An assault on American voters is underway

[China]

15 hours ago, 88Comrade2000 said:

This is just part of the maga playbook.

 

You intimidate anyone running against you with threats of or actual violence. So, basically you run unopposed.

 

 

Then you intimidate people who are likely to vote against you. So you go to polling places and walk around with your guns. What, you are going to vote? Do you have the right to vote? Who are you voting for?

 

 

Sadly, I think on Election Day there will be violence and I think there will be at least one mass shooting at a Democratic area polling station.

 

14 hours ago, The Almighty Buzz said:

 

This is one of the few doom and gloom predictions you've made that I agree with.

 

So does the government:

 

Government warns of "heightened threat" to 2022 elections, fueled by rise in domestic violent extremism

 

Less than two weeks before the 2022 elections, the U.S. government is warning of a "heightened threat" to the midterm contests, fueled by a rise in domestic violent extremism, or DVE, and driven by ideological grievances and access to potential targets, according to a joint intelligence bulletin obtained by CBS News.  

 

"Potential targets of DVE violence include candidates running for public office, elected officials, election workers, political rallies, political party representatives, racial and religious minorities, or perceived ideological opponents," the bulletin, published Friday, stated. 

 

The bulletin was issued on the same day that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband was violently attacked by a man who broke into their home and demanded, "Where's Nancy? Where's Nancy?"

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

'Constitutional sheriffs' movement urges law enforcement to intervene in election process

 

Amid reports of harassment outside ballot drop boxes and threats to election workers, experts are sounding the alarm about another potential source of election interference ahead of the 2022 midterms: a growing coalition of far-right "constitutional sheriffs" who are gearing up to insert themselves into upcoming elections.

 

The "constitutional sheriffs" movement, which has ties to the Oath Keepers and other antigovernment fringe movements, is based on the legally dubious belief that sheriffs are the ultimate law enforcement authority within their counties, superseding state and federal officials, including the U.S. president. In recent years, self-appointed constitutional sheriffs have refused to enforce various laws that they deem unconstitutional, from state and federal gun laws to pandemic-era mask mandates.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

On 10/29/2022 at 12:45 PM, China said:

 

 

So does the government:

 

Government warns of "heightened threat" to 2022 elections, fueled by rise in domestic violent extremism

 

Less than two weeks before the 2022 elections, the U.S. government is warning of a "heightened threat" to the midterm contests, fueled by a rise in domestic violent extremism, or DVE, and driven by ideological grievances and access to potential targets, according to a joint intelligence bulletin obtained by CBS News.  

 

"Potential targets of DVE violence include candidates running for public office, elected officials, election workers, political rallies, political party representatives, racial and religious minorities, or perceived ideological opponents," the bulletin, published Friday, stated. 

 

The bulletin was issued on the same day that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband was violently attacked by a man who broke into their home and demanded, "Where's Nancy? Where's Nancy?"

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Law enforcement agencies rush to assess new threats to lawmakers

 

Law enforcement officials across the country are scrambling to assess the threats of physical attacks on politicians or election officials in the coming days, according to two local officials and two other people familiar with the matter.

 

The growing anxiety comes just one day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was violently attacked in his San Francisco home. The alleged perpetrator, David DePape, reportedly entered the house attempting to locate the speaker, who at the time was in Washington D.C. The resulting attack sent shockwaves through California and the nation’s capital and raised difficult questions about the rise of threats against politicians and the precautions being taken to protect them.

 

Now, law enforcement officials are left trying to grasp whether there could be other threats to high-profile people involved in politics — and the scale of those threats — especially in the lead up to the elections on Nov. 8.

 

The increasing anxiety among local law enforcement comes just one day after the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Capitol Police and the National Counterterrorism Center issued an intelligence bulletin, first reported by POLITICO, outlining how violent extremists could pose a threat to the midterms, including to election workers.

 

“There have been a significant number of recent violent attacks motivated by political rhetoric and sociopolitical narratives promoted on extremist forums. The attack on Mr. Pelosi is just another on a growing list,” said John Cohen, the former counterterrorism chief at DHS. “These people are troubled, angry people who try to justify violence to express their anger. They are consuming content online put there by domestic and foreign threat actors.”

