U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) is leading a group of 13 House Democrats in urging the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to take action to prevent election violence in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.
In a letter to the departments’ secretaries, Magaziner, the ranking member on the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Intelligence and Law Enforcement, and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee, called on the agencies to ensure they are aligned with the needs of election officials and provide any requested assistance to state and local officials.
The letter also calls on the departments to bolster efforts to raise awareness of physical security services available to state and local officials to protect election officials and infrastructure, and to combat foreign influence campaigns by Russia and other “malign actors” and election misinformation on social media platforms that seek to undermine the legitimacy of the election and trust in the American government.
“With the 2024 election coming up in a matter of days, we must take steps to ensure that the U.S. government is prepared to thwart violent attacks on the democratic process like that which occurred on January 6, 2021,” Magaziner said in a statement. “Ranking Member Thompson and I are outlining a series of actions we believe the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice should take to ensure a safe and secure election and peaceful transfer of power.”
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.
