Trump's plan to have his peeps be 'poll watchers' is also the KKK plan

[deminks]

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/politics/worried-about-voter-fraud-be-a-poll-watcher

(snip)

While actual cases of voter fraud in the U.S. are vanishingly small – the Washington Post, for example, found just 31 cases in more than a billion ballots cast between 2000 and 2014 – Trump's rhetoric has resonated with voters who feel unrepresented, or misrepresented, by the political class in Washington.

Apparently looking to capitalize on this, the Trump campaign is now encouraging supporters to sign up to be election observers , using the call-to-action, "Help me stop 'Crooked Hillary' from rigging this election!"

(end snip)

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/10/the-klan-act-how-an-obscure-law-could-cut-down-on-bullying-at-the-polls/263374/

(snip)

Republican-dominated state legislatures have adopted partisan-minded ID requirements seemingly calculated to reduce Democratic turnout to manageable proportions. Those laws have been taking their lumps in court, with a number of them put on hold recently.

But laws are only one facet of the war on voting. There is also voter intimidation -- and in that area, the prospects for November look grim. Recently, The Atlantic, the New York Times, and Alternet published startling reports about a well-financed group called True the Vote, an outgrowth of a Texas "patriot" group, that plans to flood polling places with poll-watchers who will aggressively challenge voters who strike them as potential "impersonators." The reports detail surprisingly frank discussions of plans -- similar to one the group's forerunner carried out in Texas in 2010 -- to target districts with high percentages of minority voters, and to look for voters who "don't look like" citizens.

(snip)

But there is one remedy specifically aimed at groups of private citizens who band together to intimidate other citizens seeking to exercise their rights. It is called the Ku Klux Klan Act. As Brentin Mock of Colorlines pointed out yesterday, the Act directly addresses this kind of organized vote suppression.

(snip)

The Act was passed to keep the Klan and other Southern vigilantes from targeting African Americans and Southern Republicans at the polls or in other exercise of their civic rights. Over the years, the courts have interpreted the statute to require a "class-based animus" -- that is, the conspiracy must aim at individuals because of their race or something like it -- national origin or perhaps immigration status. But if that requirement is met, private intimidation of voters or would-be voters is covered by the Act. The fact that those sued aren't government officials makes no difference.

(snip)

We won't know until Election Day whether True the Vote and allied groups will be able to mobilize the one million voter vigilantes they are hoping for. But even a smaller showing could paralyze some polling places. Aggressive vote-challengers have the potential to slow the lines to the point that some voters will leave without casting a ballot.

(end snip)

[MichiganVote]

1. So will his poll watchers wear sheets?

[Takket]

2. who challeneges the challengers?

Who authorizes these people to even be in the polling place challenging other voters?

[Glitterati]

3. No one

I have done poll watching, and believe me, NO ONE gave these people that authority.

You can OBSERVE, but a poll watcher cannot, under any circumstance, challenge a voter, nor can they participate in the voting process at all.

That's how it works in Georgia, anyway.

We were allowed to OBSERVE the polling location. Nothing more. And, in most polling locations we were shunted off to a corner where we could barely observe, much less participate in any challenging of anything.

We couldn't even speak to the poll workers or voters. If we attempted to do so we would have been escorted out of the polling place and faced arrest for interfering with a voter.

If we saw something happening, we had to leave the polling place, move outside the protected zone of 150 feet from the door of the polling place to call the attorneys who could then come and speak with the poll manager. But, as poll watchers, we had no authority to challenge anything or anyone.

[hedda_foil]

5. I wish it were so but many states allow poll watchers to challenge voters just like that.

They've tried it before in a few states and slowed the line to a jvery long crawl that was very effective in suppressing th e vote in targeted precincts.
L

[Maeve]

7. In Ohio, ONLY a precinct election official can challenge a voter

Observers must be certified 11 days before the election and are not allowed to touch materials or interfere in the voting process. One warning, then removal. And no cell phone use in the polling area.

[Person 2713]

4. Encourage folks to vote early or by mail if the state allows

[duncang]

6. I just wonder how many of the open carry nuts will be hanging around outside?

I can see that could be a big issue here in Texas and other open carry states. A group open carrying walking back and forth could stifle a lot of votes.