Regarding a recent Associated Press article (“Threats ring familiar for election workers,” June 23), I was struck by the sense of violation election poll workers experienced. Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and others clarified how their psyche and sense of safety at work was unalterably shaken. Job duties rose to a heightened awareness of threat and imminent danger.
It eerily reminded me of the beltway sniper attacks in October 2002, forever changing how I felt about my job, duty and security as a public school employee. Both injected an unanticipated terror and fear but, perhaps more importantly, upended fundamental rights to work unafraid for personal and physical safety.
Whereas Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad were solely responsible for their actions, a falsely fueled criminal conspiracy appears to be the motivation for threats of violence against election officials and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Election workers and elected officials, in their diligent efforts to work and govern, should never have to undergo the brutality and emotional trauma experienced by Ms. Moss and her mother, Lady Ruby.
I was able to keep the faith and work for many more years in forever-changed public schools before retiring. Lockdown drills and safety training are now standard operational processes in education and in the private sector. With this, I hope to soon be an election poll volunteer.
Let us trust the Justice Department task force, along with the Jan. 6 House committee, will quell this “deeply disturbing trend,” bringing facts to light and culprits to accountability. In this way, I hope we all keep the faith, along with the right to unobstructed voter polling places.
Patty Maloney
Milford
