General Discussion

Gothmog

(145,484 posts) Sat Dec 21, 2019, 02:13 PM Dec 2019

Trump adviser: Expect more aggressive poll watching in 2020

I have been volunteering on voter protection efforts since 2004 when I went to Florida as part of the Kerry/Edwards Voter Protection team. We had 11,000 attorneys volunteer that year with 3000 attorneys who went to Florida. I am worried

This will be the first election without the benefit of the DNC v. RNC consent order and I am worried. Here is some history of GOP voter suppression efforts

One good example of early GOP voter suppression is Operation Eagle Eye. Deceased justice Rehnquist got his start in GOP politics intimidating voters as part of GOP Operation Eagle Eye https://peoplesguidetomaricopa.blogspot.com/2011/05/operation-eagle-eye-mary-bethune.html

During the 1964 Presidential Election, at Mary Bethune Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona, a young lawyer named William Rehnquist led Operation Eagle Eye; a questionable and illegal voter suppression operation of the Republican Party. Rehnquist aggressively interrogated potential minority voters with questions about their residence and how long they had lived there. Rehnquist even proceeded to ask voters to interpret specific passages in the Constitution, and if they were unable to do so, were denied access to the polls. This measure taken by the G.O.P (Republican Party) alienated some of its own members who felt uncomfortable with some of the strategies led by Rehnquist and his Operation Eagle Eye cronies. (Roddy, “Just Our Bill”).

Unfazed, Rehnquist went about enacting "Operation Eagle Eye" as a tool to suppress heavily-Democratic ethnic minority votes.
In the 1964 election, Rehnquist so strenuously enforced Operation Eagle Eye that he ultimately engaged in a shoving match with Democratic Party poll watcher Lito Pena. Pena objected to Rehnquist's repeated efforts to prevent ethnic minority citizens from voting in South Phoenix because he knew they would vote Democratic.
Pena states, "He knew the law and applied it with the precision of a swordsman. He sat at the table at the Bethune School, a polling place brimming with black citizens, and quizzed voters ad nauseam about where they were from, how long they'd lived there -- every question in the book. A passage of the Constitution was read and people who spoke broken English were ordered to interpret it to prove they had the language skills to vote." (2)
As Pena recalls, by the time he arrived at Bethune, the voting line was a block long with people standing four abreast. A good number of would-be voters ultimately gave up and returned home. Outraged at this deliberate attempt to disenfranchise voters, Pena told Rehnquist to leave. An argument ensued that soon turned physical. First, the two men engaged in shoving. Then, the tall "Anglo" raised a fist and threatened Pena. Undaunted, the smaller man replied, "If that's what you want, I'll get someone to take you out of here."

The GOP went too far in 1981 with the GOP Ballot Security Task Force https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballot_Security_Task_Force

The National Ballot Security Task Force (BSTF) was a controversial group founded in 1981 in New Jersey by the Republican National Committee (RNC) as a means of intimidating voters and discouraging voter turnout among likely Democratic voters in the gubernatorial election. The group's activities prompted the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to bring a federal lawsuit, alleging a violation of the Voting Rights Act, illegal harassment, and voter intimidation. The RNC and New Jersey Republican State Committee entered into a consent decree in 1982, barring them from engaging in further such conduct until 2017. The RNC unsuccessfully tried to lift the consent decree early; these attempts were rejected by the federal courts each time. The consent decree was set to expire on December 1, 2017. Democrats sought an extension to it based on allegations of new conduct, but the request was denied in January 2018 and the decree expired.[1]

The DNC sued and got an injunction against ballot security efforts that continuted until 2018 when it expired
https://medium.com/@grantstern/where-we-stand-today-after-the-republican-party-agreed-to-abandon-voter-intimidation-of-minorities-e25761288198

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE; NEW JERSEY REPUBLICAN STATE COMMITTEE; ALEX HURTADO; RONALD C. KAUFMAN; JOHN KELLY
This is an excerpt of a legal ruling shared below in full, which is the latest relevant legal decision in a Consent Decree agreed to by the Republican National Party and the Democratic National Party to limit the RNC’s “ballot security” activities aimed at “fighting voter fraud” and detailed below:
During the 1981 New Jersey gubernatorial election, the DNC, the New Jersey Democratic State Committee (“DSC”), Virginia L. Peggins, and Lynette Monroe brought an action against the RNC, the New Jersey Republican State Committee (“RSC”), John A. Kelly, Ronald Kaufman, and Alex Hurtado, alleging that the RNC and RSC targeted minority voters in an effort to intimidate them in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (“VRA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 1971, 1973, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
The RNC also allegedly enlisted the help of off-duty sheriffs and police officers to intimidate voters by standing at polling places in minority precincts during voting with “National Ballot Security Task Force” armbands. Some of the officers allegedly wore firearms in a visible manner. To settle the lawsuit, the RNC and RSC entered into the Consent Decree at issue here.

That order has expired and it is now clear that we can expect the GOP to go back to the voter intimidation

Link to tweet

One of President Donald Trump’s top reelection advisers told influential Republicans in swing state Wisconsin that the party has “traditionally” relied on voter suppression to compete in battleground states, according to an audio recording of a private event obtained by The Associated Press. The adviser said later that his remarks referred to frequent and false accusations that Republicans employ such tactics.

Justin Clark, a senior political adviser and senior counsel to Trump’s reelection campaign, made the remarks on Nov. 21 as part of a wide-ranging discussion about strategies in the 2020 campaign, including more aggressive use of Election Day monitoring of polling places.

“Traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places,” Clark said at the event. “Let’s start protecting our voters. We know where they are. ... Let’s start playing offense a little bit. That’s what you’re going to see in 2020. It’s going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program, a much better-funded program.”

trump and the GOP will be using Ballot Security teams in 2020 and Democrats will need to be ready to fight these efforts.

Please note that the end of the DNC v. RNC consent decree is bad but that order could only be enforce by the DNC and only applied to operations of the RNC. Prior to expiration of the order, the RNC was having other groups engage in these efforts. In 2012, we had to deal with True the Vote assholes who had poll watchers out in force. That organization was active in 2010 and 2012 but less active in 2016.