Voters across Brevard County Tuesday afternoon received threatening emails purporting to come from the Proud Boys, a far-right group that espouses militant authoritarian ideology, telling them to vote for President Trump, or else.
The emails appear to follow a similar format, and come from the email address “info@officialproudboys.com.”
“Hi (name) We are in possession of all your information You are currently registered as a Democrat and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure. You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for. I would take this seriously if I were you. (Voter’s address),” it read.
Donald Schwinn, 85, a snowbird registered to vote in Melbourne Beach, received one, telling FLORIDA TODAY “they’re trying to scare people into voting for Trump.”
“I don’t believe they have the resources to do this sort of thing,” he continued, adding: “It makes me ashamed to be an American to think that such a group would do such a thing: threaten voters.”
Voter intimidation is a federal offense subject to up to one year imprisonment.
Voter email addresses and physical addresses are generally public records available upon request.
The domain for the sender’s email “officialproudboys.com” was inactive by Tuesday afternoon although the site does appear to have been previously affiliated with the Proud Boys group. According to WUFT, internet records show that control over the internet address, created in March 2017, was changed Monday night.
Local officials are scrambling to get on top of the situation as reports came in Tuesday afternoon. Emails shared with FLORIDA TODAY show they went out between 3pm and 4pm.
Kimberly Boelzner, spokesperson for Brevard Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott, said their office has received several reports of such emails and are awaiting guidance from the state division of elections.
“We’re advising voters to report it to local law enforcement,” she said.
Schwinn said when he called the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office they directed him to call the state’s division of elections. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Boelzner said by 6 p.m. her office had received about a dozen emails and a dozen calls about the matter. Scott has been in touch with the FBI and other authorities.
“We are responding to voters and letting them know we appreciate them contacting us regarding the voter intimidation email they received. (Lori Scott) has contacted local, state, and federal partners for investigation into this very serious matter,” she wrote in a follow up email.
Emails to the local Proud Boys chapter were not immediately answered.
Stacey Patel, chair of the Brevard Democrats, said she received at least 5 such emails from voters Tuesday afternoon and had notified the elections supervisor’s office.
“We’ve not seen this kind of voter intimidation in the past and it’s obviously really troubling,” she said. In a follow up text she said she advises recipients of the email to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI and the Florida Democratic Party Voter Protection team at 1-833-VOTE-FLA.
So far emails only appear to target registered Democrats.
Shelby Joslin-Boote, 36, who lives in Melbourne with her husband and three children said she and her husband received such emails, and said they at first were “upset” and “amazed they’re really intimidating voters” but figured that their voter information was retrieved from public record.
“They really need to learn how to spell,” she added, noting the subject line of the email reads: “voteing.” She said she reported the email to the FBI.
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A CBS affiliate in Gainesville reported Tuesday that in Alachua County the Supervisor of Elections is working with law enforcement “after several threatening emails were discovered in the county” which the Alachua sheriff’s office said were purported to be from the Proud Boys.
Alachua Supervisor of Elections Kim Barton released the following statement to the CBS affiliate: “We are in contact with and working in conjunction with our law enforcement partners at the local, state and federal level, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security. The Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections has been notified as well.
If any individual engages in any form of voter intimidation, our office will refer the case to state and federal law enforcement.”
Calls to local FBI offices and an inquiry to the FBI’s national press office went unanswered Tuesday evening.
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact him at 321-355-8144, or asassoon@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @alemzs
Source Article from https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2020/10/20/brevard-voters-threatened-emails-purportedly-proud-boys/5997458002/
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