Republicans plan to "monitor" polling place in 15 key states from "suspicious" voters

[pathora44]

WASHINGTON — Six months before a presidential election in which turnout could matter more than persuasion, the Republican Party, the Trump campaign and conservative activists are mounting an aggressive national effort to shape who gets to vote in November — and whose ballots are counted.

Its premise is that a Republican victory in November is imperiled by widespread voter fraud, a baseless charge embraced by President Donald Trump, but repeatedly debunked by research. Democrats and voting rights advocates say the driving factor is politics, not fraud — especially since Trump’s narrow win in 2016 underscored the potentially crucial value of depressing turnout by Democrats, particularly minorities.

The Republican program, which has gained steam in recent weeks, envisions recruiting up to 50,000 volunteers in 15 key states to monitor polling places and challenge ballots and voters deemed suspicious. That is part of a $20 million plan that also allots millions to challenge lawsuits by Democrats and voting-rights advocates seeking to loosen state restrictions on balloting. The party and its allies also intend to use advertising, the internet and Trump’s command of the airwaves to cast Democrats as agents of election theft.

The efforts are bolstered by a 2018 federal court ruling that for the first time in nearly four decades allows the national Republican Party to mount campaigns against purported voter fraud without court approval. The court ban on Republican Party voter-fraud operations was imposed in 1982, and then modified in 1986 and again in 1990, each time after courts found instances of Republicans intimidating or working to exclude minority voters in the name of preventing fraud. The party was found to have violated it yet again in 2004.

The 2018 ruling merely “allows the RNC to play by the same rules as Democrats,” a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, Mandi Merritt, said in a statement.

“Now the RNC can work more closely with state parties and campaigns to do what we do best — ensure that more people vote through our unmatched field program,” the statement said.

But the program escalates a Republican focus on limiting who can vote that became a juggernaut after the Supreme Court dismantled the Voting Rights Act in 2013. But beyond that, it also reflects an enduring tension in American life in which the voting rights of minorities — whether granted in 1870 by the 15th Amendment or nearly a century later by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — seldom seem free from challenge.

Besides the national party and Trump’s campaign strategists, conservative advocacy groups are joining lawsuits, recruiting poll monitors and mounting media campaigns of their own. Leading them is a new and well-funded organization, the Honest Elections Project, formed by Leonard Leo, a prolific fundraiser, advocate of a conservative judiciary and confidant of Trump.

Republicans will have an Election Day operations program “that probably no other presidential campaign has had before,” Josh Helton, a Republican consultant, said at a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee in March. “It’s going to be all hands on deck.”

In battleground states, that extends even to comparatively quiet places like Fond du Lac County, an eastern Wisconsin outpost of about 100,000 people and 1,200 farms midway between Green Bay and Milwaukee.

“I think the big push is going to be for poll observers” in November’s general election, the Republican Party county chairman, Rohn Bishop, said this month. “No harm in making sure.” Indeed, he said that training sessions for election monitors were already in the works.

Democrats who have been tracking the effort say the goal is not to limit fraud, but to make the supposed threat of election theft the tentpole of a coordinated campaign by Republicans and their allies to limit the number of Democratic ballots counted in November.

“This is a burn-it-down strategy, a strategy to win at all costs,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, the senior adviser at Fair Fight, the voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia. “They see this as central to victory.”

Fair Fight claims that the groups’ combined spending on lawsuits, election monitoring and spreading allegations of cheating will far exceed the $20 million announced to date. That message, blasted out, in particular by Trump, has stirred concerns that the Republican fraud drumbeat could lay the groundwork for Trump and his supporters to reject the election results should he lose.

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised the stakes further, leading Democrats and voting rights advocates to call for expanded voting by mail and Trump and some Republicans to claim with little evidence that it would invite fraud.

Some skeptics say the voting wars are partly political Kabuki, acted out to rally supporters in both parties and raise funds for advocacy groups. But in a presidential election where social distancing has muffled campaigning and few voters remain on the fence, turnout has taken on outsized importance. And neither side disputes that November’s vote, as in 2016, could turn on a relative handful of ballots in key states.

