# The Republican War on Voting Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 11, 2021, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723 "2021-03-11T17:30:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 34
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/661 "2022-10-30T03:05:00Z")
My brother suggested that someone should organize a flash mob to “stand around” these guys. Just get 100 or so people to show up and form a loose circle two or three people deep around them. No intimidation, no taunts, no violence or threats of violence….just quietly surround them, stare at them and maybe photograph them. All perfectly legal and constitutional. Now, to further “war on voting” news, the failure to hold the planners of January 6th accountable has taken its toll, and John Eastman is holding seminars in voter intimidation for poll watchers, including challenging the votes of people who speak softly when signing in at their polling place. > **[‘Raise the challenge’: Eastman exhorts poll watchers to build a record](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/28/eastman-poll-watchers-record-00063893)** > > Trump’s Jan. 6 adviser’s comments in leaked recording of New Mexico meeting hint at post-election efforts to overturn votes. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/662 "2022-10-30T04:47:19Z")
If anything, Eastman should be behind bars for his criminally wackadoodle “Independent Legislature Theory”…perhaps the most un-democratic…um, _thing_, ever? Currently pushing it in NC. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/663 "2022-10-30T05:52:00Z")
The question is irrelevant. A person’s home is different than a drop box on the public square. Besides, our feckless Attorney General isn’t enforcing an actual law against intimidation of judges/justices at their homes; he certainly won’t care what happens at my home. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/664 "2022-10-30T19:40:21Z")
The road in front of your home is quite similar to a public square. They aren’t on your property. They are just standing on the road, in front of your home. Armed, watching and photographing you. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/665 "2022-10-30T21:57:20Z")
People have a degree of privacy on their own property. There is no privacy on a public square, whether one is depositing a ballot, or doing anything else. I might not like the scenario you described, but I’m also not arguing it would somehow be unconstitutional. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/666 "2022-10-30T22:20:27Z")
When things like this happen to Republicans, they shoot people and claim self defense because they were in fear for their lives. When Republicans do things like this to Democrats, there’s no possible way anyone could interpret it as a threat. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/667 "2022-10-30T22:20:52Z")
That’s disingenuous. My polling place is across the street from houses. Anyone who is standing near the polling place to threaten voters could simply turn around and be standing near someone’s front door and threatening them. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/668 "2022-10-30T22:33:11Z")
There was no evidence that the “watchers”, for a lack of a better term, were threatening anyone. There’s a difference between what would be legally considered a threat, and someone feeling threatened. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/669 "2022-10-30T22:40:26Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > People have a degree of privacy on their own property. There is no privacy on a public square, whether one is depositing a ballot, or doing anything else. Well, as one that voted I can inform that going to vote early around 3:00 pm on a ballot box in Phoenix was a quiet event, those vigilantes seem to take the weekends off 😛. What a bunch of slackers, and I was a “mule” for my family, dropping our ballots. Incidentally, that talk about those clown masked vigilante assholes from the right, incentivized me and more family members to vote. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/670 "2022-10-30T22:43:26Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > I was a “mule” for my family, dropping our ballots. Is that legal in your jurisdiction? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/671 "2022-10-30T22:45:36Z")
It is, the local asshole Republicans just could not prohibit allowing family members to deliver mail-in ballots for them, but they did try and failed, what a bunch of maroons! ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/672 "2022-10-30T22:46:33Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > > [@GIGObuster](#): > > > > I was a “mule” for my family, dropping our ballots. > > Is that legal in your jurisdiction? Just curious, but are there any states in the US where such actions would not be legal? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/673 "2022-10-30T22:51:21Z")
Apparently, yes. [Am I allowed to drop off a ballot for someone else? | AP News](https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-government-and-politics-8eaf001732ac25976f0560a3e49ed500) “And a few states explicitly prohibit dropping off someone else’s ballot.” ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/674 "2022-10-30T22:59:04Z")
