(e) Federally protected activities: 18 U.S.C. § 245(b)(1)(A) The Civil Rights Act of 1968 contained a broad provision that addresses violence intended to intimidate voting in any election in this country. 18 U.S.C. § 245(b)(1)(A). This provision applies without regard to the presence of racial or ethnic factors. Section 245(b)(1)(A) makes it illegal to use or threaten to use physical force to intimidate individuals from, among other things, “voting or qualifying to vote.” It reaches threats to use physical force against a victim because the victim has exercised his or her franchise, or to prevent the victim from doing so. Violations are misdemeanors if no bodily injury results, ten-year felonies if there is bodily injury, and any term of years, life imprisonment, or death if death results. Prosecutions under Section 245 require written authorization by the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, or a specially designated Assistant Attorney General, who must certify that federal prosecution of the matter is “in the public interest and necessary to secure substantial justice.” 18 U.S.C. § 245(a)(1). This approval requirement was imposed in response to federalism issues that many Members of Congress believed were inherent in a statute giving the federal government prosecutive jurisdiction over what otherwise would be mere assault and battery cases. S. REP . NO. 90-721 (1967), reprinted in 1968 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1837-67. In making the required certification, the standard to be applied is whether the facts of the particular matter are such that the appropriate state law enforcement authorities should, but either cannot or will not, effectively enforce the applicable state law, thereby creating an overriding need for federal intervention. Id. at 1845-48. 55