voting rights

Secretary of State warns against vigilante poll observers on election day

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Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan is warning not to engage in illegal conduct on election day.   Secretary of state issues warnings about behavior at polls on election day:

Seeking to avoid confrontation between voters and self-styled poll watchers, Secretary of State Michele Reagan warned Wednesday what will and will not be tolerated at polling places next week.

Some of what Reagan outlined is already law, like who can remain inside polling places and a ban on photos and videos there. And she reiterated that there is no electioneering within 75 feet.

But the key is her warnings of what is unacceptable to occur outside that 75-foot perimeter, an area where partisans can watch and even try to influence voters.

trumpintimidationHer list includes everything from demanding that prospective voters must provide credentials and erecting signs listing the penalty for voter fraud to the “aggressive or ostentatious display of weapons.”

The warning comes amid claims by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that the election is “rigged” and that people who are not citizens will be casting ballots.

Trump has repeatedly suggested his supporters need to personally keep an eye on what is happening at polling places. That includes statements at one rally to “check out areas because a lot of bad things happen, and we don’t want to lose for that reason.”

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Trump campaign inspires white nationalist threats of voter intimidation on election day

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So it has come to this . . . Stephen Bannon of the alt-right white nationalist Breitbart.com is actually managing the campaign of the Republican nominee for president.

Donald Trump also has a team of GOP ratfuckers advising his campaign from Roger Stone, to Roger Ailes, to Mike Roman, and other alt-right luminaries such as conspiracy theorist  Alex Jones of Info Wars.

Trump’s son Donny Junior earlier this year proudly aligned himself and the Trump campaign with the white nationalists of the alt-right on Instagram. Trump Jr. and top supporter share White nationalist image on social media:

Roger Stone, a Donald Trump ally, and Donald Trump Jr. have shared a White Nationalist symbol on Twitter.

Screen Shot 2016-11-02 at 12.38.03 PM

The image includes photos of Stone, Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), Eric Trump, vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), Donald Trump Jr., Infowars’s Alex Jones, conservative writer Milo Yiannopoulos and a frog meme associated with the alt-right movement — all under a large heading that reads “The Deplorables.”

The frog, called Pepe, is a white supremacist meme, the Southern Poverty Law Center told NBC News.

“It’s constantly used in those circles,” said SPLC’s Heidi Beirich.

“The white nationalists are gonna love this because they’re gonna feel like, ‘Yeah we’re in there with Trump, there’s Pepe the Frog.'”

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Democrats sue Trump to prevent voter intimidation in four states (including Arizona)

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Law Newz blog reports that the Democratic Party has Sued Donald Trump, Roger Stone for Voter Intimidation in 4 States:

trumpintimidationLeaders from state Democratic parties in four states have filed federal lawsuits against Donald Trump, Trump advisor [and GOP ratfucker] Roger Stone, and state Republican parties for “conspiring to threaten, intimidate, and thereby prevent minority voters in urban neighborhoods from voting in the 2016 election.” The legal effort is lead by Marc Elias, the general counsel for the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The lawsuits filed in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Ohio (h/t Election Law Blog) are asking a judge to stop the defendants from monitoring polls, verbally harassing voters, and following them around to take pictures.

In one of the lawsuits, filed by the Nevada Democratic Party, against Stone, Trump, and the Nevada Republican Party, the plaintiffs point to a statement given by an unnamed Trump official that “[w]e have three major voter suppression operations under way” (Bloomberg Business Week) as evidence. The complaint further alleges:

Trump’s supporters have responded with pledges to descend upon polling places in “certain areas” where many minority voters live in order to interfere with their efforts to exercise the franchise…

Immediate relief is necessary. There are only 8 days left until Election Day, and early in-person voting in Nevada is well underway. Trump’s calls for unlawful intimidation have grown louder and louder, and the conspiracy to harass and threaten voters on Election Day has already resulted in numerous acts that threaten to interfere with the voting rights of registered Nevada voters.

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9th Circuit upholds discriminatory AZ ballot collection law for this election

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The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals late Friday upheld Arizona’s discriminatory ballot collection law, which has a disparate impact on Native American and Latino communities. It is the final word for this election, but will not be the final word on this law. Divided Ninth Circuit panel upholds Arizona ballot harvesting ban:

Voting-RightsSaying there was no proof of racial discrimination, a federal appeals court ruled (.pdf) late Friday upheld the state’s new law against “ballot harvesting.”

Judge Sandra Ikuta, writing for the divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, acknowledged there was evidence that the law which took effect in August could make it more difficult for residents of rural communities, particularly those with limited or no mail service. The same is true, she said, of voters who are homebound and the elderly.

But Ikuta said there was “no evidence that these categories of voters were more likely to be minorities than non-minorities.”

That failure is significant: Federal courts can void state laws for violating the Voting Rights Act only if judges conclude that the statute has a disparate effect on minorities. Without that, Ikuta said, this challenge fails.

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Donald Trump is at war with democracy itself

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trumpintimidationDonald Trump’s call for his supporters to be vigilante poll observers on election day — remember, RNC warns its members not to engage in poll watching or any other so-called ‘ballot security’ measures — is all about depressing Democratic voter turnout among “those people” with the prospect of voter intimidation.

Already, “Many of the schools across America that house polling booths will not be open on Election Day for the first time after parents raised fears over violence.” Election Day Safety Fears See Schools Cancel Classes or Move Polling Places.

A USA Today/Suffolk University poll conducted this month finds that Half of likely U.S. voters say they are concerned about violence on Election Day:

Half of likely voters say they are at least somewhat concerned about violence either on Election Day or after.

One in five likely voters say they are very concerned, about the same number who said they were not terribly confident that the United States would “have a peaceful transfer of power after the election.”

And then there were the Trump supporters, i.e., potential vigilante poll observers:

[T]wo out of three Trump supporters said they thought the election’s results would be manipulated rather than be accurate. Trump supporters were also more likely to say that if he lost, it would be due to corruption and therefore the outcome would not be legitimate.

Exactly what Donald Trump has been programming his supporters to believe for months.

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