Nation needs poll workers; they need protection

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Trey Grayson / Bloomberg Opinion

Election officials used to toil in relative obscurity. Poll workers put in long, intense hours around voting time, filling low-paid bureaucratic roles that were poorly understood by the public they served.

But since 2020, that world has turned upside down. Today, many election workers are the subject of harassment, threats and even acts of violence. Some have had to flee their homes or have been assaulted. One said it’s “like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

The sudden vitriol stems from the Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, which has metastasized in voting precincts nationwide. The result is as predictable as it is disturbing: all across the country, election workers are quitting in record numbers. In my own home state of Kentucky — hardly a battleground — about 20 percent of all county clerks opted to retire rather than run for reelection last year.

Which raises an urgent question for 2024: Who is going to be left to work the elections?

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-nation-needs-poll-workers-they-need-protection/

[70sEraVet]

1. We need to extend the same protections we have for federal law enforcement officials!

18 U.S. Code § 1114 - Protection of officers and employees of the United States
U.S. Code

(a)In General.—Whoever kills or attempts to kill any officer or employee of the United States or of any agency in any branch of the United States Government (including any member of the uniformed services) while such officer or employee is engaged in or on account of the performance of official duties, or any person assisting such an officer or employee in the performance of such duties or on account of that assistance, shall be punished—
(1)in the case of murder, as provided under section 1111;
(2)in the case of manslaughter, as provided under section 1112; or
(3)in the case of attempted murder or manslaughter, as provided in section 1113.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1114