Earlier this week, the office of Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold was one of more than a dozen election offices across the county to receive a mysterious package filled with white powder, the return address labeled: “U.S. Traitor Elimination Army.” The incident prompted the FBI to open an investigation into the latest in a string of threats to election officials in an increasingly toxic political environment.
To Griswold, 39, threats like this are nothing out of the ordinary. As the overseer of election administration and procedures, Griswold has received nearly 1,000 violent threats in the last year, ranging from physically threatening and sexually explicit messages, to graphic threats to her life and her family.
“It’s scary when someone is telling you over and over graphically how they are going to kill you and your family. It’s very scary,” Griswold, who gave birth to her first child in August, said in an interview with Salon. “It’s an attack on democracy. The threats are part of the far right’s effort to try to intimidate secretaries of state and election workers who stand up for democracy. And for my part, I won’t be intimidated. I refuse to give in.”