RAVENNA, Ohio — The U.S. Justice Department will send election monitors to an Ohio county where a sheriff was recently accused of intimidating voters in a social media post, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The Justice Department said it will monitor Portage County’s compliance with federal voting rights laws during early voting and on Election Day. The agency regularly sends staff to counties around the U.S. to monitor compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act and other civil rights statutes related to elections and voting.
“Voters in Portage County have raised concerns about intimidation resulting from the surveillance and the collection of personal information regarding voters, as well as threats concerning the electoral process,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
The agency did not elaborate.
Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski, a Republican running for reelection, came under fire for a social media post last month in which he said people with Kamala Harris yard signs should have their addresses written down so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if the Democrat wins the presidency. He also likened people in the country illegally to “human locusts.”
The sheriff’s comment about Harris’ supporters - made on his personal Facebook account and his campaign’s account - sparked outrage among some Democrats who took it as a threat. His supporters argued he was making a political point about unrestrained immigration and that he was exercising his right to free speech.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio demanded that Zuchowski remove the post and threatened to sue him, asserting he’d made an unconstitutional, “impermissible threat” against residents who wanted to display political yard signs.
Zuchowski later took down the post.
A message was sent to Zuchowski on Tuesday seeking comment on the Justice Department’s move.
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