Election workers in Arizona’s Maricopa County received at least 140 violent threats and harassing messages in the weeks leading up to Election Day, continuing an abusive trend fuelled by election disinformation and conspiracy theories in the aftermath of 2020 elections.
The county, home to roughly 4.5 million people, has been at the centre of Republican-led ballot challenges and baseless accusations of vote manipulation after President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, including recent allegations of “vigilante” threats against people casting mail-in ballots to “bully and intimidate” voters.
