White Nationalists are taking Trump’s instructions to “poll watch” seriously
For weeks now, Donald Trump has hammered the idea into his rabid supporters’ heads that the election is about to be stolen from them and that they need to organize to prevent voter fraud at the polls on Election Day.
Of course, his base took it a step too far and are now planning a show of force at the polls and are saying they will attempt to deter people they believe to be Democrats from voting on Nov. 8.
White Nationalist leader Andrew Anglin, an editor for the Neo-Nazi website Stormfront, says he is organizing members of the alt-right to set up undercover video cameras at polls in Philadelphia and plans to muster “poll watchers” in all 50 states. Anglin says he also has a plan to hand out liquor and marijuana in Philadelphia’s “ghetto” areas to get people to stay home instead of voting. Anglin says he has teamed up with the right-wing blog The Right Stuff to increase voter turnout and organize poll watchers.
A representative for that The Right Stuff told Politico in an email:
Many polling locations are in schools, and black schools are so disorderly that pretty much any official-looking white person with a clipboard can gain access to them ahead of time and set up a hidden camera. You don’t really ever even have to speak with an adult. Simply walk in like you belong there and no one even asks you why you are there. So we usually go in teams of two, one person driving and one person dressed as a blue-collar worker with a clipboard, and we set up a hidden camera in the school cafeteria. Go during lunchtime and the teachers are all so busy trying to contain the kids that no one says anything. We already have a few set up.
We also have some teams going in to the ghettos in Philly with 40s and weed to give out to the local residents, which we think will lead to more of them staying home. We have had success with this in the past.
Politico reports members of the National Socialist movement, the Ku Klux Klan, and members of the White Nationalist group American Freedom Party are all deploying members in their areas to informally watch polls for the Trump campaign.
William Johnson from the American Freedom Party says his organization is working for the Trump campaign, and hope to watch polls and report anything suspicious:
We have some of our members that are doing poll watching, but they’re not doing it as American Freedom Party members,they’re doing it through the Trump campaign.
The Oathkeepers, a right-wing militia group made up of former law enforcement and military members, also say they will be showing up to polling places to “gather intelligence.” Oathkeepers normally show up with rifles slung around their shoulders and heavily armed wearing full body armor. You may remember them from the Bundy Ranch armed protest aiming firearms at the FBI.
And Trump-ally Roger Stone is setting up exit polling stations at voting precincts across the country to monitor whether the final tally is rigged. Stone is less concerned about voter fraud and more concerned with election rigging by officials and says anything more than a 2 percent deviation will be considered suspicious.
Voter intimidation and poll watching are illegal
Poll watching and voter intimidation are essentially illegal (some states have relaxed laws that allow poll watchers to challenge a voter’s eligibility). In 1981, there was a contentious gubernatorial race in New Jersey, and much like this election, the Republican National Committee was eager to win. And similar to what we’re seeing today the RNC launched a “Ballot Security Task Force” to monitor polls and intimidate voters. Almost identical to today, the task force was made up of Republicans and former or off-duty law enforcement officials, who went to minority-heavy areas and set up signs saying the election was being monitored, had official-looking armbands, and lingered at dozens of polling precincts.
That year, the Republican won the gubernatorial race, but at a heavy price — the RNC was taken to court over their obviously racist voter intimidation tactics and lost the case. The RNC accepted a 35-year “consent decree” that they would no longer monitor elections. The decree was set to expire next year, but thanks to Donald Trump urging voter intimidation and poll watching in areas with a high minority population like Philadelphia, Republicans can probably kiss that expiration date goodbye.
