Donald Trump campaign's poll-watching plans spark fears of voter suppression

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: CNN

The Trump campaign is working to dispatch tens of thousands of election monitors to battleground states in what is shaping up as the Republican Party's largest-ever poll-watching operation.

The party's aggressive plans for poll-monitoring have sparked charges from Democrats and voting-rights groups that Republicans are gearing up to suppress voting in key states as President Donald Trump repeatedly claims, without evidence, that voter fraud will imperil November's election.

Republicans say their new push will allow them to protect election integrity and better coordinate their get-out-vote operations. Both sides are headed for a legal showdown on the issue in Pennsylvania -- a state Trump won in 2016 by about 44,000 votes out of 6 million cast.

The Trump campaign is fighting a Pennsylvania law that restricts poll watchers to monitoring voting in the county in which they live -- one of dozens of lawsuits filed by Republicans and Democrats that challenge the ground rules of a fast-approaching election that state and local officials are racing to carry out in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-campaign-s-poll-watching-plans-spark-fears-of-voter-suppression/ar-BB17ZTEe?li=BBnbfcQ&ocid=DELLDHP

[LakeArenal]

1. Not spark. Full fledged fire fear.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. THey are not poll watchers seeking a fair vote

They are disrupters charged with clogging up the voting mechanism and slowing down the polls so voters will go home and not vote.

[LakeArenal]

3. Don't forget intimidation.

[Kaiserguy]

6. There is a cure for that

but the only one that can cure it are the people trying to vote at the location where these scum bag are at.

[KS Toronado]

22. Not only that, will they be conducting "exit polls" which shows trumpo winning in a landslide?

So when Joe & Kamala are declared the winners, trumpo will call out the National Guard
screaming rigged election,I'm being robbed, I'm not leaving the W.H. etc, etc, etc?

[Harker]

4. The Brownshirts want to be free

to intimidate voters and trump up phony stories of dogs and dead people voting twice.

[Renew Deal]

5. That's why they don't want people voting by mail.

It's harder to intimidate them.

[turbinetree]

7. Fuck them and that fucking horse they ride on..................

if one of those trump assholes ask me anything , if I have to stand in line...............I am calling the cops...............poll watching, I hate traitors supporting a fucking traitor especially assholes at a poll trying to suppress my vote and millions of others........................

[yellowdogintexas]

42. Alert the Presiding Election Judge Immediately

Whether you are in line or at the voting station.

Check with your county elections administrator about rules for "poll workers" in your county.
Find out what you can do if you witness voter harrassment or intimidation.

In Texas the Presiding Judge has significant authority and can evict anyone with cellphones out, any sort of electioneering or intimidation or someone claiming to be a "poll watcher" who is not credentialed.

We have a whole kit of supplies at the ready if someone introduces themselves as poll watchers. They have to have ID and be signed in. They get a badge. They stay inside. During the actual voting process, we can keep an eye on them and keep them away from the actual voting area.
They can't do anything which resembles promoting one candidate or party over another if they are within 100 feet of the entrance to the voting center. They can't jump around from one precinct to another either. It's a 4 hour stay if you come in.

Someone from the election table will be periodically going out to the end of the line so we can check our wait times, at which time we can also watch for signs of harassment or intimidation.

In my 5 years as an election worker, I have never had a poll watcher show up so I do not know what to expect.

[turbinetree]

45. Yepper spot on................

Wado...............Thank you will do......................

[llashram]

8. we have to do the same

simple as that. There are thousands of us also invested in this election enough to make sure it is a fair election. To hell with trump-Putin-Hitler and his brownshirts. Anti-intimidation ads must be run to bolster the courage of our forces. Not saying we are not courageous, just saying training helps in this fight for the soul of our democracy.

[JudyM]

16. We also need to line up precinct captains, poll watchers and lawyers like never before.

We never have enough experienced volunteers. A warm body is not enough.

[llashram]

17. yep

[yellowdogintexas]

24. In Texas, poll watchers have register with the county elections office

they have to sign in with the Presiding ELection judge and have ID badges. There are other limitations on what they can do and voter intimidation is definitely not allowed.

Also once they are in a particular voting center they have to stay four hours.

