This is an unusual election season. Beyond the politics, the logistics have been a nightmare. With just months of warning, every state has had to make accommodations for the guidelines dictated by the pandemic, so there has been expanded mail-in voting (same as absentee voting) and expanded early voting, both of which would be necessary to alleviate the packed poling places that usually occur during a presidential election year. They are even more necessary with voter turnout expected to break records this cycle. As I write this, 20 million people have already cast their votes.
These accommodations also come with an upside: flexibility in vote casting makes it so that some marginalized communities – the housebound, those disenfranchised by suddenly closed polling laces and other voter suppression methods, and people who can’t afford to take time from work to vote – can cast their votes, too.
But the upside comes with a downside, too. For decades, the Republican Party has been working to disenfranchise voting blocs that don’t support them. The biggest example of that is gerrymandering – drawing bizarre district lines in ways that either pack those blocs into one place or split them up into such small numbers that there is no chance that their votes will matter. More recently, after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act (because there is no more racism in the United States if we elected a Black president), the Republican party ramped up their efforts to suppress the vote trough voter ID requirements, the closing of polling places in neighborhoods populated by people of color, and witness requirements for mail-in ballots. And in 2020, we have seen limiting mail-in ballot drop-off locations, USPS procedure changes aimed at slowing the mail in order to make mail-in ballots miss the deadline to be counted, fearmongering about mail-in ballots, and the outright call for voter intimidation.
Many of these attempts are being challenged in the courts. Many of them are being decided in favor of fair voting practices, but not all, and there isn’t much we as voters can do at this stage. Except in one instance.
Voter intimidation is illegal.
What is Voter Intimidation?
Aggressively questioning voters about their citizenship, criminal record, or other qualifications to vote.
Falsely representing oneself as an election official.
Aggressively questioning voters about their political choices.
Displaying false or misleading signs about voter fraud and related criminal penalties.
Physically blocking polling places.
Using threatening language in or near a polling place.
Yelling at people or calling people names while they are in line to vote.
Disrupting or interrogating voters.
Looking over people's shoulders while they are voting.
Other forms of harassment, particularly harassment targeting non-English speakers and voters of color.
Spreading false information about voter requirements.
You do not need to speak English to vote, in any state.
You do not need to pass a test to vote, in any state.
Some states do not require voters to present photo identification.
In order to be a poll monitor, you need to be trained and certified by a party or candidate, and you must carry proof of your certification with you to the polls. So, anyone who attempts to answer the President’s call to “watch” voting without going through the proper process is breaking the law, and could be fined $1,000 and/or sentenced to a year in jail. If you need or want to vote in person this year, and you feel intimidated, you can report it to a poll worker, call the Election Protection Hotline, the Department of Justice’s hotline (yes, I know the issues with DoJ right now, but the people who staff the hotline are career staffers, not political appointees), and if you trust your local officials more, you can call your state’s election office.
In this one area, we don’t have to be at the mercy of harmful political rhetoric or limited by the courts’ rulings. So, don’t be afraid to vote, no matter who is there watching or what they say to you. And if they try to intimidate you into not voting, report it. There should be consequences to an illegal act. Another upside to the downside.