The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is partnering with Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI) to study threats and harassment against local officials heading into the 2022 midterm elections.
On Thursday, the ADL launched the initiative, a first-of-its-kind project that uses ongoing event-based data to systematically track threats and harassment of local politicians across the United States.
“Threats and harassment against local officials present a significant challenge to American democracy,” said Oren Segal, Vice President of the ADL Center on Extremism. “This dataset shows the pervasiveness of threats and harassment around the country. We urge policymakers and communities to use these data to better understand this dangerous phenomenon and create better policy to more effectively count and counter future incidents.”
ADL’s research team analyzed over 10,000 datapoints from public sources, narrowing the search to over 400 individual cases.
Event-based data allowed for observed assessment of incidents.
“This permits the followers to understand patterns, and thus enable more effective evidence-driven policy,” ADL explained.
The study found that threats of death and gun violence were more than twice as common as any other form of threat while the most common form of harassment was intimidation at 29%.
According to the study, the the states with the highest percentage of threats or harassment were Pennsylvania (16%), Georgia (14%), Michigan (13%) Wisconsin (10%), and Arizona (6%). These states also accounted for 59% of all threats or harassment against election officials or poll workers.
“Data-driven analysis is critical in helping communities respond to emerging challenges,” said Shannon Hiller, Director of Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative. “By observing incidents and events data over time, researchers and policy makers can take action to protect civic space.”
The ADL said that in the future it intends to grow the dataset to state and federal officials and to also focus on specific data and the outcomes of threats and harassment.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)