Have you ever encountered a GOP "poll watcher" while voting?

[bluestateguy]

A "poll watcher" is one of those operatives of the major political parties that are stationed at precincts to "observe" the election in progress. Usually they are stationed at precincts dominated by the other major party. I hear all these anecdotes about GOP poll watchers carrying video cameras, taping "suspicious" voters, as well as challenging individual voters (who are usually non-white), by demanding to see their ID or insisting to the poll workers that they not be allowed to vote. I don't think that the Democrats make use of this approach, certainly not in lily-white Republican precincts. I can say this, however, and that is that if some paid goon of the Republican National Committee stood in my way of voting at the the polls on election day, he would be watching election night returns from a hospital ward. I take my right to vote very seriously, and anyone who messes with that right will be treated as if they have committed a violent attack against me.

[Kolesar]

1. Chief Justice Rehnquist used to harrass black voters in Arizona

He would hold printed material up to them and say "you cannot read this, can you?". I suppose that Arizona had Jim Crow/literacy tests for voters back in the bad old days.

DUers will note that Rehnquist made a decision on the biggest voting case ever to be decided upon by the Supreme Court when he took the 2000 election away from Al Gore.

[La_Serpiente]

2. In my state elections

the GOP poll watcher would look at the precinct list, call up the voters, and ask them if they voted. Is it unethical? I don't know, but Democrats were doing the same thing in Lousiana, only this time they stopped people in their cars in New Orleans and asked the to vote.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. LOL...i walk thru this den of vipers (poll repukes) every election day...

i swear i must be the only registered dem in 300 square miles :shrug:

[benddem]

4. I've been a Democratic Poll Watcher

There were Reptiles there at the same time. But in White bread Oregon they didn't have much to do. But we made sure that people who had lost their ballots (we have vote by mail) or weren't on registration lists did get to vote. They did. What has gone on in some of these state..FL for example is criminal.:evilfrown:

[mlawson]

5. ??? How would you know one?

Where I vote, there are two tables, with two persons at each; they look up my name on the printout. I assume one person is of each party. My precinct in heavily Dem, BTW, as is my whole city.

Then I take a slip of paper with my number on it to a booth, where a person takes it. That is it. No one discusses any politics out loud, that is strictly prohibited. A few people might be outside by the parking lot, handind out fliers, but I generally refuse them.

[bluestateguy]

6. kick

:kick:

[wyldwolf]

7. No, but here is a funny story...

I was a precinct manager in North Atlanta several weeks ago. A voter came in and demanded (really, demanded) I tell him which candidate was the republican. When I told him I couldn't say, he threatened to report me! bwahahahahaha

[DUreader]

8. I believe that video taping is illegal, if you see that get a cop

[ShaneGR]

9. Partisan poll watchers and pictures not allowed in Ohio

State law

[Jerseycoa]

10. New Jersey

I was the Dem poll watcher and the Rep poll watcher sat at the other end of the table from me. The registrars called out the names of the voters as they signed in and we each checked them off our lists. Every once in a while his club or my club would come in and pick up the lists to do GOTV. Nothing dramatic.

[Padraig18]

11. It's exactly the same in IL.

The Republican poll watcher and I even played spades, when it got slow. As the saying goes, 'nothing to see here' (in IL, at least).

:hi: