Poll workers Carole Greenwalt and Ron Stoughton check in voters James and Christi Renforth at the Cross Roads United Methodist Church vote center in Anderson in this November 2023 photo. Richard Sitler, file | CNHI News Indiana
VINCENNES — David Shelton knows what it’s like to be pushed and cursed for upholding election laws.
The Knox County clerk last year was approached by a losing candidate in a local township trustee race. The winner had just resigned due to a prior felony conviction, and the contender thought the position was his by default, explained Shelton.
“He started cussing me out, calling me every name in the book … saying I’m a liar, cheater and I’ve rigged the whole system,” he said.
The candidate’s son then physically bumped into Shelton twice before the two walked away. Shelton, a Republican, took the incident to the county prosecutor, who filed a misdemeanor charge against them.
Shelton said that kind of behavior is evidence of the combative and aggressive attitude that has come to define America’s political discourse.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but our political figures tend to be a little bit on the polarizing side nowadays,” he said. “People are very passionate, very emotional and many get to that state where all logic goes out the window and they’re liable to do just about anything.”
That’s why Shelton was one of many elected officials advocating this year for a new bipartisan law that makes it a Level 6 felony to threaten, injure or interfere with election workers carrying out their duties at the polls.
Senate Enrolled Act 170 passed with near unanimous support from lawmakers and was signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb earlier this month.
‘WHAT A SCARY THING’
The amped-up charges come as growing numbers of Hoosier poll workers say they fear for their safety following the increase of violence and intimidation over election results.
Nationally, one in six election officials have experienced threats because of their job, and 77% say that they feel these threats have increased in recent years, according to a 2022 survey by the Brennan Center for Justice.
A case in point came in February, when an Indiana man pleaded guilty to intimidating an election worker in Michigan. Andrew Nickels, 37, Carmel, called a city clerk and left a voicemail threatening to kill them, saying “10 million plus patriots will surround you when you least expect it.”
“We will [expletive] take you out,” Nickels said in the voicemail. “You deserve a [expletive] knife to the throat.”
Similar incidents across the nation have left Indiana poll workers uneasy and outright afraid, said Monroe County Clerk Nicole Browne, who also is the president of the Association of the Clerks of the Circuit Courts of Indiana.
Browne, a Democrat, estimated around half of poll workers in Monroe County are concerned for their safety, although no incidents of threats or intimidation have so far been reported there.
Other counties haven’t been so lucky, she noted.
Two employees in the Porter County clerk’s office were followed to their cars during a recent election by people who thought they were poll workers. The people slung threats at the employees before they fled in their vehicles.
“What a scary thing to be followed to your car,” Browne said. “You don’t know if somebody’s going to follow you home. It’s creepy.”
In Lake County, police in November investigated an incident involving a man who allegedly brandished a sidearm in a threatening fashion at a polling place located in an elementary school in Munster. The man was removed by police, but no charges have so far been filed.
Michelle Fajman, director of the Lake County Board of Elections, said she anticipates more incidents like that will happen heading into this year’s election season as political tensions run high. That’s why election officials this year have received training on how to respond to threats or even outright violence, she noted. “In the past, we never had to train our poll workers in regards to running, hiding, fighting, de-escalation and so forth,” Fajman said. “But those are all things that we’re seeing, so we are training them just to be prepared.”
NOT FAR ENOUGH
County clerks all said the new law making it a felony to threaten election workers will help ease some of the anxiety felt by those at the polls.
It could also make it easier to recruit more volunteers, many of whom have stayed home since the 2020 presidential election over fears of harassment, argued Browne in Monroe County.
“We were having problems before the pandemic, but trying to get people to come out and serve has just been harder and harder,” she said.
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