 

One person with direct knowledge of the law enforcement conversations said that groups and organizations, including local law enforcement that specialize in domestic threats, have been pressing the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI for more briefings to discuss the current climate, which they say is unparalleled in the danger posed to lawmakers. Their concerns have only grown as the midterms have neared. But there have only been a handful of briefings in recent weeks — many of which focused primarily on cyber threats related to the midterm elections.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[@DCGoldPants]

3 hours ago, China said:

'Constitutional sheriffs' movement urges law enforcement to intervene in election process

 

Amid reports of harassment outside ballot drop boxes and threats to election workers, experts are sounding the alarm about another potential source of election interference ahead of the 2022 midterms: a growing coalition of far-right "constitutional sheriffs" who are gearing up to insert themselves into upcoming elections.

 

The "constitutional sheriffs" movement, which has ties to the Oath Keepers and other antigovernment fringe movements, is based on the legally dubious belief that sheriffs are the ultimate law enforcement authority within their counties, superseding state and federal officials, including the U.S. president. In recent years, self-appointed constitutional sheriffs have refused to enforce various laws that they deem unconstitutional, from state and federal gun laws to pandemic-era mask mandates.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Shame there can't be an executive order that makes voter harassment like this come with mandatory minimum sentences of many many years. 

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Arizona’s Vigilante Ballot Watchers Are Also Being Watched

 

On a postcard-perfect fall day in the Phoenix suburbs, Steven Martin arrived at an early voting location not to cast his own ballot, but to do something else: see if anyone else was there to intimidate someone else casting theirs.

 

“I was going to film some filmers,” said Martin, a retiree from Scottsdale.

 

Not long after, Brian Curry, a semi-retired Phoenix man who delivers with GrubHub, stopped by to hand out Chips Ahoy cookies to poll volunteers and keep an eye on voters. “I think our democracy is in peril,” he said. “I’ve never thought that before.”

 

There wasn’t much to film, or keep an eye on, during this quiet Tuesday afternoon at Indian School Park, save for voters trickling in and out of the poll center and volunteers chatting outside. The same was almost certainly true for dozens of other voting locations throughout Maricopa County, home to 2.5 million Arizona voters, where the vast majority of early votes in a busy election season are being cast without incident.

 

But a string of shocking scenes here have, for many, shattered the image of democracy humming along as intended—and prompted regular citizens like Martin and Curry to show up at seemingly sleepy polling places out of concern that the integrity of the vote is at serious risk.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[Skintime]

14 minutes ago, China said:

Arizona’s Vigilante Ballot Watchers Are Also Being Watched

 

On a postcard-perfect fall day in the Phoenix suburbs, Steven Martin arrived at an early voting location not to cast his own ballot, but to do something else: see if anyone else was there to intimidate someone else casting theirs.

 

“I was going to film some filmers,” said Martin, a retiree from Scottsdale.

 

Not long after, Brian Curry, a semi-retired Phoenix man who delivers with GrubHub, stopped by to hand out Chips Ahoy cookies to poll volunteers and keep an eye on voters. “I think our democracy is in peril,” he said. “I’ve never thought that before.”

 

There wasn’t much to film, or keep an eye on, during this quiet Tuesday afternoon at Indian School Park, save for voters trickling in and out of the poll center and volunteers chatting outside. The same was almost certainly true for dozens of other voting locations throughout Maricopa County, home to 2.5 million Arizona voters, where the vast majority of early votes in a busy election season are being cast without incident.

 

But a string of shocking scenes here have, for many, shattered the image of democracy humming along as intended—and prompted regular citizens like Martin and Curry to show up at seemingly sleepy polling places out of concern that the integrity of the vote is at serious risk.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

I get that. I want to go armed to watch the trumpers and make sure that they are staying in bounds. Since I live in a city surrounded by confederate flags I know some of these traitors will try to do something.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Skintime

[TheGreatBuzz]

11 minutes ago, Skintime said:

I get that. I want to go armed to watch the trumpers and make sure that they are staying in bounds. Since I live in a city surrounded by confederate flags I know some of these asshole will try to do something.

 

Are you going to?

[Skintime]

11 hours ago, The Almighty Buzz said:

 

Are you going to?

Not sure yet. 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Fan since a Fetus]

On 11/1/2022 at 8:00 AM, Skintime said:

Not sure yet. 

