Some years, my polling place has been a Buddhist temple. Other years, a public middle school. School is open on voting day.
I really do not understand why stories like these don’t say “Threat of RIGHT WING VIOLENCE makes schools wary of hosting polling places”. It is always right wing violence so why not fucking say so?
It was annoying for me because gym was cancelled (the gym was where the voting was (in later years when the gym was also used as a cafeteria (instead of all the kids going home for lunch) school was closed on voting day)
That wouldn’t be Fair and Balanced.
That is sarcasm, by the way.
Our county uses county buildings, churches and libraries. If it’s supposed to be cold, we will park busses outside so people can sit down and stay warm if there is a line.
I don’t know how they figure out who is next when people come and go just sitting on a bus. Probably just take a number.
Holy cow, we WANT people to vote. And make it as easy as we can.
Well, some of us want people to vote.
I feel like this thread really went in a weird direction. To me, the main point is that the wannabe fascists are threatening polling workers, which will make it more difficult for people to vote. I’m sure it’s only in certain targeted areas that the workers feel under threat.
This is really scary stuff.
Thanks for getting it back on track.
My wife is one of those election workers who won’t be back this fall. It’s not just because of the threats of right wing vilence, but that’s part of it.
The linked article in the OP seems to be conflating “attacked” as in challenging the legitimacy of voting results with actual incidents of polling place violence, which doesn’t make sense. Can anyone cite some of the latter? The article is basically saying many people fear the potential for Trumpians to turn violent.
Election workers are being bombarded with death threats, the U.S. government says | PBS News
A Texas man was given 3 1/2 years earlier this month after suggesting a “mass shooting of poll workers and election officials” last year, charges stated. In one message, the Justice Department said, the man wrote: “Someone needs to get these people AND their children. The children are the most important message to send.”
Campaign of Fear
The Trump world’s assault on U.S. election workers
The people who administer U.S. elections – from poll workers and ballot counters to county clerks and secretaries of state – have endured a year of terroristic threats from supporters of former President Donald Trump, inspired by his false assertions of widespread fraud in the 2020 vote. The result, as Reuters chronicled in this agenda-setting series of reports, has been a campaign of intimidation that is stressing the foundation of American democracy.
Those were the first two cites I found.
Yes, we know that could never happen…
Here’s another:
For those who have been living under a bridge for the last four years, threats and attacks upon election official are real and have increased to an unprecedented level.
Because when has that “potential” ever been realized?
Stranger
Honestly, it’s probably a good idea for public places that deal with large populations (the sort of places where voting centers tend to be) to have naloxone on hand, anyway.
Because those polling places aren’t interested in dealing with the backlash an accusation like that is likely to create.
Definitely. Right-wing “news” sources would find some random nutjob that said something once, or quote some made up crap from Russian propaganda sources, Elmo’s Musk would retweet it, and they would face even more violence.
I’m talking about the journalists.
A threat that’s never actually followed up on is so much hot air.
One of my cites has someone serving time for the threats. Not enough for you?
I think it’s a good thing that folks are getting put away before they actually murder some poll workers. Intimidating or threatening election workers is extremely corrosive to democracy and should be treated extremely seriously. But, you do you.
If it achieves the effect of driving election officials to quit, makes polling locations more difficult to access, and generally achieves the effect of suppressing voting, it is anything but “hot air”.
And it is a serious enough problem that the US Department of Justice established an Election Threats Task Force which produced a readout, one of the conclusions of which was:
Election officials in states with close elections and postelection contests were more likely to receive threats. 58% of the total of potentially criminal threats were in states that underwent 2020 post-election lawsuits, recounts, and audits, such as Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
More information:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/campaign-of-fear/
But please, tell us more about the “hot air” of threats against election officials.
Stranger
If I was an election official and I received an anonymous death threat, I’d say “let’s see you try, pencil dick”.