from a random social media posting or other online source."
At no point in a 70-minute interview did Walker ever utter the word "Trump" nor refer to him even indirectly. Walker is studiously careful not to appear partisan, even to the point of not pointing out the obvious and consequential fact that the former president continues to insist that the 2020 election was subject to massive fraud in multiple states. Trump influences opinions. Polls of Republican voters indicate that a majority agree with Trump.
Walker returned from an international conference of election officials last week where she heard an earful of comments from her peers around the country. Election results can be checked, rechecked, counted, recounted, and audited, and still election departments nationwide face wild accusations of fraud.
I heard the same dialogue from other election officials as we are experiencing here in Oregon--people with suspicions of fraud, miscounts, faked ballots, forgeries, stuffed ballot boxes, etc. Peers discussed issues such as how people around the country with no knowledge of how elections are conducted are making guesses and suppositions, even criminal accusations. The most common theme was concerning just how much misinformation and disinformation is circulating on social media and other media. Many jurisdictions, but not all, are similar to Jackson County, having paper ballots that provide physical evidence of ballots cast, subject to audit and re-counts. Election officials agree that our electorate are being misinformed of just how many safeguards there are at every step in conducting elections--so they assume the worst-case scenario.
What I do know: The election in Jackson County, Oregon was fair and accurate and can stand up to close scrutiny. Fellow election officials gave me the same response and are confident elections within their jurisdictions were the same.
Who painted the "VOTE DON'T WORK. NEXT TIME BULLETS" on the pavement? The vandals have not been apprehended. The words are part of a bigger story of people influenced by political leaders to believe that elections and election officials cannot be trusted, that fraud is rampant, and that the will of the people can be expressed by "patriots" using direct action that includes threats of violence.
On January 6 then-President Trump addressed the "Stop the Steal" rally and urged people to go to the Capitol and insist that the Congress and Vice President reverse the election. He said,
We won it by a landslide. This was not a close election. . . It's a disgrace. There's never been anything like that. You can take third world countries just take a look take third world countries their elections are more honest than what we have been going through in this country. It's a disgrace. It's a disgrace. . . . We will not let them silence your voices. We're not going to let it happen. Not going to let it happen.
The crowd broke into a chant:
Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump.
Trump said, "Thank you."