A poll worker in New York says two federal officers came to her voting location during the state’s primary election to confront her about something she posted on social media — a message criticizing an ICE officer who fatally shot a woman named Renee Good in Minneapolis.
Paigelynne Gonyea said the encounter took place on Tuesday while she was on duty at a polling location in Syracuse. She said the two officers handed her a written notice indicating she could be in violation of federal laws that prohibit publicly sharing personal information about federal law enforcement officers.
According to Gonyea, the warning was connected to a post she had made back in January. In that post, she shared a photo of Jonathan Ross — an ICE officer who shot and killed Good in Minneapolis during anti-ICE demonstrations — and wrote: “I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted.”
Gonyea noted that Ross had already been publicly identified by news outlets before she made the post. The post remains online, and she said she has no plans to remove it.
“I plan on using this experience to defend and support our First Amendment right,” Gonyea said. “Our First Amendment rights definitely need to be protected now more than ever.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Lauren Bis, issued a statement saying Gonyea “committed a federal crime by posting the address of an ICE law enforcement officer online” and warned that “if you doxx our officers, we will investigate you, and you will be brought to justice.”
Bis also shared a separate post from one of Gonyea’s social media accounts, which the spokesperson said included Ross’s home address. Part of that post was blacked out in the version shared publicly.
“Doxxing federal law enforcement officers is a federal crime that puts their lives and their families in serious danger,” the DHS statement read. “This danger is not hypothetical. Our law enforcement officers are on the frontlines arresting terrorists, gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and rapists.”
A fellow poll worker captured the confrontation on video. The footage shows two people in uniform entering the polling location and briefly speaking with Gonyea, who declined to sign the warning document they presented to her.
Gonyea later shared the unsigned letter on social media. The document indicates it originated from ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, a division whose main function is looking into misconduct allegations against ICE employees and contractors.
The poll worker who filmed the interaction, Sheilia Milledge, said the episode left workers rattled. Gonyea confirmed that no voters were present at the polling location when the officers arrived.
“I felt like it was a scare tactic that they were using,” Milledge said.
A representative from the New York Attorney General’s Office confirmed the office is aware of what happened and is currently reviewing it. A spokesperson for the governor’s office said officials there had not received reports of similar incidents elsewhere in the state.
Kathleen McGrath, a spokesperson for the New York State Board of Elections, said the incident “did not disrupt voting and was not related to the election process.” Onondaga County Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said he went to the polling place shortly after it happened, checked in with poll workers, ensured voting continued without interruption, and “connected Paige to resources.”
Gonyea said she had initially missed a phone call from U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials who wanted to speak with her. A DHS agent left her a voicemail saying they were reaching out “in reference to a post that we believe you made on Instagram where you doxxed an ICE officer back in January,” according to a recording she shared online.
“We just wanted to talk to you about it. You’re not in any type of trouble,” the agent said in the voicemail, according to the recording Gonyea provided.
She said she called back and asked the officers to come inside the polling place because she felt it would be a safer environment for the conversation.
Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the voting rights and elections program at Brennan Center for Justice — described as a left-leaning public policy institute — said it appears the officers’ timing at the polling place was coincidental, but noted their presence could still be unsettling to voters and election workers.
Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said that if officers are delivering residents “a formal complaint about their protected speech, we’re in trouble.”
Rep. John Mannion, a Democrat representing the area in Congress, sent a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin urging the department to examine the incident and “put a stop to any ICE activities that target protected speech.”
“ICE should not be broadly targeting online speech or actively monitoring social media accounts without cause and without proper judicial protections,” Mannion’s letter stated.
