About 2,000 volunteer poll monitors will fan out across much of Pennsylvania on Election Day on Tuesday to guard against voter intimidation.
They are organized by a non-partisan group called the Pennsylvania Election Protection Coalition. The effort includes a hotline for reporting problems, people trained to de-escalate conflicts and lawyers ready to seek intervention from local judges.
“We don’t care who people are voting for, who they support. The goal here is to make sure that every voter has an opportunity to cast that ballot safely and then to have that vote counted,” said Witold Walczak, the legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania and a coalition member.
They plan to focus on 16 counties, although they didn’t provide a full list. However, during a conference call with reporters, they mentioned being present in Philadelphia and Allegheny counties, as well as Dauphin and Lancaster counties in central Pennsylvania.
Coalition members will be watching for and responding to instances of voter intimation. They said voter intimation can involve things such as unauthorized people asking voters for documentation, being aggressive toward a voter or displaying a weapon, filming or taking a voter’s picture, giving false or misleading information, blocking access, and treating a voter differently because of race.
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“Intimidation is really anything that would dissuade an ordinary voter from casting a ballot or wanting to go cast a ballot, or to force them to vote for somebody against their will,” Walczak said.
A bitter presidential election campaign and unfounded claims of election fraud have led to speculation about hate groups and even armed militia members showing up at Pennsylvania polling places.
Erin Kramer, the executive director of One Pennsylvania, said the coalition’s poll monitors will be people from the local community. A potential problem, she said, could involve people from outside the community “who may think it’s their job” to check up on things related to someone’s right to vote.
“If you’re not from the community where you’re going to look at what’s happening on the ballot, you should probably consider staying home,” Kramer said.
She said, “We’re going to take care of each other. If there are folks who come in from outside of the community, we will calmly, quietly ask them to leave. If they’re unable to figure out how to do that, we do have folks within our own communities who are prepared to de-escalate that situation.”
She said people who encounter a problem can call 866-OUR-VOTE, which translates to 866-687-8683.
President Donald Trump has persistently raised the possibility of fraud, especially involving mail-in ballots. His campaign has recruited poll watchers, suggesting their efforts will be needed to ensure a fair election.
Pennsylvania allows poll watchers, although they must be approved in advance by county election offices and there are limits on how many can be present and rules governing what they can and can’t do.
One of the fears involves unapproved poll watchers showing up and doing things such as demanding documents from voters or otherwise challenging their right to vote.
Pennsylvania officials, meanwhile, say there has been extensive planning among law enforcement and related agencies to prevent problems on Election Day.
Walczak said the coalition has been working with law enforcement and election officials, saying “they are thinking about these same issues. Everybody is taking this very seriously.”
“I think that there is not going to be a lot of room for people to go and engage in what could be considered intimidating behavior at the polls,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going to materialize on Election Day, but if it does materialize …I’m confident that any kind of intimidating behavior is going to be shut down by the authorities and, ultimately, if there is a problem and it’s not being resolved, we’ll be prepared to go into court and try to get an appropriate order.”
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October 30, 2020 at 04:41AM
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