Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/26/voter-suppression-trump-campaign-wants-its-soldiers-in-your-polling-place.html
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Casually exercising their 2A rights, no doubt.
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making sure that there are no irregularities and fraud like we saw in the last election
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No lie, there actually was some election fraud found after the fact. In every instance it was a Trump supporter voting more than once.
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Their hero Putin showed the way.
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Quick promotion for mail-in paper ballots. That’s what we have in seattle, it works probably as perfectly as possible. They would be a royal pain for the baddies to become a security problem. We have numerous options to returning them after methodically marking them over coffee at home, including both US mailboxes and convenient drop-boxes; which largely prevents dangerous idiots from staking them out. And surprise the anti-democratic republicans utterly hate this method of voting, so you know it’s useful for protecting democracy. ([announcer voice] we now return you to maga voter suppression at electronic polling stations in other states already in progress)
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What annoys me most about these patriot cosplayers is they have absolutely zero idea on how the voting system works. They should instead sign up to be part of the process. It isn’t the worst pay, but it is a very long day while you sign people in and out. They’d find that we don’t have one election, we have tens of thousands of them, all managed by people and fraud is almost impossible on a large scale because of the very bureaucracy of the system itself.
Instead of doing work though, they’ll stand outside and annoy, or worse, potential voters. I know I actively avoided one place during the 2016 election because of “enthusiastic fans” who were in front of it. I went full mail-in in 2019 and am planning to continue.
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I was an Election worker for 2004. I learned a lot. Everything is checked and rechecked via bi-partisan system.
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I’m thoroughly expecting armed goons outside the polls accosting everyone trying to vote and only letting them in if they’re a confirmed Trump supporter this year. I’ll be early voting as usual, but it would not surprise me if election day voting is violent in several locations this time around.
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TBH, this is about the only thing preserving our democracy after 2020, in my opinion.
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Yeah, I’m glad they have surveillance cameras covering those boxes in many locations. Those anti-democracy Rethuglicans are the type who think setting them on fire in certain places is a way to ensure election results will be in their favor. 
I’m very concerned about the ones who were encouraged to run for positions involving accepting, rejecting, counting, and certifying votes.
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We have main-in paper ballots in New Jersey. It’s awesome.
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No mention that Voter intimidation is a crime under 18 U.S.C. 594. Our many thin red line officers will likely not enforce it.
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Exactly. What fraud?, is what I’m screaming in my head. But that doesn’t seem to matter.
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Speaking as a weirdo, we just need our own Armed Weirdos to keep an eye on them.
It’ll be the last thing they expect.
As an old, white, bearded dude, slap on a MAGAt hat & presto!
Instant MAGAt… as long as I keep my mouth shut.
The mail service in & around Houston has been boogered up for months.
Supposedly, they are ‘doing upgrades’, but remember that the guy still running the USPS was appointed by Lord Dampnut.
I’ve had packages meander in the main distribution center longer than it took them to make a 1000 mile journey by truck.
So, I’m gonna vote in person.
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This will be aimed squarely at majority minority districts. The obvious fix is for white folks to turn out to vote him out. Of course, they may also be trying to keep suburban white women, hell, women in general from voting. We need to turn out in numbers that frighten them off. Get out and get your family and friends registered, then get everyone to the polls. Our lives depend on it.
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I was actually a poll worker in the 2019 election.
That was kind of strange. I left my own leanings at home, dressing as neutrally as possible (and I didn’t have purple hair at the time,) no pins, no nail polish, and even wearing a plain pair of glasses instead of the rainbow frames I was using most days at the time.
Voters are not supposed to be allowed into the polling place wearing anything promoting a specific candidate, but of course there were many finding ways around that. If you’re carrying signs or canvasing in any way, you must remain at least a given distance from the entry (I think 100 yards, but I could be wrong on that one.) Yet again, people found ways around that: that vehicle in the parking lot with the large sign in the back window facing directly towards the door obviously belonged to someone in line to vote. Funny that most people were in and out in less than 10 minutes, but that vehicle was there for several hours.
Our top priority was to make sure everyone that came to the polling station (that could vote there) were allowed to vote. We had curbside options so people did not even have to get out of their vehicles – we did not even ask for a reason. (Ballots taken this way were always escorted by two workers.)
Anyway … poll watchers are absolutely legal. We even had a few foreign news crews come through. However watchers were not allowed to interfere or even talk to the voters (or workers) while in the building, although people could go over and talk to them. They had a designated area where they could observe but not interact with the proceedings and had to remain relatively quiet. I seriously doubt any of these “soldiers” could manage that for five minutes, let alone the long, long hours of an election day.
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This plan is probably not going to work so great in Michigan. We have no-reason absentee ballot, and a lot of poling places are public schools, where carrying a gun on campus is prohibited. If your local LEOs aren’t enforcing the law, especially if the school isn’t closed to students on election day, inform the State police.
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Mail problems are what the friendly neighborhood ballot drop boxes are for. The are located outside city halls, county clerk’s offices, libraries, etc. Very accessible and secure. The ones here look like tanks. And as @PsiPhiGrrrl mentioned above, monitred to prevent hijinks.
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‘Neighborhood’ drop boxes?
Not in Texas.
Here, it’s one per county.
Down here, they make no bones about Voter Supression.
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