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Gothmog

(145,130 posts)
Sat Oct 3, 2020, 01:35 PM Oct 2020

Texas Democrats are preparing to deal with election disruptions

Last edited Sat Oct 3, 2020, 08:55 PM - Edit history (1)

I have been volunteering on voter protection effort for a very long time. I have been an election judge and have runned the voter protection war room. I have trained 100s of poll watchers for the 2012 and 2016 elections. I just took the course on elcection law for election workers and they covered a topic that I had never seen before. There is a handout that provides the law on what constitutes an unlawful militia This is from the course-Link to information on unlawful militias in Texas: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2020/09/Texas.pdf?

In Texas poll watchers are very limited in Texas and cannot talk to voters. Poll watchers have to be appointed by a party or a candidate and there are severe limitations on what a poll watcher can do. I had to deal with True the Vote poll watchers in 2012 and we ended up having no real issues. The presiding election judge can eject a poll watcher who violates the rules including trying to talk to a voter.

This course deals with some of the proposed tactics that may be used by trump supporters. The presiding election judge has the power to arrest persons who violate the election or penal code at a polling location which includes the area outside a polling location. Having firearms within a set distrance of a voting location can be stopped if the intent is to intimidate voters. Under Texas law, a riot can be 7 people who attempt to disrupt voting and it is illegal to obstruct access to polling location. We have never covered this topics in past election law seminars.

I am glad that we are preparing to deal with some of the tactics that are being discussed.

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Texas Democrats are preparing to deal with election disruptions (Original Post) Gothmog Oct 2020 OP
Good luck to you all! Please keep us posted whenever you can. Thanks. alwaysinasnit Oct 2020 #1
K & R & Thank you for personally digging into this fight Budi Oct 2020 #2
2008 Dispute over Whether Toilet "Plungers Represent Support for a Political Candidate" Gothmog Oct 2020 #3

Gothmog

(145,130 posts)
3. 2008 Dispute over Whether Toilet "Plungers Represent Support for a Political Candidate"
Sat Oct 3, 2020, 09:10 PM
Oct 2020

I am old and have been working on voter protection for a while. In 2008 we had fun with an idiot republican who bought 1000 toilet plungers and wanted to leave these at voting locations. The Obama voter protection team prepared a great legal memo on electionairing that I saved and provided to Prof. Hasen https://electionlawblog.org/?p=97946

A reader recalled a dispute over 1,000 toilet plungers distributed to bring to Texas polling places could be support for John McCain in the 2008 presidential campaign (thanks to support by “Joe the Plumber.”)

The Obama campaign issued a memo taking the position that “plungers represent support for a political candidate” and bringing them to the polling place was electioneering.

See https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/plunger-memo.pdf
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