Steven Potter:
Do you think criminal charges and punishment would be enough to deter other would-be folks who might make threats?

Eric Toney:
I think it can act as a deterrent for those that may seek to make threats. And when we look at deterrent, it depends on how we look at that language. Sometimes that deterrent can affect three, four, five people. It can affect 100 people. And so there's always a level of deterrence. It just depends on how far that deterrence may go. Whether it would stop somebody from actually carrying that out, I'm not sure that would be the case, depending on where we see people that, at times, have mental health issues that are going about these things that may not be looking at what that level of deterrence is. But I do think there is some level of deterrence. It's just a question of how far that may go.

Steven Potter:
What should election workers or elected officials do when they're threatened?

Eric Toney:
Well, number one, contact law enforcement so that they can investigate it. There could be a potential prosecution out of it. There can be safety for that particular individual is reaching out to law enforcement. Don't try to take things into your own hands. And there's always a balance when we look at threats, and, you know, the free speech that we have in America, and that's something that the statutes that we have that address threats. And there was a recent United States Supreme Court case, the Counterman case, that also addressed this. And so that's a balance that law enforcement and prosecutors take when these become an investigation.

Steven Potter:
How do you determine when prosecution, when criminal charges are warranted for a threat?

Eric Toney:
So we look at the facts based on the statutes and the law that we have to determine if there would be charges. There's also a consultation with victims in those circumstances. And there are times where a victim may not feel that the threat amounted to much, but our office or another office may still file that based on the circumstances, ultimately, that we see, but we have to look at the facts and the law.