African American

I'm signed up to be a election protection poll watcher again, here. I've been a poll worker, as a majority inspector of elections in my area quite a few times before, too, so I got to saw things from the inside.

I saw a man from the ACLU being interviewed on some national tv show(Rachel or Joy, can't remember which, sorry), and he said that every voter has a right to a provisional ballot, at minimum. But that option should be a last ditch one, because they threw a ton of those out in past elections. A determined voter can and should follow that provisional ballot up all the way, doggedly, if they get denied a regular ballot.

The League of Women Voters Vote411 site would be a good resource for anyone who is worried they might not be on the eligible voter list, and the 866 OUR VOTE (PFAW, NAACP, etc.) and the 866 MY VOTE 1 (Urban League) numbers should be given to any voter who might need protection, beforehand. In my opinion, it is a key get out the vote mobilizing tool. If you tell people their legal right to vote might be stolen or denied, it makes them more determined to vote. And the more people who are talking about voter protection and voter's rights, the more the bad guys are going to be afraid to steal it. They'll replay in their heads past footage they remember of crooked repug elections officials being perp walked.

Big turnout is key to keeping them from stealing it, but big turnout won't help if there are hours long lines to vote. Big turnouts are only good if the turned out people actually get to vote. Campaigning by giving people those numbers is a way to get them energized, mobilized, and prepared to do something about republican trump rove sproul skulduggery. I'd inform people of Vote411, OURVOTE and MYVOTE1 and tell them to contact all 3 if they have problems.

The Nation magazine was engaged in some voter protection efforts with Color of Change in '12, they just sent me an online article via e-mail on tRump's poll 'watcher' threats:
https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trump-is-encouraging-intimidation-and-racial-profiling-at-the-polls/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=daily

There are 2 good links in the article, one is about the '82 Consent Decree, forbidding any republican party officials, organizations, or agents or servants of the same, from engaging in any kind of ballot security or ballot integrity efforts, without prior court consent, especially in any areas where racial or ethnic makeup could be considered a reason for the activities. That's nationwide. The '82 consent decree:
http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85289

The other one is PA specific, because dRump said that he was going to send the police in to watch the polling places in those (dog whistle) areas where people are voting too many times. He wants to send racist rightwing trump supporting cops to watch Black and Hispanic polls. PA Title 25, Sec 3047 specifically states that the uniformed or plainclothes police aren't allowed within 100' of a polling place, unless voting, or called to preserve the peace. In no event are they to prevent any elector from voting or influence or overawe them or restrain their freedom of choice. PA election law against polling place 'policing':
https://govt.westlaw.com/pac/Document/NB1EA7150D0A011DEA63ECFA39685C638?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&transitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=(sc.Default)

I had a young Black guy at one of my east city polls in 2012 come in and say that the machines were rigged, he had just got an election day phone text info blast that said 'Don't vote straight ticket, only vote for the President, if you vote straight ticket, the vote for the President won't show up.' I told him that in past elections, voting straight ticket HAD in some cases caused an inexplicable absence of the top Democratic candidate, and a bunch of unfunded downballot races wound up having a higher vote total than the well-funded top ticket Dem did. But the way around it was to vote each race one at a time, choosing the candidate from whichever party you like one at a time. It doesn't take a lot of time, even if you have a 5-6 page ballot like we have sometimes. And we have a review screen at the end before you push the final 'vote' button. I reported the sudden (Rove induced, in my opinion) rumor to the higher ups in election protection. The young guy seemed honest and outraged, but the rumor was very sudden and just would have depressed turnout for down ballot races, that the Prez wanted to go Democratic, too.

They're going to try to cheat, suppress, and steal, however they can, because their candidate is such a nauseatingly unappealing and nazified pile of droppings. So we have to be on our toes, like usual.