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Police Officers stand guard during a small gathering of Trump supporters outside the Capitol building in St Paul, Minnesota on January 16, 2021. - The inauguration of Joe Biden is taking place amid unprecedented security following the January 6 storming of the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump while Congress was certifying Biden's November 3 election victory. Security officials have warned that armed extremist Trump supporters, possibly carrying explosives, pose a threat to Washington as well as state capitals over the coming week.
Election officials recently revealed some of the harrowing threats they received after Donald Trump claimed that he should have won against Joe Biden last year.
On Tuesday, a Senate hearing was held where several top election officials shared the threat-filled text messages and phone calls they received last year.
Al Schmidt, a Republican city commissioner on the Philadelphia Board of Election, said that Trump supporters even threatened to kill his children if he didn't say that there was election fraud.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs revealed that armed protesters gathered outside her house and urged her to come out.
"As an elected official, I expected that sometimes I would have constituents who were unhappy with me. But I never expected that holding this office would result in far-right trolls threatening my children, threatening my husband's employment at a children's hospital or calling my office saying I deserve to die and asking, 'What is she wearing today, so she'll be easy to get," Hobbs said via the Huffington Post.
Democrats pushing to pass voting rights legislation
Following the top election officials' threats, the Democrats are pushing to pass the voting rights legislation that will give them more protection during future elections.
The bill introduces new felony crimes for threatening, intimidating, and disclosing the personal information of election workers.
However, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said that the threats didn't just come following Trump's loss. He confirmed that his office also received harassment after notable Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres, and LeBron James claimed that his office's decision to cut the number of in-person polling locations constituted voter suppression.
But most of the threats that his office received were limited.
Donald Trump continues to say there was election fraud
According to US News, the threats directed at top election officials died down after Biden was sworn into office. But it increased again after Trump insisted that the election was rigged.
To date, the ex-POTUS is still urging some states to recount their presidential votes. However, the Trump administration's cybersecurity and election administration experts previously confirmed that the 2020 election was secure.
They also confirmed that there was no evidence of election fraud. However, Trump and his supporters are still convinced that they were rigged.
Some states agreed to audit presidential votes
Earlier this year, a handful of states said that they would audit their presidential votes to ensure that there was no election fraud.
Georgia previously agreed to review their mail ballots in the large county of Atlanta. But just this month, a Georgia judge dismissed the lawsuit seeking election audit in the state.
"The results were, as we reported, that President Trump came up short in the state of Georgia," Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) said in a statement via Forbes.
Earlier this month, Trump also pressured Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to allow an election review bill to be passed in the state. Abbott agreed to audit the 2020 election votes in four of the largest counties in the state.
He also said that there's nothing wrong with auditing the votes because it's part of the country's democracy.
Related Article: Donald Trump Pressures Texas Gov. Greg Abbott To Allow An Election Review Bill To Be Passed
