The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for June 21, 2024
Today’s Script
(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
A new report outlines the types of harassment and intimidation we might face in the 2024 elections, how to identify it, and legal remedies to address it. It’s a report you should share with your local election officials.
The Brennan Center for Justice compiled a bewildering list of tactics being used by anti-democracy activists bent on intimidating election workers and suppressing voters. It includes: Blockading, following, menacing, or shouting at voters and volunteers; intimidation by poll watchers or rogue poll workers; intimidation by door-to-door canvassers, or via online messages or telephone; intimidation by law enforcement officers or by bringing guns to polling places; and harassing election workers online or in person.
The report helps election officials identify these tactics by giving recent examples of each, such as the armed vigilantes in Arizona staking out ballot drop boxes; poll watchers who interfered with election operations using mass challenges to suppress Black and Brown voters; and door-to-door canvassers intimidating New York vote-by-mail voters last summer.
Some intimidation is harder to identify, such as when the wearing of a firearm in a polling place becomes intimidation, or how the placement of police officers in or around a polling place can cross a line into intimidation.
We’ve linked to this important report for you to share with your local election officials from AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
Brennan Center for Justice – Guide to Laws Against Intimidation of Voters and Election Workers
Issue One – The High Cost of Election Official Turnover
U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Election Official Security
Groups Taking Action:
Protect Elections, Campaign Legal Center, ACLU, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
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