Neither the Trump campaign nor the Republican National Committee responded to requests for interviews, although the committee provided a summary of its work and policies. In essence, Republicans say Democratic efforts to relax voting restrictions are partisan moves that demand a firm response, and that Republican countermeasures reflect standard political mobilizing.

Others say the Republican focus on vanishingly rare cases of fraud targets a politically useful phantom.

“It’s utter nonsense. This has been shown over and over,” said Kenneth R. Mayer, an elections expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The continued insistence that there are material levels of intentional voter fraud is itself a form of fraud.”

But political strategists insisted at the conservative committee conference in March that ballot fakery was a major concern. “In some of these areas where there’s no Republican presence whatsoever, then they’re going to cheat, and they’re going to cheat early and they’re going to cheat often,” Helton said at the March conference. At polling places, he said, “just having a presence of some sort is a deterrent for probably 80% of the bad behavior.”

Being present at the polls isn’t unusual; in fact, both parties monitor polls. Monitors check whether poll workers follow the rules and can complain to election supervisors or summon party lawyers if differences are not resolved.

They also can challenge voters’ right to cast a ballot — if, for instance, a voter lacks a required ID card. That can force voters to cast provisional ballots that are not counted unless they prove their eligibility.

But Democrats say the Republican focus on monitors and repeated allegations of fraud are part of a coordinated strategy to depress turnout, especially by minorities, by fueling anxieties among voters already suspicious of the authorities.

“They don’t need to keep millions of people away” from the polls, said Groh-Wargo. “Challenge a couple of voters here, a couple there, and it all aggregates up. They realize they’re going to win or lose this thing at the margins.”

Among other things, Democrats cite Trump’s repeated demands that law-enforcement officers patrol the polls and the recent creation of voter-fraud task forces by Republicans in four state governments, at least in part at the national party’s urging.

They also point to a meeting in February attended by conservative political luminaries and at least one national Republican Party official, sponsored by the Center for National Policy, a group of conservative power brokers. The topic was voter fraud and “ballot security” operations, particularly in inner cities and areas with Native American populations, according to The Intercept, which published excerpts from a recording of the meeting.

One group represented at that meeting, Texas-based True the Vote, is recruiting military veterans to become poll monitors. The group, an offshoot of a Houston Tea Party branch, was scrutinized by local prosecutors after its first poll-monitoring effort in 2012 sparked complaints of voter intimidation.

The group’s founder, Catherine Engelbrecht, told the gathering that Democrats could inundate the polls with phony votes. “The swarming tactics of a radicalized socialist mindset,” she warned, “is a dangerous thing to behold.” The group did not respond to a request for comment.

History also offers reason for Democrats’ concern. The court order vacated in 2018 involved repeated efforts to depress Democratic turnout. In the first instance, the party recruited off-duty police officers wearing “National Ballot Security Task Force” armbands to monitor polling places in black and Latino neighborhoods in New Jersey. A Democratic lawsuit claimed the officers hectored poll workers and voters and stopped volunteers from helping voters cast ballots.

At the Conservative Political Action Committee conference, Justin Clark, a Trump campaign senior adviser overseeing Election Day operations, argued that the court order had handed a decadeslong edge to Democrats.

“We were really operating with one hand behind our back,” he said.

Speaking to Wisconsin Republicans in November, Clark said the party’s expanded poll-monitoring plans were accelerated by defeats last November in governor’s races in Kentucky and Louisiana.

The party has named three regional directors of Election Day operations, is hiring directors in 15 key states and will beef up the paid staffs that recruit and work with volunteers. Wisconsin, for example, is to receive 100 operatives, compared to 62 in 2016.

One aim, he said, is to expand poll monitoring beyond the usual big-city Democratic strongholds. Clark, in remarks which were posted online by the Democratic opposition group American Bridge, cited a county where he said Trump won by 14,000 votes in 2016. “But maybe he should have won by 17,000,” he said. “Their cheating doesn’t just happen when you lose a county.”

In addition to the $20 million raised by the party for legal battles over election rules, conservative advocacy groups have joined the legal war, filing lawsuits and briefs in states such as New Mexico, Minnesota and Nevada. The Honest Elections Project, which surfaced only this spring, already has joined legal battles over voting in six states and has spent $250,000 on advertising opposing voting by mail.