Doesn’t sound like the best of ideas. Taking a gun and looking for trouble is not a good way to go about this at the present time. My wife has a number you can call if there are voting issues, I don’t know what it is or the details. We voted with no issues. I didn’t see anyone else having problems either. 
 

Edited October 24, 2023 by Fan since a Fetus

[EmirOfShmo]

Not sure exactly WTF is going on but it sounds like peeps in VA need to verify their voting status.

 

[China]

DOJ Weighs In On Case Against Conservative Group Surveilling Drop Boxes In Arizona

 

Over the last few weeks, Arizona’s secretary of state has received several complaints from voters who claim that individuals, sometimes armed and disguised, took photos and videos of them as they deposited their ballots in drop boxes. Citing these reports and others, voting rights groups have gone to federal court trying to shut down the surveillance efforts, arguing they would intimidate voters. 

 

On Monday, attorneys from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division filed a forceful 25-page statement of interest, staking their position in the case.

 

“This case alleges that organized and sometimes armed groups of individuals have engaged in campaigns to surveil, video record, and harass voters as they exercise their most fundamental right, the right to vote,” the attorneys said. “These allegations raise serious concerns of voter intimidation, which is proscribed under Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act.”

 

Many of the monitoring efforts have been organized by Clean Elections USA, a fledgling “election integrity” organization seeking to stop supposed “ballot mules” from stuffing drop boxes with fake votes, a theory inspired by the conspiracy theory film “2000 Mules.” Two separate lawsuits by voting rights groups have tried to shut down their activities.

 

The first, brought by Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans (AARA) and Voto Latino, sought a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the group on the grounds that they violated the Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act. The second, brought by the League of Women Voters of Arizona, sought restrictions against Clean Elections USA as well as conservative group Lions of Liberty, who were conducting similar activities in Yavapai County. Lions of Liberty has since said it would ceased its monitoring efforts.

 

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Liburdi declined to issue a restraining order for the first case on the grounds that doing so would infringe on “core constitutional rights.” The plaintiffs quickly appealed to the 9th Circuit. 

 

Attorneys for the Civil Rights Division, led by Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, challenged Liburdi’s “constitutional rights” argument.. Referencing the case, the attorneys wrote that “Critical differences exist” between recording voters and the First Amendment right to record “matters of public interest,” as the federal judge argued on Friday. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by China

[tshile]

On 10/31/2022 at 8:59 PM, Skintime said:

I get that. I want to go armed to watch the trumpers and make sure that they are staying in bounds. Since I live in a city surrounded by confederate flags I know some of these traitors will try to do something.

This seems like a bad idea. 
 

if for no other reason you’ve now posted it on the internet for ever

 

but also if you think you have to bring a gun, to go somewhere you don’t really need to go, maybe it’s just a categorically bad idea and you should just go vote and go home

 

if you see something call the police. 

[China]

Judge won't dismiss election workers' suit against Giuliani

 

A federal judge on Monday declined to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani by two women who served as election workers in Georgia in November 2020.

 

In the lawsuit filed last December, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss accused Giuliani of defaming them by falsely stating that the pair had engaged in election fraud while counting ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. The lawsuit says Giuliani repeatedly pushed debunked claims that the mother-and-daughter pair pulled out suitcases of illegal ballots and committed other acts of fraud to try to alter the outcome of the presidential election in Georgia.

 

In an opinion accompanying Monday's order, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell in Washington described the situation that followed the November 2020 election, when the vote totals in several key states were so close that the results were not immediately clear.

 

“As election workers across the state worked long hours carefully ensuring the accuracy of the election, the Trump Campaign and its allies, including Giuliani, engaged in a media offensive that at best questioned, and at worse condemned, their work,” Howell wrote.

 

Moss had worked for the Fulton County elections department since 2012 and supervised the absentee ballot operation during the 2020 election. Freeman, her mother, was a temporary election worker, verifying signatures on absentee ballots and preparing them to be counted and processed.

 

As the false allegations about them circulated online, the two women said, they suffered intense harassment, both in person and online. Moss detailed her experiences in emotional testimony before the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The committee also played video testimony from Freeman during the hearing in June.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Skintime]

10 hours ago, tshile said:

This seems like a bad idea. 
 

if for no other reason you’ve now posted it on the internet for ever

 

but also if you think you have to bring a gun, to go somewhere you don’t really need to go, maybe it’s just a categorically bad idea and you should just go vote and go home

 

if you see something call the police. 