In 5 years of serving as an Election Judge, I have never had to verify credentials or provide identification for a poll watcher, because they just weren't showing up. We are prepared for them though

I am more worried about folks lurking around out in the parking lot trying to get their hands on the ballot bin. The Presiding Judge delivers that and other items to the Election Service drop off so the transfer from the building to the car would have the potential to be risky. This year is so strange that I can see some fool and his buddies trying to hijack the ballots.

[JudyM]

29. I've seen my share of tense challenges inside

We need a Dem at every location to oversee.

That being said, we definitely need to have whatever chain of custody protections we can conceive for mail-ins. National Guard would be a good addition to the mix.

[MarcA]

37. Texas must have changed. In the 1980 election

they would target older and minority precincts by interfering with non-English speakers trying to vote, intimidating voters by saying their voter registration cards were improperly stamped, refusing breaks for poll workers and forcing their way into vote counts after the polls closed and turning them into Reagan victory celebrations; and they had No IDs.

[Judi Lynn]

39. That's so wrong. What a shame they got by with it. They should have been arrested for all of that.

Unforgivable.

[yellowdogintexas]

44. they are not allowed to do that stuff and a lot of it was probably the poll workers themselves

in certain areas. This was also 40 years ago. Probably this is why every precinct in Texas is now required to have a bilingual Spanish speaking worker and technically a Vietnamese translator. They are sent to the locations with high populations of Vietnamese speakers. In Houston there are other minorities which get translators.

No one handles voter's registration cards & ID except the Election clerks. Votes are not counted at the precinct; everything goes to the County Elections Office at the end of the day, delivered by the presiding Judge at each precinct. We really protect the integrity of our vote.

Doors are locked after the last voter walks in the building. We don't stamp the registration cards either

[yellowdogintexas]

43. COVID 19 has thrown a gigantic monkey wrench into the number of poll workers

We are losing election workers left and right, and some of our locations are abysmal when it comes to social distancing. We need workers badly. I probably will not work for the first time in years because I do not want to bring it home to my husband who has 4 comorbitities

This is the reason Kentucky set their primary up the way they did, with fewer locations which were in well known accessible locations with as much equipment as possible available and at the same time maintaining proper social distancing.

Jefferson and Fayette counties used locations which are known to every person in the Commonwealth: the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville and the University of Kentucky football field in Lexington. Free parking, free Lyft, free public transportation in Louisville and campus bus service in Lexington. These locations were able to allow hundreds of voters to vote at the same time.

Biggest primary turnout in many many years, plus everyone had opportunity to request a no excuses needed mail in ballot (cards were sent to voters with instructions) and the larger cities had 5 days of early voting.

Every state could take a lesson from Kentucky

[JudyM]

46. What a radical concept it is to move elections in the direction of increasing accessibility.

Here’s hoping we boot out enough of the bums to start enshrining policies and practices that enhance our democracy all the way around.

[riversedge]

9. So, if we mail our ballots-they might not arrive on time & if show up at polls, #Trump thugs will

intimidate many.

damn. we might be doomed??

[jmbar2]

10. deposit ballots directly into dedicated ballot boxes

...until they find a way to mess with that too. 3-2-1...

[Thekaspervote]

12. Just drop the ballots into dedicated ballot boxes if voting by mail..period

If you have other no option but to mail your completed ballot

Follow these steps
1.make sure your ballot is completed correctly ASAP!
2.drop your ballot in a mail box in the most affluent area of your city
3. Put TWO ..2 1st class stamps on your ballot. Otherwise the ballot is mailed via bulk mail, a slower process. If stamped 1st class they have to handle it that way and it’s faster. The reason for TWO...2 first class stamps, the ballot is considered oversized and needs extra postage to be delivered.

[jmbar2]

20. Good suggestions!

[yellowdogintexas]

25. only if your state has them Texas does not.

Only drop location is the County Elections Office.
Or you can surrender your ballot at the voting center and vote in person.

[yellowdogintexas]

28. you left off the most important part: mail it back the day you receive it.

Drop at a postoffice, not a street box. Street boxes are not always visited daily. USPS offices send mail out to the central sorting location at least 2 x daily so dropping there, either in that location's street boxes or inside the building is far better.

