Voter suppression: Using direct intimidation

A new federal Voting Rights Law is essential to protect voter access for American citizens.

A 2022 poster from ACLU Alabama

We saw instances of outright physical intimidation in the 2020 election as some Trump supporters attempted in various places to interfere with the counting of votes. Trump himself in 2020 had advocated having law enforcement officers monitoring polls.

After a particularly egregious 1981 case in New Jersey of Republicans using a “Task Force” vigilante squad that included using armed private security and off-duty police officers to intimidate Black and Latino voters at polling places, the national party agreed to a consent degree barring the practice. But the decree was lifted in 2018.¹

Now Texas Republicans have been organizing so-called voter-fraud squads. State Attorney General Ken Paxton in April 2022 asked donors for funds for that purpose:

On April 2, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton helped headline a ‘Freedom Gala’ at a hotel in downtown Houston. The gala was a fundraiser organized by [conservative activist Steven] Hotze and his group to raise money to, among other goals, ‘hire private detectives to investigate, identify, and expose the criminal vote fraud scheme in Harris County and across Texas.’ Speakers included Big Lie evangelist Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, as well as Harris County (Houston) Republican Party Chair Cindy Siegel, who also sits on the county’s elections commission.”²

Steven Hotze is a controversial character. The San Antonio Current reported also in April: “GOP megadonor Steven Hotze charged after a bogus election fraud scheme [promoted by Hotze] led a former cop to threaten a repairman.”³ (04/21/2022)

But such intimidation has not been limited to Texas. David Neiwert reports on how activists from the far-right Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, whose ideology does not recognize the legitimacy of the federal or state governments, are getting into the act:

When Richard Mack and his ‘constitutional sheriffs’ unveiled their planned assault on American elections last week at their convention in Las Vegas, they were joined onstage by a cadre of well-moneyed Trumpist ‘Big Lie’ promoters. It became clear that not only do the sheriffs have backing for their plan, they described how far they’re going: The coalition not only announced plans to ‘investigate’ supposed election fraud—by, among other things, seizing vote-tabulation machines and calling ‘common law’ grand juries—but they plan to generate data by conducting surveillance at polling places and drop boxes, gathering the information up at an intelligence ‘fusion center.’

And as Republicans in Washington state have made manifest, this is not merely a fantasy. Far-right election-denialists in Seattle’s King County placed signs this week at ballot drop boxes warning people that their actions were being recorded on camera. Ironically, the King County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating those actions at the behest of the county’s elections office.” …

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg issued a statement backing the investigation: “Signs intended to make voters feel like they are being watched and monitored and violating the law by depositing ballots is voter intimidation, period,” he said.⁴ [my emphasis]

(A version of this post appeared as a Facebook post by the Progressive Caucus of Democrats Abroad.)

1. Pilkington, Ed (2020): In 1981 a ‘task force’ intimidated voters at the polls. Will Republicans revert to their old tactics? The Guardian 08/24/2020. <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/24/in-1981-a-task-force-intimidated-voters-at-the-polls-will-republicans-revert-to-their-old-tactics> (Accessed: 2023-23-06).

2. Barajas, Michael (2022): Texas Conservatives Want Private Cops to Police Elections. Bolts 04/11/2022. <https://boltsmag.org/private-detectives-elections-texas/> (Accessed: 2023-23-06).

3. Despart, Zach (2022): GOP megadonor Steven Hotze charged after a bogus election fraud scheme led a former cop to threaten a repairman. San Antonio Current 04/21/2022. <https://www.sacurrent.com/news/gop-megadonor-steven-hotze-charged-after-a-bogus-election-fraud-scheme-led-a-former-cop-to-threaten-a-repairman-28710075> (Accessed: 2023-23-06).

4. Neiwert, David (2022): Drop-box surveillance, central to CSPOA-Trumpist strategy, already happening in Seattle area. Daily Kos 07/20/2022. <https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/20/2111546/-Drop-box-surveillance-central-to-CSPOA-Trumpist-strategy-already-happening-in-Seattle-area> (Accessed: 2023-23-06).