In less than three weeks, Republican and Democrat electors across the country will gather in their state capitals and make their formal — though symbolic — votes for president and vice president. Among them in Missouri will be Republican elector Tim Dreste, a former militia organizer and anti-abortion absolutist who in 1999 was found liable in federal court for making threats to "kill, assault or do bodily harm" to abortion providers.
Dreste was the subject of a lengthy Riverfront Times cover story published the same year as his conviction, in which then-staff writer Melinda Roth documented the St. Louis native's path of zealotry in the 1980s and 1990s.
Dreste's fervor ultimately crossed a line, entering territory outside the bounds of the First Amendment.
From Roth's cover story:
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