RIGHT TRUMPS WRONG
Former Rochester Hills Clerk Tina Barton is finally getting justice, almost four years later, for upholding the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, in which former President Donald Trump lost to President Joe Biden. Barton was terrorized by a disappointed man from Carmel, Indiana, Andrew Nickels, 38, who threatened to kill her for doing her job. On July 9 – approaching the four year mark of the offense – Nickels was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison after he finally pleaded guilty five months ago to one count of transmitting threats in interstate commerce, which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence. “...you frauded out America of a real election, where Donald Trump blew your... a— out of the water,” Nickels said in one voicemail message, according to prosecutors. “… we’ll f——— kill you.” Barton and her family lived in fear following the attacks, and she eventually left her elected position, first serving as a senior advisor for U.S. Election Assurance Commission, and currently, as a senior elections expert with The Elections Group. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, called Barton, a Republican, “an American hero,” with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law noting that 40 percent of local clerks – the ones who run elections – reported being harassed, threatened and abused in recent years. “While it has been more than 1,300 days since Andrew Nickels threatened my life and the lives of my family members, his words are forever seared into my memory and continue to repeatedly play in my mind. The cold, calculated tone of his voice, and the vile, despicable, and sexualized language he used to degrade and debase me are something that I hear in my head almost daily. His threat to end my life when I least expected it, robbed me of my sense of security, my peace of mind,” Barton wrote in her victim impact statement. “Those who intimidate or harm individuals responsible for upholding the integrity of elections should face maximum accountability under the law to preserve the sanctity of the electoral process. Any threat against an election official is an assault on the democratic principles that form the backbone of our society and should be condemned and punished to the fullest extent possible.” She noted that despite the fear and anxiety the perpetrator created for her doing her job, “There is a resilience within me that refuses to be extinguished.”