April 19, 2023

Heider Garcia, the Tarrant County head of elections, announced he is resigning after a flood of death threats provoked at least in part by a pro-Trump attorney pushing conspiracy theories about him.Via MSN.com:

"Mr. Garcia oversees elections in a county where, in 2020, Donald J. Trump became only the second Republican presidential candidate to lose in more than 50 years. Right-wing skepticism of the election results fueled threats against him, even though the county received acclaim from state auditors for its handling of the 2020 voting," reported Neil Vigdor. "With Mr. Trump persistently repeating the lie that he won the 2020 election, many of his supporters and those in right-wing media have latched on to conspiracy theories and joined him in spreading disinformation about election security. Those tasked with running elections, even in deeply Republican areas that did vote for Mr. Trump in 2020, have borne the brunt of vitriol and threats from people persuaded by baseless claims of fraud."

"Mr. Garcia detailed a series of threats as part of his written testimony last year to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he urged to pass better protections for election officials," said the report. "He testified that he had repeatedly been the target of a doxxing campaign, including the posting of his home address on Twitter after Sidney Powell, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, falsely accused him on television and social media of manipulating election results."

Among the threats he received were messages calling him a "traitor," a Twitter user urging people to "hunt him down," and one person who wrote online, “Hang him when convicted from fraud and let his lifeless body hang in public until maggots drip out his mouth.”

It seems that the expected Republicans won-- but Trump lost. Which of course sent the frothers into an extended fit of accusations and threats. Too bad another public servant bites the dust as a result -- but who can blame him?

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