If I want something to go a bit faster, I take it up to the central sorting office, which bypasses the time it takes a local PO to get it to the central location.

[Thekaspervote]

11. This is how they want us to feel..doomed without hope or options don't believe that!!

[llashram]

18. NEVER

[Drunken Irishman]

32. Yup! This is exactly what Trump wants you to feel.

If you feel doomed, you don't vote.

I see a lot of liberals here, and on twitter, spreading fear about this and the resignation is setting in that Trump will steal the election.

[Cryptoad]

13. At least ten Thugs to each polling place..

DNC needs to do the same to counter act this,,,,,

All the Democratic Governors need to call up the National Guard to protect the polling places....

[SWBTATTReg]

14. These thugs don't scare me one bit. No one will stop me or mine from voting, period.

I've heard this same thing/same threat before, and it is getting old. It hasn't happened yet (at least at my polling place), and I don't expect it to either.

Thugs don't scare me one bit.

[C Moon]

15. I'll bet this was the plan all along, but the surge in mail voting threw a wrench in their plans.

[kimbutgar]

19. Ironically we all have been home the last 5 months watching BLM protests and awful

Police violence toward peaceful protesters. People are determined to vote and angry at the pos. If they send these poll watchers we should have our own countering them. I will stare down any asshole who will try to stop me from voting. We all should say no we’re not going to let you get away with this! And who knows how many of these maskless right wingers will be sick by then and not be able to vote?

[Sierra89]

21. I am registered to receive an early vote by mail ballot in Arizona

and I have every intention of filling it out the same day I receive it, then dropping it off at the Recorder's Office IN PERSON.
I will not take a chance on the mail. They have notified us that the USPS can handle the mail in our area, but I will not leave any room for error. I have told my family and friends this as well, and most of them will be doing the same. I hope someone does try to interfere with me voting. I will immediately contact law enforcement. This NASTY LATINA will not tolerate any such crap, whether it is directed at me or not. I will do so for anyone I see it happen to.
Enough of that bullshit.

Biden/Harris 2020!!

[yellowdogintexas]

26. don't you have dedicated drop boxes in AZ? Those do not involve the mail

You can verify with your county elections office but if I understand what my daughter tells me (she lives in Phoenix) these special ballot boxes are all over the place and are emptied daily by elections workers.

[Sierra89]

38. Designated Locations

Starting on October 7th there are three offices to drop off early and emergency ballots. That is done where we drop off curbside to someone in person under the watch of poll workers. Then, October 26th thru October 30th there are several other locations to drop off curbside or walk the ballots in. We live in Pima County.

[debsy]

23. I think it is time to call in the UN to monitor this election.

We have descended into chaos because that is what dumpster, his campaign, and the russians have been working at since the campaign of 2016. We need legitimate eyes on this election in a really big way.

[bucolic_frolic]

31. That's a good idea! Very good idea!

[EarthFirst]

27. Will they be civilians or military clad government contractors with chemical agents?

Maybe a few BlackHawk helicopters hovering overhead?

[bucolic_frolic]

30. Hope many of them are arrested

We should have a very low tolerance in regards to confrontation, accusations, delays. They are there to muck up the machinery.

[NBachers]

33. I have an immediate solution for these thugs, but I won't print it out loud here.

[BlueIdaho]

34. Most states have strict rules regarding poll watchers

Not just any old pud-knocker can invite themselves into a polling place as a poll watcher. Usually the local parties each get one poll watcher per polling station. Those poll watchers may not interact directly with voters. If they sight a concern - they can only register that concern with those running the polling site. Poll workers can instruct law enforcement to remove anyone interfering with a persons right to vote.

[Scarsdale]

35. Sounds like a job for

Eric Prince's "boys" They already have uniforms, weapons, sprays etc. used to clear the way for tRump's bible fiasco at the church. This bloated orange mistake needs a wake-up call. He is NOT a king.

[ananda]

36. Dems must counteract this.

!!!

[Maxheader]

40. 10s of thousands? Working at it?

They'll be looked upon as fed. agents.....

[brooklynite]

47. I know of no State that allows a non-resident to be inside the polling place...

Republican monitors can be outside the polling place...just like we can.