A so-called constitutional sheriffs movement, similar to and has ties with the Oath Keepers, has sprung up. It is urging law enforcement to intervene in the election process. This movement, which has ties to other antigovernment fringe movements, is based on the belief that sheriffs are the ultimate law enforcement authority within their counties. They believe sheriffs supersede state and federal officials, including the U.S. president.
This is similar to the civil rights era when sheriffs were the racist, shadowy figures that openly broke laws and thumb their noses at the federal government. Recently, amid reports of harassment outside ballot drop boxes and threats to election workers, experts are sounding the alarm about election interference ahead of the 2022 midterms.
Experts are saying that in recent years, self-appointed constitutional sheriffs have refused to enforce various laws that they deem unconstitutional, from state and federal gun laws to pandemic-era mask mandates. This is a growing coalition of far-right individuals gearing up to take illegal actions during the election.
There are reports that key figures in the antigovernment movement have teamed up with prominent election deniers promoted by Donald Trump and his supporters. The two major constitutional sheriffs groups — the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and Protect America Now — which have aligned themselves with True the Vote, a conservative vote-monitoring group whose widely discredited claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election were the basis for the film “2000 Mules.”
This new movement with old tactics and the same cast of characters calls on sheriffs to use their supposedly unsurpassed authority to investigate and intervene in the administration of elections using a variety of questionable tactics, from surveilling polling stations and ballot drop boxes, to potentially seizing voting equipment and deputizing citizens.
