Judge Lifts Decades-Old Decree Banning RNC 'Ballot Security' Measures
Source: Talking Points Memo
By TIERNEY SNEED Published JANUARY 9, 2018 12:15 PM
In a major victory Tuesday for the Republican National Committee, a federal judge in New Jersey lifted a consent decree dating back from the 1980s that barred the RNC from conducting so-called ballot security measures i.e. poll watching and other Election Day activities ostensibly aimed at monitoring for voter fraud.
The 1982 consent decree was the result of a decades-old lawsuit the Democratic National Committee brought against the national GOP, as well as New Jerseys Republican Party. They alleged that in a 1981 New Jersey election Republicans employed off duty cops to monitor polling places in minority neighborhoods and sent mailers to minority voters, that, if unreturned, were used to create lists of voters to challenge at polling places.
The decree had been extended multiple times over the years after Democrats surfaced evidence that the RNC had violated it. However, Democrats last ditch effort last year to extend it citing Trumps calls for vigilante poll watching, as well as then-RNC strategist Sean Spicers presence in an area of Trump Tower where campaign poll watching activities were being monitored were unsuccessful.
The decree was set to expire on Dec. 1, 2017, and on Monday U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez said the DNC had failed to provide evidence of a violation that would prompt him to extend it. He also denied a DNC request for more discovery on whether Spicer violated the decree in his presence near the Trump campaigns poll watching hub at Trump Tower on election night.
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/rnc-consent-decree-lifted
Gothmog
(145,544 posts)turbinetree
(24,720 posts)maybe it is time to appeal this ruling to the state supreme court..................
All one has to do is type into google: and get these results
"right wing voting intimidation group"
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/white-supremacists-solicit-poll-watchers-election-day-article-1.2855301
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/poll-monitoring-voter-intimidation-lawsuits/506078/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vote-protectors-voter-intimidation_us_580e4e63e4b0a03911ee03bc
procon
(15,805 posts)away from voting. Did the DNC lawyers miss something, were they even competent? How did they lose a case that has been in effect for almost 40 years?
meow2u3
(24,772 posts)Now that the consent decree has been lifted, can't some of us (or some people with nothing to lose) go into rural areas and scare the shit out of RW Xtian voters?
Turnabout's fair play, so don't tell me we have to maintain the moral high ground--every time we play clean against those dirty criminals, we lose--and I'm sick of losing to corrupt, self-centered reTHUGS! We must be willing to go to the the gutter to fight those guttersnipes, and besides, repukes don't understand nor respect nice--all they understand is force and we MUST, AT ANY COST, be willing to force them to bend to our will!!!
bucolic_frolic
(43,280 posts)Flood the polls with voters, everyone imaginable, and organize and deliver the message hand to hand for months, including iron--clad registration, registration, registration
Flood the polls at the hours Republicans vote, such as just before or after work, so hopefully some of them will go home
Use some of the GOP tactics, fliers to Republicans that cast doubt on their eligibility or polling place
I am regularly receiving phone calls from local GOP incumbents asking me to participate in an hour long conference call with the candidate -- tonight --!
I just hangup. They are clearly targeting registered Democrats with this strategy, and those who vote every year. They either hope to convert or prey upon fears. I can't listen to them, I'd probably tell them to go to hell.
hedda_foil
(16,375 posts)1. Challenge minority voters right to vote as they check in at the polling place. Then there has to be a discussion with the poll workers to figure it out, which makes the waiting line for everybody else longer. The poll workers are mostly little old ladies who are intimidated by nasty men yelling at them, so they acquiesce in too many cases.
2) Repeat with as many minority voters as possible to slow the line even further.
3) Desired result: A large number of voters are either denied the right to vote or just walk away from the line because the wait is too long. Either way is fine with them.
4) Whether or not any particular challenge is approved by the poll workers, isn't as important as keeping other voters waiting and waiting and waiting.
It's a tried and true Repub technique, which is why there was a judgement against it. It's used all over.
Demit
(11,238 posts)At least in Pennsylvania, we old ladies of various sizes know our shit. We take the nasty men to the side and inform them of what the polling place rules are. The polling place is our domain.
hedda_foil
(16,375 posts)Especially when they're standing over you screaming, while the line gets longer and longer. There are a few video clips of them in the act of voter and poll watcher intimidation. I haven't checked for those since Obama was elected, so I can't give you a link.