Did you watch the video? Shariffs are involved, too.
I think that Democrat Sheriffs have as much right to politic as any other elected official, as stupid as their desire to politic in this way may be. They are elected officials, after all.
If they are actually planning to intimidate the public via the powers of their Office, then there are HUGE problem with civil rights violations. It's hard for me to believe that they would be that stupid to risk multimillion dollar lawsuits, so I lean toward interpreting their statements as indicating that they plan to propagandize for Obama as private citizens.
Since they are Democrats, though, I certainly don't put it past them to capitalize on the ambiguity of their statements.
Cordially,