We can't memory hole the Election Day Bomb Threats meant to help the GOP Assholes

Though it’s largely already been forgotten, 2024 was not a completely peaceful election. 

Anonymous terrorists, probably working for Russia, sent bomb threats to numerous majority Black and Native American polling places in battleground states in an effort to disrupt voting and aid the Trump campaign. The threats were widely reported on Election Day itself. 

However, in the aftermath of Trump’s narrow but definitive win, there has been little discussion of these egregious, deliberate attacks on democracy in general, and on the voting rights of Black and Native American people in particular. ... 

But the lack of interest in an egregious assault on American democracy is a mistake. The attacks demonstrate how fragile our democracy is. And they provide a blueprint for the MAGA regime to tamper in elections in the future. 

The fact that incoming president Donald Trump can and probably would try to block investigations into Russia’s involvement — and into the Trump campaign’s potential involvement as well — is chilling. 

If we want to prevent attacks like this in the future, it’s important not to instantly memory hole the attack that just happened. A coordinated attack on democracy, and on Democrats. 

The hoax bomb threats on Election Day were sent to polling locations in the swing states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona. The FBI said that many of the threats “appear[ed] to originate from Russian email domains.” 

None of the threats were credible, and no bombs were found. However, the threats did cause disruptions in Georgia, where five polling places were evacuated. Hours were extended at those locations to ensure all voters could cast their ballots. 

Republican Brad Raffensberger, the Georgia Secretary of State best known for refusing to aid Trump in his coup attempt in 2020, argued that Russia was attempting to undermine faith in the US system of government. 

The Russians are “up to mischief it seems,” he said. “They don’t want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election.” This is probably true, as far as it goes. But it seems important to note that the bomb threats weren’t just randomly distributed attempts to undermine the electoral process. 

Like threats of violence in the 2020 election, they were intended specifically to target and discourage Democratic voters in key swing states.