Georgia poll worker threatened to bomb election workers, US prosecutors say

05 November 2024 - 07:37 By Nate Raymond
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Workers process absentee ballots at Fulton County operations hub and elections centre the day before the US presidential election in Atlanta, Georgia on November 4 2024.
Workers process absentee ballots at Fulton County operations hub and elections centre the day before the US presidential election in Atlanta, Georgia on November 4 2024.
Image: REUTERS/Cheney Orr

A Georgia poll worker was arrested on Monday on charges that he sent a letter threatening to bomb election workers that he wrote to appear as if it came from a voter in the presidential election battleground state.

Federal prosecutors said Nicholas Wimbish, 25, had been serving as a poll worker at the Jones County elections office in Gray, Georgia  on October 16 when he got into a verbal altercation with a voter.

The next day, Wimbish mailed a letter to the county's elections superintendent that was drafted to appear as if it came from the same voter, prosecutors said. The letter complained Wimbish was a “closeted liberal election fraudster” who had been distracting voters in line to cast ballots, according to charge papers.

Authorities said the letter, signed by a “Jones county voter”, said Wimbish and others “should look over their shoulder” and warned people would “learn a violent lesson about stealing our elections.”

Prosecutors said the letter ended with a handwritten note: “PS: boom toy in early vote place, cigar burning, be safe.”

Wimbish was charged with mailing a bomb threat, conveying false information about a bomb threat, mailing a threatening letter and making false statements to the FBI, prosecutors said. A lawyer for Wimbish could not be immediately identified.

Georgia is one of seven closely contested states expected to decide the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election match between Republican former president Donald Trump and Democratic vice president Kamala Harris.

Concerns about potential political violence have prompted officials to take  measures to bolster security during and after election day.

Reuters


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