Opinion: Armed election observers are a recipe for Election Day disaster
But no, you should not just put it out of your mind amid the sea of insanity that is the final weeks of the 2020 election.
Because gun-toting extremist groups are not going away on their own. The FBI is now alleging that some of the members of the group talked of targeting Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam as well.
Some hate groups have since been encouraged by the President’s support for armed protests against Covid lockdown procedures, like the storming of the Michigan statehouse, or his “stand back and stand by” debate statement on the Proud Boys. And now they could be especially dangerous in the days and weeks surrounding the election.
The Justice Department and the FBI are planning for the possibility of Election Day violence and voting disruptions, according to the Washington Post.
The prospect of armed voter intimidation even reared its head in the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Amy Coney Barrett when Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, giving the example of a contractor from outside of her state recruiting “poll watchers” with “special forces experience” to guard polling places in Minnesota, asked Barrett if it was illegal to intimidate voters at the poll.
In response, Barrett said she could not “apply the law to a hypothetical set of facts.” To be clear, voter intimidation is illegal and there is cause for concern.
An FBI memo obtained by Yahoo News reportedly warned of increasing extremist threats to the election.
And in Dallas, according to a report obtained by The Nation, the FBI reportedly warned local law enforcement about the potential for right-wing election violence — specifically mentioning the Boogaloo movement of second Civil War accelerationists which has been shadowing racial justice protests over the summer and is believed to have ties to the alleged Michigan kidnapping plot.
There’s been a lot of talk about violent protests this year, including from Vice President Mike Pence during his Republican National Convention nomination speech, in which he said: “We’ve seen violence and chaos in the streets of our major cities.” And that “Dave Patrick Underwood was an officer of the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service, who was shot and killed during the riots in Oakland, California.”
You might have gotten the impression that Officer Underwood was killed by left-wing rioters…but in fact, a man associated with the Boogaloos was charged with his murder (the suspect has pleaded not guilty).
It’s unlikely that this was an oversight.
Attorney General Bill Barr has likewise played up the politically loaded dangers of left-wing extremists like antifa, and a US Department of Homeland Security whistleblower alleges that DHS officials were urged to exaggerate antifa’s danger, following President Trump’s lead in trying to tie them to the Democrats. DHS spokesman Alexei Woltornist told CNN that the department “flatly” denies the whistleblower’s claims.
In contrast, FBI Director Chris Wray has said that the majority of domestic terror cases come from racially motivated extremist groups, specifically white supremacists.
These vigilante groups are an inherently motley crew, but when I started covering them at the outset of the Obama administration for my book “Wingnuts,” they were consistently anti-government, full of conspiracy theories and warning about growing tyranny.
What a difference a decade and a different president makes: now many express support for President Trump, even as they speak of a looming civil war more intensely. One group, the Oath Keepers, even sought to provide volunteer security for a Trump rally last October.
So it’s no surprise that there is a growing concern about voter intimidation from these armed groups in response to President Trump’s call for poll watchers. This is compounded by the fact that this is the first election in almost 40 years not to be bound by a consent decree that restricted the Republican National Committee’s attempts at so-called “ballot security efforts,” that amounted to voter intimidation.
That’s why it’s notable that a new report by the Giffords Law Center warns that “it is likely that significant numbers of people will bring guns to polling places under the guise of preventing election fraud.”
There’s a long, ugly history of armed voter intimidation, going back to violence in the Reconstruction era, as White vigilante groups fought to stop newly freed Black citizens from voting. One favorite tactic was to provoke a riot at Republican political rallies by starting a fistfight or firing a shot and then blaming it on Blacks an excuse for violent escalation that could last days.
Many of these armed extremists may not know the history, but the impulses endure. That’s why it’s notable that Georgetown Law School felt compelled to issue a new report on state laws regarding armed individuals around polling places.
Fear is their ultimate weapon — so here are some facts.
The Second Amendment does not protect private militias and voter intimidation is illegal.
But only 11 states explicitly ban guns from polling places. And in five battleground states — Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, and North Carolina — it is legal to bear arms at the polls.
This is a potential powder keg that President Trump seems intent on inciting in his refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, raising the false specter of mass voter fraud. His son Donald Trump Jr. , in a recruitment-style video, has called for poll watching volunteers for the “Army for Trump” — subtle.
But don’t let fear make decisions for you. Go vote. And know your rights.
Voting free from fear should not be a partisan issue. But it falls along partisan lines in this election.
Perhaps some principled conservatives could help cool overheated passions by remembering the words of then California Gov. Ronald Reagan. After signing a law banning loaded weapons from public spaces — including the state Capitol, following an armed protest by the Black Panthers — Reagan said that there was “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons” and noted that guns are a “ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.”
Good will seems missing from our political debates today, so there is unfortunately every reason to keep a close eye on attempts at voter intimidation and the threat of violence as we head into election week 2020.