Honest Elections officials did not respond to a request for an interview. But an account in the online publication Axios in January detailed plans by Leo, its creator, “to funnel tens of millions of dollars into conservative fights” nationwide.

Republicans said the goal of their litigation effort was “to ensure the integrity of the 2020 election” and rebuff Democratic attempts “to sue their way to victory in 2020.” But Mark Elias, a Washington lawyer who represents Democrats in many of the suits that Republicans are contesting, said every Republican court filing has sought to add or keep limits on voting rather than remove them.

“I go to bed sleeping pretty well, thinking I’m fighting for everybody to be able to vote,” he said. “When was the last time a party said it would spend $20 million to make voting harder?”

A nationwide effort by Republicans plan to have people "monitor" polling places during the presidential election to watch for "suspicious" voters. This is absolutely frightening because it reads like these groups are going to scare away minority voters. Hiring off duty police and ex military to "monitor" these polling stations most likely armed with pistols if not rifles, because they always have to be armed, would intimidate any minority voter possibly away from the polling station. These people are singing the same old song Trump has been singing since he lost the popular vote. That there is nothing but voter fraud in every Democrat vote. Yet Trump put together a voter fraud investigation and yet he disbanded that group and hid away their "findings". In fact the counts of voter fraud we have been reading about since the 2016 election all seem to start with a capital R and not a D. One that was by far the worst was the ballot tampering by a Republican operative and his cronies of collecting and tampering with absentee voting. It must be a case of "well we do it so the Democrats must be doing it too."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/freed-cou...122713344.html

[Omega10]

A nationwide effort by Republicans plan to have people "monitor" polling places during the presidential election to watch for "suspicious" voters. This is absolutely frightening because it reads like these groups are going to scare away minority voters. Hiring off duty police and ex military to "monitor" these polling stations most likely armed with pistols if not rifles, because they always have to be armed, would intimidate any minority voter possibly away from the polling station. These people are singing the same old song Trump has been singing since he lost the popular vote. That there is nothing but voter fraud in every Democrat vote. Yet Trump put together a voter fraud investigation and yet he disbanded that group and hid away their "findings". In fact the counts of voter fraud we have been reading about since the 2016 election all seem to start with a capital R and not a D. One that was by far the worst was the ballot tampering by a Republican operative and his cronies of collecting and tampering with absentee voting. It must be a case of "well we do it so the Democrats must be doing it too."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/freed-cou...122713344.html

This is very effective politicking on the part of republicans.

And as far as the bolded part goes, no it's not a case of them thinking that democrats are doing it too. They are just flat out lying. They know they are doing it, they know democrats are not doing it (they would be all over it if democrats WERE doing it), and they know that shouting out their lies is the best political thing for them to do. So they do it.

[Endus]

There are two reasons Republicans are doing this shit.

The first, obvious one, is to suppress legitimate votes by those who might vote Democrat. They don't believe they can win legitimately, so they're going to try and stack the vote unlawfully.

The second, hinted at in the article but not clearly described, is that Republicans have been drumming this "voter fraud" angle up as a ready-made Reichstag Fire; if they lose the election, then they'll declare the election to be fraudulent, because of rampant voter fraud that there's no trace of, but they'll use that claim to cover their refutation of the results and their attempt to seize and maintain control despite the loss in that election.

They're going to try and cheat, and if that fails, they're going to try and declare the results illegitimate. That's the only reason they'd be pulling this kind of horseshit. It's never been about voter fraud, it's always been about suppressing legitimate Democratic voters and trying to seize power they have no right to.

[pathora44]

Voter intimidation is one of many tools the GOP employs to suppress the vote. Another reason we should all be voting by mail come November.

But then they can't have fully armed men "monitor" for "suspicious" voters so then the Democrats can stuff the ballots with 10 trillion fake votes.

[szechuan]

When Trump loses in 2020 we'll hear nothing but Whining from Republicans about non-existant Voter Fraud

If Trump wins in 2020 we'll still hear republicans whine about non-existant Voter Fraud

[breadisfunny]

seems like the gilded age all over again where your boss would hire thugs to go to polling places and make sure you voted right.

