A poll worker in Georgia was arrested Monday and accused of threatening fellow election workers and faking a bomb threat at an early voting location.
Nicholas Wimbush, 25, mailed the threat in mid-October after a confrontation with a voter at the Jones County Elections Office on Oct. 16, the Justice Department said Monday in a press release.
The letter was written as if it came from the voter who Wimbush had a disagreement with, the feds said. It concluded, “PS boom toy in early vote place, cigar burning, be safe” in deliberately odd handwriting, according to charging documents.
Wimbush was charged with mailing a bomb threat, mailing a threatening letter, lying about a bomb and lying to the FBI. He faces up to 25 years in prison.
On Oct. 16, Wimbush had a verbal dispute with a voter, after the unidentified person became upset that Wimbush was chatting with another poll worker, the Justice Department said.
Wimbush then went home, found out what information about himself was publicly available, and allegedly wrote the letter as if it came from that same voter, threatening “woke libs” working at the polling site.
“Tell them I know where they live and will find them all one night. I will follow them on the road. You won’t stop them so I will stop them from your election fraud,” Wimbush wrote, according to the feds. “This is how patriots do it. Bad things will happen to prevent civil war. … They will learn a violent lesson about stealing our elections!”
The letter also included threats of sexual violence against female workers at the Jones County Elections Office.
Though the letter was signed “a Jones County voter,” the feds searched Wimbush’s cellphone and found he had Googled “Nicholas Wimbish jones county elections” and “post office drop box” before the letter was mailed.
The investigation into Wimbush was part of a nationwide effort by the Justice Department to protect election workers ahead of the 2024 election. An Illinois man was arrested while in line to vote Tuesday after he punched a 74-year-old election judge in the face.
Georgia is considered one of seven crucial battleground states in the presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.