Online Trolls Threaten Life Of Utah’s Lieutenant Governor

Utah’s Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson is facing a wave of online threats following a recent legislative meeting on election procedures. 

The controversy stems from a May 22 Rules Review Committee meeting, where lawmakers discussed Utah’s signature verification process in response to allegations from supporters of gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman.

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His running mate, Natalie Clawson, and another supporter claimed Governor Spencer Cox's campaign failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot and accused Henderson’s office of mishandling the process. 

While there’s no evidence supporting those claims, the discussion sparked heated online reactions.

On May 27, a former election transparency activist posted a photo of Henderson on social media, asking what penalty should apply to those who “defraud elections.”

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The post received dozens of replies -- some calling Henderson a traitor, others suggesting jail time, and a few making explicit death threats.

That's right, death threats.

:"What is going on?" said Leeds Mayor Bill Hoster, who said he's received a couple of death threats himself. "That is ludicrous ... and disturbing."

Hoster said the escalation of rhetoric, and specifically the threats of harm to public officials is born from the anonymity of social media. "Some of these people with radical ideas become even more radical when they're behind the keyboard. I call them trolls, or worse."

Hoster said many of the threats made online are ones someone would never make face-to-face.

He also said he had Henderson over to his house recently and she was what he called "nervous."

"She took her phone out and showed me the many death threats she had received," Hoster said.

The comments on the aforementioned post included pictures of nooses, an electric chair and other macabre images.

Captain Tanner Jensen, the director of the Statewide Information Analysis Center at the Department of Public Safety, said each threat is evaluated and treated with high importance.

Jimi Kestin, local political expert, called the wave of threats just un-American.

"The lack of civility in politics is the greatest threat to our election process that we face," Kestin said. "We can fix signature gathering and documentation of our elections, but we'll never fix it if we can't talk to each other with civility."

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