Yeah, I think bringing a gun would just create issues. 

[EmirOfShmo]

 

[China]

Conservative Group Leaders Who Promoted 2020 Election Conspiracy Theories Taken into Custody in Texas and Jailed in Contempt of Court

 

Two leaders of a conservative Texas group that spreads election-related conspiracy theories were put in jail by a federal judge on Monday for allegedly refusing to comply with a court order.

 

Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, of True the Vote, were taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service on the basis of a court order issued by Houston-based U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, according to the court docket and filings in the case.

 

The pair were subject to contempt hearings on Oct. 27, 2022, which were later adjourned to Halloween, for failing to comply with a temporary restraining order issued in early September of this year.

 

The underlying case is complex and deals with various legal issues.

 

The restraining order was issued in an ongoing defamation lawsuit in which Konnech, Inc., a Michigan-based elections software vendor, is suing the conservative group for claims that certain data was stored on an unsecured Chinese server – and for allegedly downloading information on millions of U.S. poll workers in violation of federal law.

 

True the Vote took part in a discredited documentary that purported to show widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[TheGreatBuzz]

I guess they didn't know that you have to be elected to office before you can ignore subpoenas. 

[China]

Gentleman who wanted to show how easy it is to commit voter fraud charged with voter fraud

 

MAGA cultist Harry Wait, the founder of a group in Wisconsin that spreads lies about election fraud in the 2020 election, has been charged with election fraud. Wait publicly stated his intention to break the law. Racine County's MAGA Sheriff Christopher Schmaling said he would not arrest Wait and praised him instead.

 

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal:

 

Quote

Wait freely spoke about the crime and contacted Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling and others about his actions.

 

In one email to Schmaling, Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson, Vos and others, Wait said, "I stand ready to be charged for exposing these voting vulnerabilities when I ordered Mason's and Vos's absentee ballot online, all without providing a photo I.D. or identifying myself."

 

Schmaling did not arrest Wait and instead publicized the plot on social media as being helpful in rooting out vulnerabilities in the state election system and blamed the Wisconsin Elections Commission, calling on commissioners to remove a way voters can easily request ballots online. 

 

The Wisconsin Department of Justice charged Wait with two counts of election fraud and two counts of unauthorized use of an individual's personal identifying information to commit fraud.  He could serve up to six years on each charge of using an individual's personal information and six months for each charge of election fraud.

[China]

Michigan Supreme Court suspends court order invalidating election challenger guidance

 

The Michigan Supreme Court on Thursday suspended a Michigan Court of Claims order — celebrated by Republicans — that required revisions to the instructions for election observers that monitor polling locations and absentee ballot counting rooms. The Michigan Supreme Court's order leaves in place for the general election the same poll challenger guidelines used in the recent August primary.

 

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and election officials raised concerns that the last-minute revisions ordered by the lower court would cause confusion and chaos at the polls and counting rooms. Former Michigan elections director Chris Thomas worried it would potentially pave the way for intimidation against election workers.

 

Republicans had heralded the earlier lower court order as a legal victory in response to a pair of lawsuits challenging the legality of the poll challenger manual: one from the Michigan GOP and Republican National Committee and another from GOP candidates and challengers representing organizations that deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

 

In a statement concurring with the Michigan Supreme Court's decision to suspend the lower court order, Justice Elizabeth Welch — a Democratic-nominated justice — chided those who brought the lawsuits for waiting until late September to file them. "The general election is now less than one week away. Training for poll workers has been completed. It would be impossible to retrain thousands of workers across our state within a matter of days," she wrote.

 

Justice Richard Bernstein − a Democratic-nominated justice who is on the ballot this fall − wrote in his concurring statement that "there are clearly significant legal issues at play here that merit this Court's full attention, which is unfortunately not feasible in the time left before election day." In explaining his support for leaving in place for the general election the same guidelines used for the August primary, he wrote that allowing changes to the poll challenger manual would prove disruptive.

