Trump’s poll-watching “voter fraud” squad sounds like it could easily lead to voter intimidation

[DonViejo]

Donald Trump’s poll-watching “voter fraud” squad sounds like it could easily lead to voter intimidation

Trump tells Pennsylvania supporters to deputize themselves as poll watchers. What could possibly go wrong?

SIMON MALOY

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At several points throughout his campaign, Donald Trump has called for his supporters to organize themselves into vigilante election-integrity monitors. Building on the rich tradition of Republican “voter fraud” hysterics, Trump warns attendees at his rallies that unspecified funny business is happening at polling places in “certain areas,” and instructs them to cast their ballots and then head to one of those “certain areas” to make sure the election isn’t stolen from him.

“You’ve got to go out, and you’ve got to get your friends, and you’ve got to get everybody you know, and you gotta watch the polling booths,” Trump said at a rally in Manheim, Pennsylvania, last weekend. “I hear too many bad stories, and we can’t lose an election because of — you know what I’m talking about.

Added Trump: “So go over and watch. And watch carefully because we’re going to win the state of Pennsylvania.”

These rants often focus specifically on Pennsylvania, which Trump seems to believe he can snatch away from Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton this cycle. The “certain areas” he’s referring to are the state’s Democratic strongholds — urban centers like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — where minority voters have given Democratic candidates an as-yet insurmountable edge in presidential elections, and where conservatives falsely claim rampant voter fraud is occurring.

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http://www.salon.com/2016/10/07/trumps-poll-posses-could-the-gop-nominees-voter-fraud-squad-lead-to-voter-intimidation/

[Botany]

1. They can not do shit.

It is illegal to bother and or interfere w/a voter w/100 ft. of the door of a polling station
and if they get the credentials to be inside the polling place they are not allowed to bother
voters. And you just can not just get the needed credentials to be a poll observer by
asking for them and trust me a lot of these trump-heads/tea baggers who want to be
"poll watchers" lack the needed paper work .... and they are stupid too.

BTW I have done voter protection for years in OH.

[Eleanors38]

2. Election judges have considerable power to stop this. Just use it. I have.