Extremist groups are going local to disrupt the midterms

Driving the news: The U.S. Conference of Mayors held an event this week warning of decentralized election interference efforts targeting local voters, candidates and election workers.

• "We've seen them dismantle some of their nationwide organizations," said Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and a former Justice Department prosecutor.
• "So the Proud Boys dismantle nationally in favor of state chapters — the Three Percenters did the same," she told the mayors.
• The change began after the 2020 election and grew more pronounced after the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack.

State of play: "We're seeing similar types of threats today" as in the 2020 elections, McCord said — but now the attacks are coming from a "very ground-up, localized effort."

• For example: In 50 out of 67 Pennsylvania counties, election chiefs have left because of threats, harassment and intimidation against them and their families, McCord said.
• "We've seen a GOP candidate in Idaho have an effigy hung in his yard," she said. "We've seen a Democratic candidate in eastern Washington be shot with a BB gun while putting up signs."
• "These are very localized efforts. They're very threatening, and they continue to grow."

What extremists are saying: "Focus on county over country. Capture your local county, then several of them, then maybe your state," McCord said, quoting from a post on right-wing social network Gab.

In one tactic, extremists are signing up as poll watchers and workers, trying to use legitimate means to infiltrate and disrupt elections.

• A Proud Boy who worked at the polls in Miami in an August primary exhorted group members to do the same during the midterms, telling them: "We need to be at every polling station this November and have eyes and truth-telling patriots monitoring on the ground," McCord said.
• "Some of the responses were, 'It's time for mortal combat,'" she said. "That's the kind of rhetoric around some of the poll-watching activity."
• In one high-profile voter intimidation episode, armed vigilantes in tactical gear were seen watching over a Mesa, Arizona, mail-in ballot drop box.

Also girding for action: The "Constitutional Sheriffs" movement, a fringe group that believes sheriffs hold supreme legal power and can exercise it during elections.

One tactic that proved effective in 2020: Public officials issuing strong statements about how vigorously they would prosecute voter intimidation or harassment, McCord said.

• Part of the message should be that "armed activity around the polls that is intimidating won't be tolerated."
• 911 dispatchers should be told to prioritize calls about problems at the polls and send officers promptly, said Charles Ramsey, a former police chief in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, and currently an adviser to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
• Police chiefs need to "make it very clear to our personnel that their particular political viewpoints do not matter," Ramsey said. "They have a job to do, and they're going to be expected to be held accountable for doing that job and doing it properly."

Backdrop: Election offices are installing bulletproof glass, bulking up on security and conducting active-shooter trainings.

• Rising threats are prompting a shortage of election workers — which extremists could use to their advantage.

The bottom line: Municipal and county leaders have a heavy responsibility to safeguard the upcoming midterms — which could serve as a dress rehearsal for the 2024 presidential election.