By Margery A. Beck/AP
A Nebraska man was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison for making online threats against Colorado’s top elections official, one of the first cases brought by a federal task force devoted to protecting elections workers nationwide from rising threats.
The sentence came the same day an Iowa man was arrested for allegedly leaving voicemail threats for an Arizona official and the Arizona's Attorney General's Office.
In Nebraska, Travis Ford was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Lincoln, where he lives. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to sending threats to Secretary of State Jena Griswold on social media. It was the first guilty plea obtained by the U.S. Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, launched last year after the 2020 presidential contest amid concerns about the potential effect on democracy of threats against election officials and workers.
A national advocate for elections security, Griswold has received thousands of threats over her insistence the 2020 election was secure despite false claims by former President Donald Trump it was stolen.
Ford must report to a federal prison Jan. 11 and later complete a year of post-prison supervision.
Ford told the court Thursday he accepts responsibility for his actions and understands they were wrong. “I'm ashamed, and I'm embarrassed for not only putting myself but my family through this,” he said.
Griswold said violent threats cannot become an accepted norm.
“People who threaten...
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