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PaulinVA
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...in_trumppollwatchers-845pm:homepage/story-ans
I’m posting this because I had no idea that the Republicans have been under a consent decree for decades based on voter intimidation.
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Nearly 30 years ago, a Republican Party program that dispatched off-duty police officers to patrol polling places in heavily Black and Latino neighborhoods in New Jersey triggered accusations of voter intimidation, resulting in a federal agreement that restricted for decades how the national GOP could observe voting.
Now, two years after those limits were lifted, President Trump has revived the idea of using law enforcement officers to patrol polling places, invoking tactics historically used to scare voters of color.
In an interview Thursday with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump described law enforcement officers as part of a phalanx of authorities he hopes will monitor voting in November.
…
Attorney Marc Elias, who is leading the Democratic Party’s voting litigation efforts, said he will rush to court if he sees any evidence of the actions Trump described.
“The reason why the Republican Party was under a consent decree for 40 years was for precisely this kind of behavior in 1981,” he said. “It would be unfortunate if, having come out from under that consent decree, they now try to repeat those tactics.”
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Justin Riemer, the RNC’s chief counsel, said volunteers will be trained on local rules and on looking for potential voting problems or fraud. At times, he said, the ballot watchers may confront issues directly with poll workers or may call their problems in to a team of election lawyers back at state headquarters. He said volunteers also will be trained to observe local officials as they count mail-in votes.
…
Accusations of voter intimidation continued long past the end of Jim Crow. Black voters in Florida complained about police traffic stops on Election Day as recently as 2000, according to a report on the 2000 presidential election by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 2010, advocates accused North Carolina police of voter suppression after they set up traffic checkpoints between primarily Black apartment complexes and polling locations.
The RNC came under scrutiny for allegedly violating the Voting Rights Act in New Jersey’s 1981 gubernatorial race, when the party was accused of creating a “National Ballot Security Task Force” made up of off-duty deputy sheriffs and local police officers who wore armbands and patrolled the polls in largely Black and Latino neighborhoods. Some allegedly displayed their firearms. Official-looking signs were posted at some precincts warning that voter fraud is a crime and that the task force was watching.
I’m posting this because I had no idea that the Republicans have been under a consent decree for decades based on voter intimidation.
…
Nearly 30 years ago, a Republican Party program that dispatched off-duty police officers to patrol polling places in heavily Black and Latino neighborhoods in New Jersey triggered accusations of voter intimidation, resulting in a federal agreement that restricted for decades how the national GOP could observe voting.
Now, two years after those limits were lifted, President Trump has revived the idea of using law enforcement officers to patrol polling places, invoking tactics historically used to scare voters of color.
In an interview Thursday with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump described law enforcement officers as part of a phalanx of authorities he hopes will monitor voting in November.
…
Attorney Marc Elias, who is leading the Democratic Party’s voting litigation efforts, said he will rush to court if he sees any evidence of the actions Trump described.
“The reason why the Republican Party was under a consent decree for 40 years was for precisely this kind of behavior in 1981,” he said. “It would be unfortunate if, having come out from under that consent decree, they now try to repeat those tactics.”
…
Justin Riemer, the RNC’s chief counsel, said volunteers will be trained on local rules and on looking for potential voting problems or fraud. At times, he said, the ballot watchers may confront issues directly with poll workers or may call their problems in to a team of election lawyers back at state headquarters. He said volunteers also will be trained to observe local officials as they count mail-in votes.
…
Accusations of voter intimidation continued long past the end of Jim Crow. Black voters in Florida complained about police traffic stops on Election Day as recently as 2000, according to a report on the 2000 presidential election by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 2010, advocates accused North Carolina police of voter suppression after they set up traffic checkpoints between primarily Black apartment complexes and polling locations.
The RNC came under scrutiny for allegedly violating the Voting Rights Act in New Jersey’s 1981 gubernatorial race, when the party was accused of creating a “National Ballot Security Task Force” made up of off-duty deputy sheriffs and local police officers who wore armbands and patrolled the polls in largely Black and Latino neighborhoods. Some allegedly displayed their firearms. Official-looking signs were posted at some precincts warning that voter fraud is a crime and that the task force was watching.