COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) 鈥 Tonya Wichman has overseen elections in a rural Ohio county for eight years and hasn鈥檛 experienced any significant problems with voting or counting the ballots. But that doesn't mean no big worries at all.
What does concern her is the frequent harassment, intimidation and even physical threats she and her staff have been receiving since the 2020 election. It got so bad ahead of the 2022 midterms that her staff got police protection when leaving or coming to the office.
That鈥檚 why she was interested in this week of former President Donald Trump and in an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results . Among many charges, the indictment names several people accused of a harassment campaign that led to death threats against two Atlanta election workers.
It marks the highest-profile effort yet to hold people accountable for , many of whom have after facing political pressure or threats from those who the 2020 was rigged.
鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to know that people are listening,鈥 said Wichman, a Republican who is the election director in Defiance County, where Trump won over 67% of the vote in 2020.
鈥淲e understand the First Amendment and the right to free speech, but harassing poll workers and harassing election officials, intimidating their families, it鈥檚 just wearing down on people and causing good people to leave their jobs," she said. "It鈥檚 been unsettling across the country.鈥
Election worker intimidation is one key element of the . Tuesday's indictment alleges that several of the defendants falsely accused Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman of committing election crimes and says some defendants traveled from out of state to harass and intimidate her.
The indictment charges Trump with making false statements and writings in claims he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other state election officials on Jan. 2, 2021 鈥 including that up to 300,000 ballots 鈥渨ere dropped mysteriously into the rolls," that more than 4,500 people voted who weren鈥檛 on registration lists and that Freeman was a 鈥減rofessional vote scammer.鈥
Rudy Giuliani, a close Trump adviser at the time in the Georgia case, is accused of making several false claims about the vote-counting process at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Prosecutors say he falsely claimed that county election workers stationed there had kicked out observers and then 鈥渨ent about their dirty, crooked business,鈥 illegally counting as many as 24,000 ballots. He also said three election workers 鈥 Freeman, her daughter Wandrea 鈥淪haye鈥 Moss and an unidentified man 鈥 were passing around USB ports 鈥渁s if they鈥檙e vials of heroin or cocaine鈥 to infiltrate Dominion voting machines.
Three other defendants in the Georgia case 鈥 Harrison William Prescott Floyd, Trevian C. Kutti and Stephen Cliffgard Lee 鈥 were charged with solicitation of false statements and writings and with influencing witnesses related to the harassment of Freeman, who was falsely accused by Trump and others of committing fraud.
It was not immediately clear who was representing any of the three.
Edward B. Foley, director of election law at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law, said the Georgia charges on top of the against Trump and a are beginning to send a message.
鈥淭here was a sense that there was a free-for-all, that folks could attack the election with impunity and could attack particular individuals with impunity,鈥 he said. 鈥淵ou've got to believe that all of these indictments 鈥 however they end up in trial, and with convictions or not 鈥 have changed the legal landscape and are going to cause people to think twice about this kind of behavior.鈥
Several other cases involving have drawn attention in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a who threatened election officials in Arizona and called for a mass shooting of poll workers was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in federal prison.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an indictment against a 37-year-old Indiana man accused of threatening a Michigan election official. The target of that call was Tina Barton, a Republican who is the elections clerk in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills.
She said she was relieved when charges were finally filed in her case 鈥 three years after she received a voice mail with an expletive-laced message threatening to kill her and accusing her of fraud in the 2020 election: 鈥淕uess what, you鈥檙e gonna pay for it. You will pay for it,鈥 the caller said, according to court documents.
In the years since then, Barton said she feared for her own safety and that of her family.
鈥淭he political atmosphere is so charged on both sides right now that it鈥檚 tough to have any conversation around anything along those lines. Including something that is an actual threat to someone鈥檚 life,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t becomes isolating.鈥
The call that led to the indictment was just one of many she received in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election, but the others were not considered 鈥渢rue threats鈥 under the high bar set by federal law. Only an intent to cause immediate harm is considered a crime 鈥 something that鈥檚 meant to protect free speech but can be little comfort to those targeted for harassment.
A Justice Department Election formed in June 2021 has reviewed more than 2,000 harassing or threatening communications to election workers. Federal prosecutors have filed federal criminal charges in more than a dozen of those cases, including the case involving the Texas man.
In Georgia, the indictment alleges that Floyd recruited Kutti, who flew to Atlanta from Chicago on Jan. 4, 2021, to make contact with Freeman. Lee, the indictment says, communicated with Floyd by phone. The indictment says Kutti, Floyd and Lee all broke the law by 鈥渒nowingly and unlawfully engaging in misleading conduct toward Ruby Freeman ... by stating that she needed protection and by purporting to offer her help, with intent to influence her testimony in an official proceeding in Fulton County, Georgia.鈥
Freeman and her daughter that Trump and his allies latched onto surveillance footage from November 2020 to accuse both women of committing voter fraud 鈥 allegations that were quickly debunked, yet spread widely across conservative media. Both women faced death threats for several months after the election.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold has tried to address the threats through legislation.
She worked with state lawmakers last year on a bill that establishes election workers as a protected class against doxing 鈥 the release online of someone鈥檚 personal information. It makes the practice a misdemeanor and allows election workers to remove their personal information from online records. It also makes threatening an election official a misdemeanor under state law.
Colorado is one of 12 states to pass , either by shielding their personal information, increasing penalties for harassment or both, according to data gathered by the nonprofit Voting Rights Lab.
鈥淭here are many states that do not take threats to election officials, who are largely women, seriously enough,鈥 Griswold said, noting that she continues to face a steady stream of threats even during lulls in election activity. 鈥淗ands down, this has been the hardest part of my job.鈥
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Associated Press writers Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta and Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