[kasuke06]

So, why is this supposed to be scary? Because some dude will be standing around with a gun doing his best to suck in his beer gut? This is America, guns are kind of our thing, weird as that thought is. Man/woman up and vote. They so much as breathe wrong and your mob will do everything they possibly can to ruin their entire life, their friend's lives, and their children's lives and you know it.

Do you piss yourself in fear every time you see a cop, that's a guy with a gun and the capability to take away nearly all of your rights on a whim?

[Trifle]

So, why is this supposed to be scary? Because some dude will be standing around with a gun doing his best to suck in his beer gut? This is America, guns are kind of our thing, weird as that thought is. Man/woman up and vote. They so much as breathe wrong and your mob will do everything they possibly can to ruin their entire life, their friend's lives, and their children's lives and you know it.

Do you piss yourself in fear every time you see a cop, that's a guy with a gun and the capability to take away nearly all of your rights on a whim?

Try reading, here I'll help you:

History also offers reason for Democrats’ concern. The court order vacated in 2018 involved repeated efforts to depress Democratic turnout. In the first instance, the party recruited off-duty police officers wearing “National Ballot Security Task Force” armbands to monitor polling places in black and Latino neighborhoods in New Jersey. A Democratic lawsuit claimed the officers hectored poll workers and voters and stopped volunteers from helping voters cast ballots.

[Kaleredar]

Trump and the Republican party actively supporting voter intimidation.

But remember, "both sides are the same" because Biden isn't all-in on free college or whatever.

When Trump loses in 2020 we'll hear nothing but Whining from Republicans about non-existant Voter Fraud

If Trump wins in 2020 we'll still hear republicans whine about non-existant Voter Fraud

Well if we have to hear about whining either way, I'd much rather go with Option A, there.

- - - Updated - - -

So, why is this supposed to be scary? Because some dude will be standing around with a gun doing his best to suck in his beer gut? This is America, guns are kind of our thing, weird as that thought is. Man/woman up and vote. They so much as breathe wrong and your mob will do everything they possibly can to ruin their entire life, their friend's lives, and their children's lives and you know it.

And so can the courts successfully adjudicate and rectify a person being disallowed to vote on the exact same day that person goes to vote? You know... election day?

Or will the intimidation, regardless of the eventual ramifications for the "officer," have accomplished its goal in stopping that person and others from voting in the election as intended?

[Vercincor]

Are these people "monitoring" polling places going to be issued a uniform?

A brown shirt maybe?

[Freighter]

A nationwide effort by Republicans plan to have people "monitor" polling places during the presidential election to watch for "suspicious" voters. This is absolutely frightening because it reads like these groups are going to scare away minority voters. Hiring off duty police and ex military to "monitor" these polling stations most likely armed with pistols if not rifles, because they always have to be armed, would intimidate any minority voter possibly away from the polling station. These people are singing the same old song Trump has been singing since he lost the popular vote. That there is nothing but voter fraud in every Democrat vote. Yet Trump put together a voter fraud investigation and yet he disbanded that group and hid away their "findings". In fact the counts of voter fraud we have been reading about since the 2016 election all seem to start with a capital R and not a D. One that was by far the worst was the ballot tampering by a Republican operative and his cronies of collecting and tampering with absentee voting. It must be a case of "well we do it so the Democrats must be doing it too."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/freed-cou...122713344.html

If someone is intimated to not vote because polling stations are being monitored they might have some issues that they need to go to a professional to deal with.

[Templar 331]

So, why is this supposed to be scary? Because some dude will be standing around with a gun doing his best to suck in his beer gut? This is America, guns are kind of our thing, weird as that thought is. Man/woman up and vote. They so much as breathe wrong and your mob will do everything they possibly can to ruin their entire life, their friend's lives, and their children's lives and you know it.

Do you piss yourself in fear every time you see a cop, that's a guy with a gun and the capability to take away nearly all of your rights on a whim?

Except I fucking live in Georgia surrounded by those types who harass me for voting Democrat. You think I'll have any support at the polls when they start getting pushy? Many already consider me a traitor.

[s_bushido]

If someone is intimated to not vote because polling stations are being monitored they might have some issues that they need to go to a professional to deal with.

