GOP Seeks to Empower Poll Watchers

[applegrove]

GOP Seeks to Empower Poll Watchers

May 1, 2021 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 155 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2021/05/01/gop-seeks-to-empower-poll-watchers/

"SNIP......

New York Times: “As Republican lawmakers in major battleground states seek to make voting harder and more confusing through a web of new election laws, they are simultaneously making a concerted legislative push to grant more autonomy and access to partisan poll watchers — citizens trained by a campaign or a party and authorized by local election officials to observe the electoral process.”

“This effort has alarmed election officials and voting rights activists alike: There is a long history of poll watchers being used to intimidate voters and harass election workers, often in ways that target Democratic-leaning communities of color and stoke fears that have the overall effect of voter suppression.”

.....SNIP"

[msongs]

1. brown shirt nazis did the same thing in germany....waited outside polling places and threatened

people

[Botany]

2. I have done poll warching/election protection work for 16 years and it is illegal for a poll watcher

.... to engage with a voter in order to stop a voter from voting or even harass a voter.
You can't say shit to a voter with in 100' of the precinct's door. A credentialed (this is
where the GOP fucks up a lot) observer can help a voter or an election worker resolve
a problem or a question but only if the precinct judge allows that observer to do so.

Most of the time I have found having somebody on the outside of the precinct or myself
going outside of the building to talk to a voter is a good way to handle any problems.

This kind of shit is DOA.

BTW 2 things:
The democrats have become very good @ protecting an individual's vote on election day but the real problems caused
by the GOP happen on the macro scale. Manipulation of electronic voting machines and central tabulators, removal
of legit voters from voter rolls, gerrymandering, and closing of voting locations, or limiting the times of voting are
or massive disinformation to the American voters are the real mother fuckers.

Trump and the GOP are pissed off because early voting and voting by mail bypasses a lot of the planned rat fuckery
by the republicans.

[applegrove]

3. They can create an environment of authoritarian harassment and plant the seeds

Last edited Sat May 1, 2021, 11:10 PM - Edit history (2)

of fielty in people who are old and feeble and afraid to vote. Populist Doug Ford in Ontario was really unpopular as a conservative premier with draconian governing. Then covid arrived and he copied Trudeau in how he protected people. His numbers went up. Recently he has gone authoritarian and anti-compassion with no law for paid leave for necessary workers who often live in multi generational homes and end up working when they are sick because they can't afford not to. Ford also was going to allow and get the police to pull over any car they saw on the street. Police forces around the province told him to **** off and he cancelled the edict. His numbers are now tanking again.

The point in these authoritarian populists will never waste an opportunity to break people's spirits by making them afraid of the authoritarian's "power" so people will become more compliant be it to play the police off the people or to sour the very thought of voting in the US case today. The police in Ontario were having none of it. We have the benefit of being many steps removed from what is happening in the USA so we kept our perspective. That is what americans should do with this meant-to-be-very-scary voter baiting ****.

The other thing vote baiting does is lock the aggressors into being for authoritarianism because they sold their souls and there would maybe be no turning back and simply saying or deciding "hey i need good cheap childcare so my wife can work and we can save for a home in the burbs" that Biden is trying to appeal to.

[Botany]

4. "They" can talk a big game but in the end "they" can't do shit.

We have gotten very good on putting enough boots on the ground to stop a lot of their crap,
the law is on our side, early voting and mail in voting by passes much of their election day
rat fucking, for years if have seen them talk a big game but in the end "they" don't show up,
population demographics is on our side, and the DoJ under Biden & Garland will be ready for
them.

[applegrove]

5. I so hope you are right.