A 48-year-old Pennsylvania man was arrested and charged Tuesday with threatening to shoot election officials at a Washington County voting location after he was told that he was not registered to vote.
Christopher Thomas Queen of Claysville, Pa., was charged with making terroristic threats and disorderly conduct, according to The Associated Press.
{mosads}Queen “became upset, told the poll workers he was going to go get a gun and come back and shoot them,” Melanie Ostrander, Washington County’s assistant elections director, told the AP.
The incident reportedly occurred at the Franklin Volunteer Fire Department in the township of South Franklin. Queen does not have a registered attorney, according to court documents viewed by the AP, and phone calls to his residence were not answered.
Pennsylvania is the site of a contentious gubernatorial race between Gov. Tom Wolf (D) and state Sen. Scott Wagner (R), as well as a battle for Sen. Bob Casey Jr.’s (D) Senate seat.
Both races are expected by election analysts to go in the Democrats’ favor, as both men enjoy double-digit leads in RealClearPolitics averages of polls against their GOP challengers.
Wagner faced criticism for rhetoric that was seen as inspiring violence last month when he released a video in which he pledged to “stomp all over” Wolf’s face with “golf spikes.”
“Between now and Nov. 6, you better put a catcher’s mask on your face because I’m going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes,” Wagner said in the video, vowing to defeat his opponent. “Because I’m going to win this for the state of Pennsylvania, and we’re going to throw you out of office.”