Georgia poll worker arrested over bomb threat as security bolstered across U.S.

• Unprecedented steps are being taken to protect election workers and ballots amid rising concern about voter intimidation and other threats, as the Proud Boys and other Trump-supporting extremist groups signal they'll be at polling sites on Tuesday.
• The Justice Department will monitor polls in multiple states for compliance with federal voting rights laws on Election Day.

Driving the news: Nicholas Wimbish, 25, of Milledgeville, Georgia, is accused of mailing a letter addressed to the Jones County elections superintendent on Oct. 17, purportedly from a "Jones County Voter" — one day after he "allegedly had a verbal altercation with a voter," per a DOJ statement.

• Prosecutors allege this letter stated that Wimbish had "give[n] me hell" and that he was "conspiring votes" and that it made threats against him and others to "look over their shoulder" as the "voter" knew "where they go" and that the writer had "found home voting addresses for all them."
• The letter claimed "young men will get beatdown if they fight me" and "will get the treason punishment by firing squad if they fight back," while also threatening "rage rape" against the "ladies."

• "The letter concluded with a handwritten note, 'PS boom toy in early vote place, cigar burning, be safe,'" the DOJ alleges.

State of play: The case is part of the Justice Department's Election Threats Task Force that was established in June 2021 to address a rise in threats against poll workers.

• Wimbish is also charged with conveying false information about a bomb threat, mailing a threatening letter and making false statements to the FBI.
• If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

Go deeper: Some schools opt out of serving as polling sites amid rising threats