A reminder that if you vote in person, or even use a drop box, you may encounter MAGA types who try to scare you and stop you voting. That’s illegal, and here’s some info on what to do if it happens.
If an alleged “poll watcher” tries to impede you at the voting booth:
#1 – Tell him to kindly step out of the way
#2 – Take his picture with a cell phone
#3 – Call the FBI
FBI Civil Rights Div. 202-307-2767 or 800-253-3931.
US DOJ Civil Rights Div. 202-307-2767 or 800-253-3931— JenB- I have voted!- 🇺🇦🌻 (@JenSemDem07) October 22, 2022
There is voter intimidation happening, at least in places. There have been several reports from Arizona, for example.
Early voters in Arizona midterms report harassment by poll watchers
Complaints detail ballot drop box monitors filming, following and calling voters ‘mules’ in reference to conspiracy film
…“There’s a group of people hanging out near the ballot drop box filming and photographing my wife and I as we approached the drop box and accusing us of being a mule. They took a photographs [sic] of our license plate and of us and then followed us out the parking lot in one of their cars continuing to film,” the voter wrote in the complaint….
Hopefully we won’t see much of this, and local authorities can handle what there is.
The greater damage is a bit more hidden (gift link, no paywall).
The effort to break America’s elections
…In the Trump era, doubt rooted in false claims of fraud has infected those local systems. By design. A rickety process dependent on old bureaucracy and volunteers has come under attack from both the outside and the inside, both nationally and at the county level. As the midterm elections loom, we see increasing reports of an effort to overwhelm elections systems and break confidence in their reported results with an obvious desired outcome: Seizing power whatever those results say….
Again, at least in places, election workers are leaving in droves, and being replaced with these election deniers, as in this report (gift link again).
In Nevada, election deniers prepare to sabotage the midterms
If the midterm elections degenerate into chaos in a couple of weeks — a very real possibility — then Nevada is poised to lead the way. Indeed, the chaos here has already begun.
The election supervisors in 10 of the state’s 17 counties have already quit, been forced out or announced their departures. Lower-level election workers have quit in the face of consistent abuse. The state’s elections staff has lost eight of its 12 employees….
Please read those articles carefully, and be aware of what is happening in your own state. As I’ve said before, I have great faith in Colorado’s election system, where the ability to vote is easy and widely available and where we’ve had very few instances of voting fraud. Not all states have such robust protections, and some of them are under great stress.
