Georgia’s secretary of state has reportedly received death threats along with his wife as the state conducts a recount of the presidential election, amid pressure from his fellow Republicans to find ways to exclude ballots.
Brad Raffensperger’s wife was sent several threatening text messages after he announced the state would conduct a hand recount of the presidential race, as President Donald Trump and some Georgia Republicans promoted unfounded claims of voting irregularities and mismanagement.
One message sent to Mr Raffensperger’s wife read: “Your husband deserves to face a firing squad.”
“You better not botch this recount,” another message read. “Your life depends on it.”
The messages were first shared by Fox 5 Atlanta, with senior reporter Dale Russell writing in a tweet that the Republican secretary of state “fears it was sent by someone in his own [GOP] party.”
In screenshots the reporter posted online, the messages appeared to have been sent in the days following the election to the secretary of state’s wife via multiple email addresses, including “georgiarecount@raffensperger.com” and “raffensperger@commie.org.”
A third message sent to the Republican official’s wife said: “The Raffenspergers should be put on trial for treason and face execution.”
State officials have moved forward with the recount regardless of threats and pressure from Republicans to toss out ballots, as Mr Raffensperger said the recount was effectively tracking with the initial vote count Georgia conducted beginning on Election Day.
“What’s really troubling about it is when threats actually came into my wife’s, you know, cell phone,“ the secretary of state told the local news outlet. “That is what is really offensive.”
Mr Raffensperger and other state officials have reassured voters the election was conducted in a way that was free of fraud, with the ongoing vote count indicating that President-elect Joe Biden flipped the state from red to blue in his bid against President Donald Trump.
“I believe we had a successful election,” Mr Raffensperger told Fox 5 Atlanta.
The Department of Homeland Security described the 2020 US election as the “most secure election in American history” and said there was no credible evidence of mass voter fraud or rigging.