G.O.P. Seeks to Empower Poll Watchers, Raising Intimidation Worries [View all]

[TomCADem]

This is why we need to vote and fight for free and fair elections. First, much has been made about the polling errors. Yet, isn't the obvious answer due to voter suppression and intimidation. For example, when the Governor of Texas limits Houston to just one ballot drop off box in the middle of a pandemic, he is doing so for a reason.

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-houston-greg-abbott-voting-austin-11ff8a7a5a581940cb5c37b4e167270e

Likewise, when Republicans try to to empower election workers to engage in voter intimidation, it is because they know that voting matters. The most important step to fighting this is to stay active and vote. 2022 is just as important as 2020, because Republicans are reacting to 2020 by trying their best to suppress the vote and encourage voter intimidation.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-seeks-to-empower-poll-watchers-raising-intimidation-worries/ar-BB1gfs9F?ocid=msedgntp&li=BBnb7Kz

HOUSTON — The red dot of a laser pointer circled downtown Houston on a map during a virtual training of poll watchers by the Harris County Republican Party. It highlighted densely populated, largely Black, Latino and Asian neighborhoods.

“This is where the fraud is occurring,” a county Republican official said falsely in a leaked video of the training, which was held in March. A precinct chair in the northeastern, largely white suburbs of Houston, he said he was trying to recruit people from his area “to have the confidence and courage” to act as poll watchers in the circled areas in upcoming elections. A question at the bottom corner of the slide indicated just how many poll watchers the party wanted to mobilize: “Can we build a 10K Election Integrity Brigade?”

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. During the 2020 election, President Donald J. Trump’s campaign repeatedly promoted its “army” of poll watchers as he publicly implored supporters to venture into heavily Black and Latino cities and hunt for voter fraud.