General Discussion

I have been doing voter protection since 2004. Normally only election workers, voters and if the law allows, properly authorized poll watchers are allowed in the voting site. In Texas poll watchers have to be registered voters in the county in question and have to be certified by the party or a candidate. The asshole lady who founded True the Vote lives or lived in my county. For the 2012 election, true the Vote was going to swarm my county with True the Vote poll watchers. Poorly trained True the Vote poll watchers had caused some delays in the 2010 election in Harris County. I trained and had sufficient poll watchers out for the 2012 election to cover democratic voting precincts for election day. For early voting, I had poll watchers at key early voting sites and I went to a couple of early vote locations.

Prior to Shelby County case, the DOJ had broad authority to monitor elections in counties that had prior election issues which included my county and Harris County. The DOJ had election monitors in 8 of the key precincts and told my poll watchers not to worry about True The Vote. This was pre-Shelby County SCOTUS opinion and now the DOJ appears to not have the power to send in poll monitors in your county.

When I went to Florida in 2004, I was stationed outside the polling location and could not go in. Again, we were reacting to the 2000 election and this may not have been an efficient use of attorneys. I did have fun meeting a good number of Democratic attorneys (we had 800 out of state attorneys in the county I was stationed). The DOJ will NOT be able to do much if they are not allowed in your polling locations.

Keep us informed. I would not be surprised to see the DOJ try to bluff their way into a polling location