Of course, how does this play out the other way, say in 2026, when Trump’s DOJ storms into the board of elections and arrests anyone suspected of participating in democracy?
This was extreme:
Full Title: Ohio woman tells dispatcher gunman killed her husband because ‘he thought he was a Democrat,’ reports say
Just to be clear, that didn’t happen at the polls.
Here in Minnesota, counties can choose to do all vote-by-mail. And many do, especially in rural areas where the in-person voting locations can be quite far away.
Except that Republicans in the Legislature insisted that the vote-by-mail law specifically excluded the 3 largest cities in the state, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth – all Democratic (DFL) strongholds. No doubt there is some reason for this, other than party vote blocking.
They don’t want the big city postal workers to be burdened too much, they are stretched too thin already covering mail for all those people.
…Yeah, that’s it, that’s the ticket… 
250 feet is right about half a city block. Some people wouldn’t even notice somebody that far away.
Perhaps not. Unless they were aiming rifles at them. Or shooting. Which is the concern we’re trying to address.
No, shooting at people isn’t “voter intimidation”, that’s a completely different crime (assault with a deadly weapon). It’s not really relevant to this subject at all. Intimidation can be read about here.
From your link:
Examples of voter intimidation are as follows:[2]
- Violent behavior inside or outside the polling site
- Verbal threats of violence
- Confronting voters while wearing military-style or official-looking uniforms
- Brandishing firearms or the intimidating display of firearms
.
.
.
Also:
The Department of Justice listed the following federal statutes against voter intimidation as of 2020:
- The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 “included a series of election crimes, one of which prohibits knowingly and willfully intimidating or coercing prospective voters in registering to vote, or for voting, in any election for federal office.”[3]
- The Civil Rights Act of 1968 “makes it illegal to use or threaten to use physical force to intimidate individuals from, among other things, ‘voting or qualifying to vote.’ It reaches threats to use physical force against a victim because the victim has exercised his or her franchise, or to prevent the victim from doing so.”[3]
< snip >
- Section 241 of the Hatch Act “makes it a ten-year felony to ‘conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate’ any person in the free exercise of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States – including the right to vote.”[3]
How does shooting at people not count as voter intimidation when done at a polling place or ballot dropbox? Brandishing weapons is listed.
I suppose you are only assaulting the person you are shooting at, but anyone else around trying to vote is probably being intimidated.
I think this (voter intimidation) is akin to hate crimes. Some say hate crimes should not be a thing because there are already laws against assault/murder. Why add to it? The issue is the crime is directed at more than just the person who was shot/assaulted/intimidated. It is directed at a whole group of people.
Maybe Joe Blow was the only person actually shot but now thousands are scared to go to the polls and vote. That’s the whole point of it.
You can break more than one law with the same action. Shooting someone to keep them from voting can be both assault with a deadly weapon and voter intimidation.
Sure, it can be tacked on, but it is like talking about someone illegally crossing the street to stab someone. The focus is likely to be the murder charge.
A person shooting up polling places is probably facing attempted murder (or murder if they kill someone), assault, probably terrorism charges too (since they’re trying to scare people away from polling places using lethal means). That’s a massive escalation from standing around in body armor and harassing people with questions about being a mule.