Imagine not being able to figure out that this isn't going to be used for anything more than outright intimidation tactics. You know...the exact same thing they had been found to be doing over the course of the 30 years that the court ruling had been in place.

[Felya]

Do you piss yourself in fear every time you see a cop, that's a guy with a gun and the capability to take away nearly all of your rights on a whim?

Not “piss”, but I am concerned. I’m a very large and intimidating man. The example I give, is that grown ass, adult men, jump into the air... when elevator doors open and I’m standing on the other side. I need to be concerned, because there are a lot more avenues for me to be so scary they will shoot, than someone normal. When going to 7/11, I take my covid mask off and wave, making sure to make eye contact, before I enter.

I don’t think people really understand what constitutes justification that a cops life is in danger. Try to imagine what 5 of the most dangerous people look like, now do the same and pretend you are racist. See the problem?

[Low Hanging Fruit]

At this point I am not sure what can actually be done about it. It will most likely go down in red states with blue zones. People just have to decide to get bullied and not vote or stand up to the bully. It won't go away if you just sit at the house and hope.

[Felya]

At this point I am not sure what can actually be done about it. It will most likely go down in red states with blue zones. People just have to decide to get bullied and not vote or stand up to the bully. It won't go away if you just sit at the house and hope.

It’s a tough one, because you don’t want to encourage people being afraid of the cops, while at the same time pointing out that people will be afraid of the cops. Most cops are very good people, who take a shit job to help the community, but the few assholes makes this a really tough subject.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

It’s a tough one, because you don’t want to encourage people being afraid of the cops, while at the same time pointing out that people will be afraid of the cops. Most cops are very good people, who take a shit job to help the community, but the few assholes makes this a really tough subject.

Be bulled or not. If I go down to the polling station and a guy with a rifle is looking at me I will say fuck'em. I am a American citizen of Mexican decent. I know these people don't like me. Think I am a rapist, drug lord, murderer, and all that other jazz just because I am brown. Even though my family has lived in Texas since it was Mexico, then its own nation, became part of the States, rebelled against the States in the Civil War, and rejoined the United States. But still, I get it, I am brown.

But they are going to have to shoot me or beat me up pretty good to stop me from voting against Trump. Even in a state where he pretty much automatically wins. You know why? Because fuck him. That is why. Sure I am afraid of getting shot. But I am more afraid to be a bitch that did nothing to stop it from getting worse.

[Hif]

So, why is this supposed to be scary? Because some dude will be standing around with a gun doing his best to suck in his beer gut? This is America, guns are kind of our thing, weird as that thought is. Man/woman up and vote. They so much as breathe wrong and your mob will do everything they possibly can to ruin their entire life, their friend's lives, and their children's lives and you know it.

Do you piss yourself in fear every time you see a cop, that's a guy with a gun and the capability to take away nearly all of your rights on a whim?

The cop with the gun won't kill me because I am brown. The fat ass small dick NRA voter with a gun will kill me for being brown. Ahmaud Arbery is just one example. As are the numerous examples of churches, mosques and synagogues being attacked.

I am not afraid of a cop with a gun. I am shit scared for me and my family when a white man enters a store armed to the teeth, because he may just kill me because he thinks he can.

So nope. No guns in voting booths, unless the democrats are allowed to arm members of the Black Lives movement and they can monitor polling stations too. That work for you?

[Flarelaine]

Are these people "monitoring" polling places going to be issued a uniform?

A brown shirt maybe?

Don't forget matching jackboots.

[Kokolums]

I've made this prediction before, but there is no chance in hell that the voting in 2020 is:
A) going to be fair.
B) going to have a legitimate result.

There is 0% chance that Trump will step down. The way Republicans are behaving right now, it wouldn't even surprise me if they tried to get rid of the 8-year term limit too.

Term limits don't really do anything.

Biden could announce that, if he was elected, he would create a new cabinet post called "high king" and that Obama would be appointed to it. As high king, Obama would perform all the usual social functions a president does, like give pressers, meet with dignitaries, hold staff meetings, have final say on staff hires, etc. Also, high king Obama would make ALL policy decisions a president does, Biden would just rubber stamp everything by signing the documents, executive orders, etc. Biden is just there to write his own name on official papers because Biden technically is the president.