And, as usual in voting matters, the examples of abuse that usually lead to why there are laws like that, come thanks to Republicans that do not want us to have nice things, it is not only abuse of logic from the part of the Republicans, but also that in many cases it is the Republicans who do what they accuse the Democrats of doing. (From the same cite that @D_Anconia posted:) > Election security experts say that voter fraud is rare among all forms of voting, including by mail and at drop boxes. They point to a 2018 congressional election in North Carolina, [when a Republican political operative and his staff illegally gathered ballots](https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-north-carolina-general-raleigh-1f8751124b441d55be5f9317a2124e55) and forged signatures, as one of the few instances of voter fraud related to ballot collection. That election was overturned. > > After the 2020 election, a discredited film [claimed without evidence](https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-covid-technology-health-arizona-e1b49d2311bf900f44fa5c6dac406762) that a multistate network of Democrat-aligned ballot “mules” were paid to illegally collect and drop off ballots in five states. But the film showed no evidence that the individuals it showed on surveillance tapes were part of a ballot scheme, and a state investigation found that at least one person featured in the film was [legally dropping off ballots of family members](https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-entertainment-movies-donald-trump-890f6ce208009e3ef611d212c70612da). The film also pointed to cellphone geolocation data, which experts say is not precise enough to identify whether someone used a drop box or simply traveled near it. Drop boxes are frequently placed intentionally in public, high-traffic spaces. > > An Associated Press [survey](https://apnews.com/article/abridged-content-abd14858ce95f83cf576cf100f239a26) in May 2022 found that among states that used drop boxes in the 2020 presidential election, none reported instances of drop boxes being involved in fraud that could have affected the results. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/675 "2022-10-30T23:01:13Z")
Yes, mostly states where the politicians in power are trying to reduce voter turnout. I can see potential problems with a campaign worker being over-enthusiastic and watching someone vote before collecting the ballot or something. But once the voter has sealed the envelope, i can’t imagine any good reason to prohibit relatives, neighbors, or friends from dropping off the ballot for the voter. And i doubt the risks of campaign workers selectively destroying some ballots, or whatever, is worth a lot of regulation to avoid. My state lets you check to see if your ballot has been accepted, so it’s pretty easy to follow up and make sure your ballot was properly delivered. (I dropped off my ballot at a handy drop box a week ago, and yes, my ballot was accepted and will be counted on election day.) ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/676 "2022-10-30T23:13:13Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > There was no evidence that the “watchers”, for a lack of a better term, were threatening anyone. > > There’s a difference between what would be legally considered a threat, and someone feeling threatened. If their wasn’t an intent to intimidate voters why are these assholes - Wearing masks to cover their face and covering their license plates to hide their identities? - Brandishing rifles and wearing combat style clothing? - Photographing/recording voters? - Confronting people dropping off ballots and accusing them of being “mules”? I realize you will continue contorting yourself into a pretzel before acknowledging this behavior is meant to intimidate but at least explain why this isn’t voter intimidation but in 2008 when members of the New Black Panthers engaged in similar behavior in Philadelphia the GOP couldn’t stop screaming about voter intimidation. And in that case they weren’t armed with guns or trying to hide their identities. Also, as to dropping off additional ballots you could find out that answer regarding Arizona by checking [the link](https://azsos.gov/elections/about-elections/guidance-voting-location-conduct) I shared earlier to the Arizona SOS that says: > Arizona law allows a caregiver, family member, household member, or election official to help return a voter’s ballot to county election officials, including dropping off the ballot at a voting location. These categories are broadly defined (A.R.S. § 16-1005): > > - A caregiver is a person who provides medical or health care assistance to the voter in a residence, nursing care institution, hospice facility, assisted living center, assisted living facility, assisted living home, residential care institution, adult day health care facility or adult foster care home." > - Family member: “a person who is related to the voter by blood, marriage, adoption or legal guardianship.” > - Household member: “a person who resides at the same residence as the voter.” ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/677 "2022-10-30T23:21:49Z")
What’s illegal about wearing masks, or combat clothing, or photographing others in a public place? As for the part about dropping off ballots, you referred to the law in one state (AZ). Other states restrict or prohibit such. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/678 "2022-10-30T23:24:09Z")
In order to fully participate in our Democratic electoral process, all one has to do is vote. That’s it. As soon as one says: “Let me get my gun.” then that person becomes known to be a dipshit. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/679 "2022-10-30T23:24:12Z")
Stop dodging. They were confronting people and calling them mules. How is that not meant to intimidate? And why was it voter intimidation for black men to act in a similar matter in 2008 and not when white people are doing it now? Stop playing games and answer the question asked. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723/680 "2022-10-30T23:24:13Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > explain why this isn’t voter intimidation but in 2008 when members of the New Black Panthers engaged in similar behavior in Philadelphia the GOP couldn’t stop screaming about voter intimidation. Why am I just so certain that this is never going to be addressed? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723.md?page=33) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-war-on-voting-thread/937723.md?page=35)