NC GOP leader threatened to fire election official if he wasn't given illegal access to voting machi

[Nevilledog]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-local-election-chief-threatened-by-republican-leader-seeking-illegal-2022-04-23/




April 23 (Reuters) - A local Republican Party leader in North Carolina threatened to get a county elections director fired or have her pay cut unless she helped him gain illegal access to voting equipment, the state elections board told Reuters.

The party official, William Keith Senter, sought evidence to support false conspiracy theories alleging the 2020 election was rigged against former U.S. President Donald Trump. The previously unreported incident is part of a national effort by Trump supporters to audit voting systems to bolster the baseless stolen-election claims.

Senter, chair of the Surry County Republican Party, told elections director Michella Huff that he would ensure she lost her job if she refused his demand to access the county's vote tabulators, the North Carolina State Board of Elections said in written responses to questions from Reuters. Senter was "aggressive, threatening, and hostile," in two meetings with Huff, the state elections board said, citing witness accounts.

Senter did not respond to requests for comment.

Huff, who refused Senter's demands, was disturbed by the incident of political intimidation. Such threats have become common nationwide since the 2020 election. Reuters has documented more than 900 threatening or hostile messages aimed at election officials in a series of investigative reports.

*snip*

[struggle4progress]

1. NC GS 14-118.4. Extortion.

Any person who threatens or communicates a threat or threats to another with the intention thereby wrongfully to obtain anything of value or any acquittance, advantage, or immunity is guilty of extortion and such person shall be punished as a Class F felon.

https://www.ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_14/gs_14-118.4.html

[0rganism]

2. how widespread is this activity? how commonplace has it become?

how many states? how many precincts? we hear about this one, but something tells me this is not an anomaly; rather, like the recent "Cyberninjas" shenanigans in AZ, it seems like an instance of a larger strategy to demolish democracy from within.

[Midnight Writer]

5. Exactly. You've got to figure those incidents where they succeeded are not reported.

[TeamProg]

3. F'ers !! n/t

[gab13by13]

4. 2 or 3 months ago I watched Merrick Garland,

go before a Senate committee. He promised to work with local law enforcement to ensure that school board members, and election workers aren't harassed. He needs to write another stern letter, the one he wrote to the Cyber Ninjas didn't work.

What happened in NC also is a violation of Federal law.

[Bev54]

6. Anyone notice it is often women who have stood up to

these bullies. Is it because they bully more women or is it more men capitulate?