 

Justice Brain Zahra in a dissenting statement cast doubt on claims by election officials that the lower court's last-minute changes to the poll challenger manual would create logistical hurdles and require retraining thousands of election workers. Zahra was nominated by the Michigan GOP and is up for reelection this fall. Republican-nominated Justice David Viviano argued in his dissenting statement that Benson and Michigan elections director Jonathan Brater didn't meet a legal standard to grant their request to suspend the lower court order.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Misinformation and the midterm elections: What to expect

 

Conspiracy theories about mail ballots. Anonymous text messages warning voters to stay home. Fringe social media platforms where election misinformation spreads with impunity.

 

Misinformation about the upcoming midterm elections has been building for months, challenging election officials and tech companies while offering another reminder of how conspiracy theories and distrust are shaping America’s politics.

 

The claims are fueling the candidacies of election deniers and threatening to further corrode faith in voting and democracy. Many of them can be traced back to 2020, when then-President Donald Trump refused to accept the outcome of the election he lost to Joe Biden and began lying about its results.

 

“Misinformation is going to be central to this midterm election and central to the 2024 election,” said Bhaskar Chakravorti, who studies technological change and society and is the dean of global business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. “The single galvanizing narrative is that the 2020 election was stolen.”

 

A look at key misinformation challenges heading into the 2022 election:

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Law enforcement ratchets up presence in voting process as some sheriffs push election conspiracy theories

 

Early voters dropping off ballots in Berks County, Pennsylvania, are confronted by a sight surprising for elections in the United States:  A pair of uniformed sheriff’s deputies armed with guns and tasers guarding the ballot box.  

 

Directed by local election officials to question voters before letting them deposit their ballots, the deputies guarding the drop boxes underscore the growing schism in this country over the debunked claims that the 2020 election was marred by rampant vote fraud.  

 

To some in Berks County, the deputies are only trying to ensure a fair and clean election. Others say their presence and direct questioning risks intimidating voters and stoking baseless conspiracy theories.

 

Having deputies at drop boxes “can obviously be very intimidating in the moment to those voters,” said Mary McCord, executive director of the nonpartisan Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center. But it also “sends this broader message that our elections aren’t secure, that there’s widespread fraud … and what’s really abhorrent about this is, it’s based on a lie, it’s based on disinformation.” 

 

The scene playing out in Berks County may be one of the more visible examples of law-enforcement intervention in the 2022 voting process. But there are others, and many of those efforts are tied to a fringe group of elected sheriffs influenced by former President Donald Trump’s repeatedly disproven claims of vote fraud. Those sheriffs have been telling their constituents they plan to police the midterm elections – even though that is normally the duty of election officials.

 

Some of them are aligned with so-called “constitutional sheriffs” groups that claim their members have the right to ignore or block federal or state laws they deem unconstitutional and to intervene in elections. While they make up a tiny minority of sheriffs across the US, these law-enforcement officials could play a vital role in efforts to cast doubt on elections and make it easier for partisan officials to overrule voters’ choices this fall and in 2024.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

This Pennsylvania voter feels something just wasn’t right in the 2020 vote. So he’ll be watching the midterms up close

 

John P. Child has a strong view about the 2020 presidential election: “I think it was stolen, fair and square.”

 

He’s not the type to stage a coup, he says. But he no longer trusts local officials to run elections.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

OK, that first line tells me all I need to know...this guy's a moron.  If it was stolen, it can't be fair and square.  

[China]

Creepy Details Revealed of 18 Voter Intimidation Cases in Arizona

 

The Arizona Secretary of State has referred 18 cases of suspected voter intimidation to federal law enforcement, according to a spokesperson who released copies of each case on Friday. Comprised largely of complaints submitted by voters through the office’s online portal, they include creepy details of the vigilante “ballot watchers” deployed to drop-boxes across the state by a shady group named Clean Elections USA. One voter reported an old man lurking in the bushes “about 30 feet away.” Another said he was recorded simply for walking his dog past a drop box. Others mentioned “camo clad” men watching them through binoculars, taking photos of license plates, calling voters “mules,” and recording voters so closely that the names on their ballots could be seen. “I have never been more intimidated in my life tring [sic] to vote and standing only 3 feet from the box,” one complainant wrote. “...Now that have my Information recorded will they show up at my house... Do I need worry about my family being killed now if the results are not what they wanted.” A judge slapped a restraining order on the vigilantes earlier this week.