Republicans Reportedly Organizing To Disrupt Elections With Poll Watchers, Poll Workers - MSNBC Prime

[BumRushDaShow]

2. We had that same nonsense attempted here in Philly back in 2020

but state law requires that "poll workers" live in and are registered to vote in the precincts where they plan to work and "poll watchers" must be registered to vote in the county where they intend to "watch", and many of the GOP loons they were trying to recruit to "watch" here were obviously NOT residents of the city of Philadelphia, and were thus not allowed in to do any disruptive "watching", much to the chagrin, teeth-gnashing, and whining by 45's crew.

In addition, they were trying to get "poll watchers" into the "satellite offices" where people were dropping off mail ballots or registering to vote and completing a mail ballot on the spot, then dropping it off.

Bad lawsuits happen in Philly? Pa. judge tosses Trump complaint over polling place restrictions

By Ryan Briggs October 9, 2020


A Philadelphia judge has tossed a lawsuit from President Donald Trump’s campaign over its poll watchers being denied entry to the city’s satellite election offices — an incident that led the president to claim “bad things happen in Philadelphia” during his recent debate with Democrat Joe Biden.

The president’s campaign claimed, without hard evidence, that the seven locations could be used for voter fraud, such as surreptitious early voting, and sought to send its own “poll watchers” to observe these sites. The campaign argued that these sites, where residents would register to vote or fill out mail-in ballots, would effectively qualify as polling places and that the campaign should be able to send representatives to observe operations.

When the City Commissioners, who oversee Philadelphia elections, rejected the demand last week, Trump campaign attorneys sued. “No one’s asking to interrupt the process,” Trump campaign attorney Linda Kerns said. “All we’re asking to do is to shine a light on it. But Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Gary Glazer, in an order Friday, ruled that the satellite offices did not constitute polling places, leaving access to these locations to the discretion of the City Commissioners.

The back-and-forth led Trump to erroneously allude to the issue at a recent presidential debate — despite the fact that, at the time, the Trump campaign had no approved poll watchers in Philadelphia and no polling places had officially opened.

(snip)

https://whyy.org/articles/bad-lawsuits-happen-in-philly-pa-judge-tosses-trump-complaint-over-polling-place-restrictions/

Everything Pa. poll watchers can — and can’t — do on Election Day, explained

by Joseph Darius Jaafari of Spotlight PA and Emily Previti of WITF | Oct. 15, 2020


(snip)

But poll watchers are different from poll workers who run in-person voting. Generally, there are at least six workers inside each voting location manning sign-in tables, directing voters, and responding to voter questions or concerns. In Pennsylvania, they work only within the precinct where they are registered to vote. Election judges open polling locations, verify voting lists, and process the votes at closing.

Poll watchers have a different role. They observe and look for indicators of bias or interference: a poll worker providing too much guidance on a candidate; a machine acting erratically; any campaign materials within voting locations. Campaigns and political parties can appoint two or three watchers, respectively, per precinct. Only one poll watcher from each candidate and party is allowed inside the polling place at any given time, according to state law. Poll watchers cannot go into the area where voters are actually casting their ballots, and should rarely come into contact with voters.

According to Department of State guidance, poll watchers must report any potential problems to the election judge on-site at polling locations, who will then determine if the poll watcher’s claims are reasonable and merit follow-through. And while the president called for his supporters to go into locations and “watch” the polls, that’s not something you’d want to do, unless you’re aiming for an arrest and $15,000 fine.

In Pennsylvania, watchers can work only in counties where they’re registered to vote and must have a certificate from that county’s election office to show they are cleared to work. A federal judge recently dismissed a lawsuit from Trump’s campaign seeking to change state rules for watchers so they can work anywhere in the state, though an appeal is expected. State Republican lawmakers also have pushed for relaxed residency requirements during discussions over election reforms expected to resume publicly when the legislature returns to Harrisburg on Oct. 19.

(snip)

https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2020/10/pa-poll-watchers-can-cant-do-election-day-explainer/

The issue came up during the vote tallying at the PA Convention Center downtown here on election day, which was live-streamed 24/7 for almost a week.

Pa. Supreme Court rules against Trump campaign in Philadelphia poll watchers case

By Kristen Johanson, KYW Newsradio 1060
KYW Newsradio
November 17, 20205:36 pm

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Philadelphia election officials in the poll watchers lawsuit filed after the election, saying they acted properly in setting rules for all poll watchers, including those from President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

In a 5 to 2 decision, the high court said state law doesn’t regulate how close or far poll watchers should be, adding the city’s election board was following COVID-19 regulations — setting up barriers and keeping them about 15 to 100 feet away from where ballots were being processed.

The case started in a city court, where Trump’s re-election campaign claimed Republican poll watchers were forced to stay 25 feet or more away from the ballot-counting process at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and could not see the count. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled shortly thereafter that poll watchers are and should be allowed to see the ballot-counting process within 6 feet, to keep with social distancing.

The Philadelphia Board of Elections appealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, which ultimately sided with the city. The high court said being able to see the text on ballot envelopes “would only be necessary if he (or she) were making challenges to individual ballots. … Observers are directed only to observe and not to audit ballots.”

(snip)

https://www.audacy.com/kywnewsradio/news/local/pa-supreme-court-rules-against-trump-in-philly-ballots-case

The "count" was mostly people feeding stacks of mail ballots into a machine and then stacking, boxing, and labeling the boxes with info about the contents.

The canvassers were reviewing/scanning mail-in outer envelopes and another set at that table were removing ballots in "secrecy envelopes" from outer envelopes and then another group removing ballots from inner envelopes and stacking them.

What these yahoos don't realize is that these ballots "aren't your grandmother's paper ballot". Each one is uniquely barcoded/QR-coded for the division/precinct and get a unique identifier so you can't just photocopy one and submit it again and again ( "stuff the box" ), because once that unique code is scanned, the system will reject any further attempts to accept and record another scan of that same unique code.