In the last week, the US saw numerous attacks on the voting process and threats of violence, and extremism experts are bracing for what comes after voting has ended.
The goal of people committing these acts is often to create fear and distrust around voting or to sabotage the functioning of democracy. Still, election officials stress that voting is safe, and voters should not be deterred from voting because of any threats to the process, which are rare.
Here is a timeline of the political violence seen so far during the voting period in the US.
Arizona mass casualty planned
Jeffrey Michael Kelly was arrested in Arizona on 23 October after a series of violent incidents. Authorities say Kelly had amassed an arsenal of weapons and ammunition and was believed to be “preparing to commit an act of mass casualty”.
Kelly is alleged to have shot a Democratic party campaign office three times since September, once with a BB gun and twice with a firearm, resulting in the closure of the office. He had also allegedly put signs outside his home affixed withrazor blades and baggies of an unspecified white powder.
Maga-hat fight
A man voting early at a San Antonio polling place on 24 October allegedly assaulted a poll worker after he was told twice to remove a Make America Great Again hat because political clothing is not allowed at the polls in Texas.
A 69-year-old poll worker asked 63-year-old Jesse Lutzenberger to take off the Maga hat as he entered the polling place, which he did initially, Votebeat reported. But he allegedly put it back on inside, leading the poll worker to tell him again it was not allowed. At that point, Lutzenberger allegedly tangled with the poll worker and “threw several punches right at the face of the victim”, a sheriff’s report said.
Pennsylvania bomb threat
Edward Cieri Jr of Philadelphia was charged on 30 October for threatening to blow up a Republican office in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania.
Police allege he called the office on 26 October and spoke to a worker there. After the worker said he was a Republican, Cieri called him a name, then the worker mocked Cieri, according to the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia.
Cieri, upset, allegedly told the worker that he would “put one in your head”, “shoot up the place” and “blow it up”.
Ballot box arson
The person behind burning hundreds of ballots with incendiary devices in two ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington is suspected to be a metalworker who could be planning more attacks. The devices used were marked with the words “free Gaza”, but it’s not yet clear to authorities if the person who set the devices has grievances related to the Gaza war or if it was a tactic to sow confusion, 12 News Now reported.
A fire in a dropbox in Vancouver, Washington, on 28 October set ablaze hundreds of ballots, which election workers have tried to recover. The fire in the Portland dropbox was put out quickly because of a fire suppression system inside the box, leaving just a few ballots damaged.
A previous fire at a US Postal Service box in Phoenix, Arizona, also damaged ballots, though the suspect arrested in that instance said he did not set the fire for any political purposes and instead was trying to be arrested.
Machete at the polls
An 18-year-old in Neptune Beach, Florida, allegedly waved a machete at voters at an early voting location on 29 October.
Police said a group of young men were at the polling place protesting with Trump flags, and one of them had a machete, according to Action News Jax. An older woman said that the man had the machete raised above his head when he approached her, creating fear.
“The group arrived to protest and antagonize the opposing political side,” Neptune Beach police chief Michael J Key Jr said in a news conference.
‘Let’s Go Brandon’ hat
A man wearing a hat emblazoned with “Let’s Go Brandon”, a conservative dog-whistle, to the polls in South Carolina on 30 October was captured in video posted on social media swearing at the poll workers who told him political paraphernalia was not allowed inside voting locations.
In the video, he appears to call a poll worker a “fucking bitch” and said “this is my motherfucking right” to wear the hat, so they should “shut the hell up and let me vote”.
Police say a poll worker struck the man during the altercation, causing “visible swelling beneath the man’s bloodied left eye”, the Post and Courier reported.
