{"id":9371,"date":"2021-10-05T20:19:11","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T20:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&#038;p=9371"},"modified":"2021-10-05T20:19:13","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T20:19:13","slug":"sen-ossoff-introduces-voting-rights-legislation-to-protect-election-workers-polling-places-from-rising-threats","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-introduces-voting-rights-legislation-to-protect-election-workers-polling-places-from-rising-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Ossoff Introduces Voting Rights Legislation to Protect Election Workers, Polling Places from Rising Threats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>\u201cElection Worker and Polling Place Protection Act\u201dwould expand and strengthen protections for election workers and election infrastructure<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Washington, D.C. \u2014<\/strong>&nbsp;U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is working to protect election workers from threats of harassment and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His new voting rights legislation, the&nbsp;<em>Election Worker and Polling Place Protection Act<\/em>,would help protect election workers and their families from threats of harm not only to themselves, but also to their property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bill would also prohibit intentional damage to election infrastructure, such as polling places and tabulation centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThreats of violence targeting election officials and polling places are threats against our Constitution and the right to vote,\u201d&nbsp;<strong>Sen. Ossoff said.<\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cAt this moment of peril for our democracy, my bill will strengthen Federal laws protecting election workers and polling places from violent threats and acts of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Georgia, several top election officials, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his family,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/06\/11\/politics\/georgia-raffensperger-family-death-threats-election\/index.html\">received death threats<\/a>&nbsp;before and after the 2020 General Election, prompting top state election officials to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/biden-transition-updates\/2020\/12\/01\/940961602\/someones-going-to-get-killed-ga-official-blasts-gop-silence-on-election-threats\">plead<\/a>&nbsp;for the threats of violence to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jordan Fuchs, Georgia\u2019s Deputy Secretary of State, told&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/threats-sparked-disinformation-spark-real-world-violence-georgia\/story?id=74868491\">ABC News<\/a>&nbsp;after the election that Fulton County in Georgia received multiple bomb threats at polling locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the same reporting, an election worker in Atlanta was forced to go into hiding after a now-debunked video went viral online, falsely claiming he was disregarding votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A&nbsp;<em>Reuters&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/investigates\/special-report\/usa-trump-georgia-threats\/\">special report<\/a>&nbsp;found disturbing cases of violent threats toward election officials on the rise nationwide, fueled by the \u201cBig Lie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These threats are driving some county officials who run elections to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/election-officials-retire-trump-2020-threats-misinformation-3b810d8b3b3adee2ca409689788b863f\">quit or retire early<\/a>, leading to vacancies in these critical positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/One-Pager-Election-Worker-Protection.pdf\">Click here<\/a>&nbsp;for a one-pager about the&nbsp;<em>Election Worker and Polling Place Protection Act.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ALB21G07-FINAL1.pdf\">Click here<\/a>&nbsp;to read the&nbsp;<em>Election Worker and Polling Place Protection Act.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cElection Worker and Polling Place Protection Act\u201dwould expand and strengthen protections for election workers and election infrastructure Washington, D.C. \u2014&nbsp;U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is working to protect election workers from threats of harassment and violence. His new voting rights legislation, the&nbsp;Election Worker and Polling Place Protection Act,would help protect election workers and their families from [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9371","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/9371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/9371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9373,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/9371\/revisions\/9373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}