Good-government groups speak out after fentanyl sent to California elections office
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(California News Service) The Justice Department is investigating after the Yuba County Elections Office north of Sacramento received an envelope with white powder testing positive for fentanyl.
Pro-democracy groups are calling out the latest attack on our election system and looking for ways to defuse the situation.
Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause, said while no one was hurt, the attempt to poison or kill an election worker is despicable.
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"It's to destabilize our elections and to scare the public servants who run them," Mehta Stein pointed out. "And to make all of us more fearful of participating in our democracy."
The FBI is investigating envelopes with suspicious substances, including fentanyl, mailed to election offices in five states in November. A study by the group Issue One last September found about 40 percent of chief local election officials in western states have left their positions since November 2020.
Mehta Stein blamed the rise in threats to election workers on the litany of false conspiracy theories claiming the 2020 election was rigged.
"We have to find a way to reach people who think elections are being stolen in America," Mehta Stein stressed. "And verify for them that not only are their votes being counted, but that the United States and specifically California won some of the most secure elections in the world."
No evidence has surfaced to back up claims of election interference sufficient to have changed the outcome in 2020. In one notorious case, former New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani recently admitted in court he lied when he accused two Georgia election workers of tampering with votes. A jury awarded the two women $148 million.
