A man in a white van recently circled an early voting site in Loxahatchee, Florida, verbally attacking a group of people campaigning outside with antisemitic and racist slurs. In a separate incident, an individual in Orangeburg, South Carolina, engaged in a physical altercation with election workers after being asked to remove a hat supporting Trump. Additionally, a man was arrested in Tempe, Arizona, for firing shots at a Democratic National Committee office on three occasions.
These incidents are examples of distressing events that have occurred within the past ten days. WIRED is monitoring the effects of disinformation and escalating political rhetoric as Election Day approaches, which are manifesting in actions of sabotage, intimidation, and violence. The outlet encourages the public to provide tips through their submission form.
Authorities have heightened their alertness for violence related to elections this year. Since 2020, election workers have consistently experienced threats, harassment, and stalking to the extent that the Department of Justice established a special division to investigate these threats. Intelligence reports obtained by WIRED suggest that officials are preparing for potential disruption and sabotage from “insider threats,” as well as possible attacks on voting infrastructure for the 2024 U.S. election. The V-Dem Institute, a political science think tank in Sweden that uses data-driven methods to assess democracies globally, released a report predicting a “relatively high likelihood of electoral violence” for the upcoming election.
A total of 13 confirmed recent incidents have been compiled and will be updated continuously as more information becomes available.
