Lantz
2933
I want to add that this isn’t just a liberal talking point, the RNC has admitted it in the past and agreed to limitations:
You can read all about it and see the actual court documents at:
In 1982, after caging in predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods, the Republican National Committee and New Jersey Republican State Committee entered into a consent decree with their Democratic party counterparts. Under that decree and its 1987 successor, the Republican party organizations agreed to allow a federal court to review proposed “ballot security” programs, including any proposed voter caging.
But that’s not how poll watching works, and it just shows that Trump has no idea how elections work. You don’t get to drive somewhere and be a poll watcher. You file paperwork, your are then designated as a poll watcher where you actually vote, you have to present your credentials, and there are strict limits on how many people can represent each party. A bunch of Trump idiots congregating in the parking lot – who should be shoo’ed away by the police if they harassing anyone-- aren’t going to have much effect and they’re furthermore going to be limited mostly to areas that already supports Trump.
-Tom
Timex
2935
In PA, the call for pollwatchers seems pretty nefarious.
In my state, a registered poll watcher can question your right to vote, forcing you to PROVE that you can vote. I’m not totally sure exactly what is then required to demonstrate that ability. It seems, based on all evidence from 2004, that you actually then need to have a signed affadavit from another person saying you live where you say and are legally eligible to vote, or you have to use a provisional ballot.
The GOP gummed up one particular district in Pittsburg in 2004, which had a ton of college kids. It didn’t really prevent them from voting exactly, but dramatically slowed down the voting process, with the intent to make folks get bored and leave without voting.
The current law says that poll watchers can only participate in their home district, but there is a current law in the PA legistlature which would allow them to go to polls anywhere in the state. This reeks of voter intimidation.
Which is just Republican grandstanding. Pennsylvania has a Democratic governor they know isn’t going to let that through. And none of the legislature has the 2/3 majority to slap down a veto.
-Tom
nKoan
2938
See? Even the corrupt Nate Silver agrees!
Timex
2939
I know,it’s my home state. But they WANT to do this.
Apparently the “locker room” talking point is working too well.
Yoho seemed to take the explanation a bit too much to heart, repeating that Trump made the comments “in a locker room.”
“Let me ask you something,” the Florida lawmaker asked the crowd. “Is this election about something that was said in a locker room, or is about the direction of this country for the next 40 or 50 years?”
ShivaX
2941
So apparently, Trump has taken to calling his campaign “The MOVEMENT”.
Cause that couldn’t possibly be easy to make fun of.
CraigM
2942
The Donald is like Ex-lax for the Republican party. By the time you are done with The Movement your body will be cleansed of a bunch of toxic waste. Just make sure to flush it all when done.
ShivaX
2943
Not just steal an election. Take over the country.
Yep. This is where we are.
Edit: From the responses:
“In WA State with MAIL IN BALLOTS, can be NO “poll watchers”~only FRAUD!”
There can be ONLY FRAUD GUYS!
Pretty much all of them always. I can’t remember going to campaign event pretty much ever where there wasn’t a call for people to get involved and when you follow up become Poll workers or Poll watchers is always on the list of things they need help with. My friends in Nor Cal went to an Obama event where they were encouraged to do so and now are poll workers. Have you ever gone to local Democratic party headquarters and done volunteer work?
I am truly impressed with your ability to read Mike Pence mind and his intentions. Trump and Pence aren’t the same, I am sure Tom is right Trump has no clue about the detail since he hardly ever voted, and the concept of volunteering to do anything is alien to him. I’m sure Pence actually understands the mechanics of how the voting process works. So I take him at his word. What the hell should he have said instead?
I don’t want to relitigate the whole voter ID, since I am outnumbered at least 20-1 on the subject. After personal observation, as well as the 2000 election, my confidence in the accuracy of our election process isn’t super high. And now we have the threat of Russia hacking the election process.
Transparency is key, and that means the process of collecting, and counting the votes needs to be done in the bi-partisan process. In Hawaii, the Precinct captain and the deputy captain need to be of opposite parties. Given the small number Republican in the state this hard to find at times. Since most precincts have no poll watchers, It makes total sense to have Democrat poll watchers at highly Republican precincts and vice versa.
In the context of 100 million votes, the at most hundreds of suspect incidents of voter fraud and voter intimidation is pretty tiny and that needs to be kept in mind.
This is going to be the tagline of the The Deplorables TV series, where Trump, Ailes, Gingrich, Christie, Bannon, Steve King, Paul LePage, and so on, battle each other Highlander-style.
Doesn’t the second statement here contradict the first one? If you think that instances of fraud are tiny, why do we need poll watchers and transparency so badly?
Anyway, this isn’t the point - the poll watchers are an important part of fair elections, and it’s reasonable for campaigns to recruit them. What isn’t reasonable is to associate the need for poll watchers with the narrative that this election is going to be rigged against Trump, unless you preface it with a full-throated denial of rigging. Like, if his response was, “No, ma’am, this election is not going to be rigged. America is really very good at holding fair elections and both parties will have poll watchers ensuring fairness across the country. If you are interested in how that process works, please visit our website, where you can sign up to be one of the GOP poll watchers.” Instead he muttered “don’t say that” in response to her call to revolt if Trump loses, and then his response about safeguarding the election was to say that Indiana has a “vigorous investigation into voter fraud” and that they should please all sign up to be poll watchers to help safeguard the principle of one person, one vote. This is not the language of someone whose message is fundamentally, “don’t worry, the election will be fair.” As someone said upthread, compare it to McCain shutting down the woman who claimed Obama was a foreigner. If you repeatedly set this tone of “well, we are concerned about that and we are taking steps to address it,” you leave the door open to people assuming those steps weren’t enough.
nKoan
2948
Argh, don’t post something like that without some sort of warning.
ShivaX
2951
Not remotely narcissistic.
In case you missed the other signboard he isn’t molesting…
