It's the Pitts....
Sep. 30th, 2016 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogAfter the bizarro-world Trumperformance at the first debate Monday night, it's clearer than ever that this idiot's only chance is to suppress the vote. Republicans have given him plenty of help, between legislating efforts to keep voters from the polls if they don't have the "right ID" (student ID cards: bad; open-carry gun permits: good) and encouraging vigilante "poll watchers" (many, likely, with open-carry gun permits) to prevent or slow the voting process.
It's easy enough to pooh-pooh this up here in my safely blue state where there's no doubt of any registered voter being allowed to exercise the franchise. This election will turn on the "battlegrounds"- many of them with Republican-lej-sponsored "voter fraud" bills that have been overturned in court- where the Drumpfernutters are already threatening to assemble at polling places to do their own independent "poll watching." Some of it, likely, with the aforementioned open-carry guns.
So an attorney I know is part of a movement to do something about it. They're encouraging attorneys and law students to sign up for training and, eventually, travel to a truly contested state to watch the "watchers," keep them from intimidating voters, inform them of their rights and talk them through any obstacles. The first proposed venue was Florida; nope, not going where even our supporters are probably crazier than I am. But: Pennsylvania is on the list. Western PA, in particular, is as close as much of upstate NY I travel in regularly. Hell, we're both going to Erie the night after the election anyway to see Rent, so I can scope out the theater location on the way. Maybe I'd go there, or more likely they'd want someone in the bigger urban center that is Pittsburgh. That's a 200-mile trip each way; I'd leave here right after voting myself, then go as needed.
I've told Jeff the commitment is subject to health (I'll have had two doc visits by then) and also the whims of federal and small-town judges who don't take Election Day off. But I feel it's a Right Thing to Do, even though the Right is where all the trouble will be coming from.
It's easy enough to pooh-pooh this up here in my safely blue state where there's no doubt of any registered voter being allowed to exercise the franchise. This election will turn on the "battlegrounds"- many of them with Republican-lej-sponsored "voter fraud" bills that have been overturned in court- where the Drumpfernutters are already threatening to assemble at polling places to do their own independent "poll watching." Some of it, likely, with the aforementioned open-carry guns.
So an attorney I know is part of a movement to do something about it. They're encouraging attorneys and law students to sign up for training and, eventually, travel to a truly contested state to watch the "watchers," keep them from intimidating voters, inform them of their rights and talk them through any obstacles. The first proposed venue was Florida; nope, not going where even our supporters are probably crazier than I am. But: Pennsylvania is on the list. Western PA, in particular, is as close as much of upstate NY I travel in regularly. Hell, we're both going to Erie the night after the election anyway to see Rent, so I can scope out the theater location on the way. Maybe I'd go there, or more likely they'd want someone in the bigger urban center that is Pittsburgh. That's a 200-mile trip each way; I'd leave here right after voting myself, then go as needed.
I've told Jeff the commitment is subject to health (I'll have had two doc visits by then) and also the whims of federal and small-town judges who don't take Election Day off. But I feel it's a Right Thing to Do, even though the Right is where all the trouble will be coming from.
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Date: 2016-10-01 05:03 am (UTC)I think this is an amazing idea and I'm so proud to know someone who is going to do this (good lord willin etc). You and E continue to inspire me!
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Date: 2016-10-02 01:20 am (UTC)