The U.S. Justice Department will send election monitors to an Ohio county where a sheriff was recently accused of intimidating voters in a social media post, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The Justice Department said it will monitor Portage County’s compliance with federal voting rights laws during early voting and on Election Day. The agency said it regularly sends staff to counties around the U.S. to monitor compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act and other civil rights statutes related to elections and voting.
Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski, a Republican running for reelection, came under fire for a social media post last month in which he said people with Kamala Harris yard signs should have their addresses written down so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if the Democrat wins the presidency. He also likened people in the country illegally to “human locusts.”
The sheriff’s comment about Harris’ supporters — made on his personal Facebook account and his campaign’s account — sparked outrage among some Democrats who took it as a threat. His supporters argued he was making a political point about unrestrained immigration and that he was exercising his right to free speech.
The sheriff’s office said Tuesday that “monitoring of voting locations/polls by the DOJ is conducted nationwide and is not unique to Portage County. This is a normal practice by the DOJ.”
Posted by John3262005