Following reports that Ohio sheriff Bruce Zuchowski is collecting the addresses of individuals supporting the Democratic nominee for President VP Kamala Harris in order to target them at a later date, Democrats wrote to AG Merrick Garland requesting an immediate investigation into Zuchowski.
In other words, some Democrats aren’t sleeping on voter intimidation this time around.
With just three weeks until voting begins in Ohio, members of the House Committee on the Judiciary Ranking Member Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government Ranking Member Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) wrote to the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division investigate the disturbing reports:
I write to request that the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division investigate disturbing reports that an Ohio sheriff is collecting the addresses of individuals who display campaign material for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in order to target those individuals at a later date. This clear attempt by an elected Republican official to intimidate Democratic voters in his jurisdiction demands the Department’s immediate attention.”
The evidence submitted in the letter includes:
In public Facebook posts on both his personal and campaign accounts on September 13, 2024, the sheriff of Portage County, Ohio, Bruce Zuchowski, posted photos of Fox News television stories about “Kamala’s open borders” and wrote:
“When people ask me…What’s gonna happen if the Flip – Flopping, Laughing Hyena Wins??
I say…write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards! Sooo…when the Illegal human “Locust” (which she supports!) Need places to live…We’ll already have the addresses of the their New families…who supported their arrival!”
Sheriff Zuchowski’s intimidation efforts appear to have been successful: after his post, some residents began following his instructions and posted in Facebook comments the addresses of residents with yard signs supporting Vice President Harris.
This is giving turning in your neighbor who claims she had a miscarriage vibes, and yes, that is a thing Republicans tried years ago and seem intent on doing again.
Residents started the complaints, noting how alarmed and scared they are. A Republican official even resigned from the county’s Republican Central Committee due to Zuchowski’s targeting of people with different beliefs, calling it bullying “from the highest law enforcement official in Portage County.”
These allegations are deeply disturbing and represent an actual direct violation of the right to free speech. A government official targeting individuals over political signs is an actual example of what the right to free speech is meant to protect.
The letter notes, “Another resident said of the sheriff: ‘He’s a top law enforcement official in Portage County. He’s supposed to be upholding the law … What that statement was on Facebook was intended for oppression, intimidation, and suppression of freedom of speech. I would like to turn to law enforcement but what happens when law enforcement is the one making those threats.'”
This kind of bullying of Democratic voters has been going on around this country since Trump first descended that escalator. It’s routine to have Democratic political signs stolen and destroyed, houses targeted, and worse yet voters targeted outside of the polling places. While these stories are sometimes told in local papers, people I’ve asked if I can tell their story are often too scared to put their names to their fears and experiences. People in MAGA heavy areas are often afraid to put Democratic supporting signs up, and make casual reference to needing security cameras if they do.
This is the reality for people who are not Trump voters in the United States of America. The MAGA movement is one of political intimidation and even terrorism as we’ve seen from January 6th to Springfield.
Yet legacy media continues to lecture Americans that they need to “respect” MAGA voters. I note that they write these opinion pieces from their politically safe blue cities, from the vantage point of their own privilege as people who can always get law enforcement to help them, unlike many Americans.
One thing to take away from MAGA’s ongoing intimidation of voters and election officials is that this is something incited by a leader who doesn’t think he can win fairly. It’s also a clear sign of how Trump intends to rule if allowed back into the White House — abusing power, weaponizing the government against citizens who don’t support him, and scaring people into submission.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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