Nov. 5 (UPI) — A 25-year-old Georgia election poll worker was arrested on Monday for allegedly sending a letter threatening poll workers to the Jones County Elections Superintendent.
Justice Department officials said Nicholas Wimbish, of Milledgeville, Ga., was charged with mailing a bomb threat, conveying false information about a bomb threat, mailing a threatening letter, and making false statements to the FBI. He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors said sent a threatening letter, written to appear as if it was from a “Jones County Voter” after he was engaged in a verbal altercation with a voter at the Jones County Elections Office on Oct. 16.
They said that Wimbish searched what information about him was publicly available online and wrote the letter, posing as a voter, stating that Wimibish and other poll workers “should look over their shoulder” and that he knew where the workers lived “because I found home voting addresses for all of them” making additional threats on polling locations including a handwritten note that read “PS boom toy in early vote place, cigar burning, be safe.”
The letter suggested that Wimbish gave the imagined voter “hell” and that he was “conspiring votes” and “distracting voters from concentrating.”
Prosecutors charged that the letter suggested that Wimbish and others “should look over their shoulder.”
The arrest was made by the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland, which was created in 2021 to handle such incidents involving election workers.
“The task force has led the department’s efforts to address threats of violence against election workers and to ensure that all election workers — whether elected, appointed or volunteer — are able to do their jobs free from threats and intimidation,” the Justice Department said in a statement.