My suggestion: If somebody tries this stunt, LOUDLY accuse them of trying to pull an identity theft scam. Shout out and warn the people behind you in line that you think the guy might be a CROOK trying to STEAL PEOPLE’S IDENTITIES by impersonating election officials to trick them into showing ID.
This has the advantage of getting people’s attention far more effectively than the actual issue of voter intimidation. It will probably leave the sleazeball thoroughly flummoxed, and will certainly leave him without any counterattack or defense – what’s he going to do, say that he’s really there to interfere with the election? Best of all, it’s a perfectly reasonable accusation to fling at someone who’s trying to trick you into showing them your ID when they have no legitimate reason to see that information.
Well, I guess I should call the Attorney General on about 30 people who have sent me that stupid email or posted it on Facebook this election cycle. If we outlaw jokes and polite requests as “voter intimidation” or “election fraud” then a lot of people will be in trouble.
What if instead of asking for ID, the workers asked, “Sir, are you legally registered to vote at this location?” Okay? Better? Worse?
The limit is 10 feet from the polling place per 25 Pa. Stat. * 3060:
(d) All persons, except election officers, clerks, machine inspectors, overseers, watchers, persons in the course of voting, persons lawfully giving assistance to voters, and peace and police officers, when permitted by the provisions of this act, must remain at least ten (10) feet distant from the polling place during the progress of the voting.
I thought you were giving a silly paraphrase of something. Obviously if something is a joke, and it’s written in such an over-the-top fashion, it’s not the same thing as electoral fraud. However, it’s also not the same thing as voter intimidation. What is described in the OP sounds awful like intimidation–otherwise, what’s the point of it? It’s just as obviously not intended as a joke.
I stand corrected. But that’s sufficiently close to zero to be zero. You can’t get into the polls without having to run the gauntlet of brochures being shoved in your face. In West Virginia, it’s 200 feet.
Wonder how they define polling place. Is it the actual voting machines, or is it defined as the facility?
I know that at my polling place, all political signage and electioneering has to be off the premises, as in not in the the parking yard, not in the yard, etc.
To coerce or inhibit by or as if by threats.
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How is this possibly intimidation? A political dirty trick perhaps. Or, as I said, perhaps they are surveying the local polling place to determine what percentage of voters have a valid ID for use in the next argument for a voter ID law? Unless there was some trickery or implication that they were not permitted inside unless they produced the ID, I don’t see the legal problem.
Born and raised in Waco. Quiet little town, you never heard of it because nothing ever happens there. Currently reside in Minnesota. If I drink in a bar here, and there are a hundred people there, odds are good that no more than two of them are armed. I find that soothing.
I can’t keep track of the different Dopers. Are you the same guy who argued throwing peanuts at black cameraman while saying “that’s how we feed your type” wasn’t racist?
“The workers”? Now you’ve made it worse, because you’ve referred to them in the aggregate, which means they are acting in collusion, which makes it a conspiracy to intimidate voters. Now we have a possible federal case, instead of just a state law violation.