In South Carolina, a supporter of creepy Donald Trump threatened a group of female poll workers but they were not having it.
A man wearing a “Let’s Go Brandon” hat grew incensed when told he could not vote while wearing political paraphernalia of any kind. So he did what any other self-respecting MAGA idiot would do: he started a fight with poll workers.
Trump supporter calls one Black woman a b*tch and assaults another because he doesn’t want to remove his Trump hat to obey the rules against wearing campaign paraphernalia in the polling location.
This is the prototype racist Trump supporter. pic.twitter.com/JQVz4U3aUc
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) October 31, 2024
Another man in Texas punched an elderly poll worker who told him to remove his MAGA hat.
Texas law prohibits voters from wearing clothing or accessories that support or oppose a specific candidate, party or measure within 100 feet of a polling location. The offense of electioneering is a Class C misdemeanor with up to a $500 fine.
…During a Friday afternoon news conference, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said the elections clerk told Lutzenberger to remove his hat as he entered the building.
Initially, Lutzenberger complied and removed the hat and proceeded to vote, Salazar said. However, after Lutzenberger voted he put his hat back on as he was leaving the building, the sheriff said.
The elections clerk attempted to escort Lutzenberger out and asked him again to remove the hat, the report stated. That’s when Lutzenberger punched the 69-year-old man several times in the face and chest, deputies said.
Lutzenberger was charged with injury to the elderly, a third-degree felony, according to court records. Jail records indicated that the suspect posted his $30,000 bond and was released from the Bexar County Adult Detention Center at 11:48 p.m. Friday.
This is what creepy Trump has wrought. His supporters think that laws and rules do not apply to them.
Hm, that rule makes perfect sense for poll workers, but I’m not sure I see the benefit of having such a rule for voters.
I suspect that the concern is not about individual voters, but organised intimidation.
#1: To prevent intimidation and violence. Just look at how violent MAGA people are. Wearing MAGA gear is an implicit threat to everyone else. I expect MAGA types would feel the same way about Socialist Rifle Association hats, or a clothes that endorse sharing or kindness or other things that they hate.
There was a time not that long ago when riots and brawls were not uncommon at polling places.
Violence and the threat of violence are standard operating procedure for fascist. Yet they would have you believe that we are the violent ones.
the party of law and order sure does behave in a lawful and orderly manner /s
Holms @1, we have that law in our state too. It seems to be a federal law, as all states have them and it’s been the law for a long, long time, maybe over a century. And I do think it’s what was said above, to prevent pressure on and intimidation of other voters and to prevent violence.
The guy who once promised to uphold the constitution has now entered the “the giant hedgehog Spiney Norman is after me” phase.
I do not think we can expect a committment to law and order from that quarter.
@1: We have similar laws in Canada. It includes clothing, signs or leaving pamphlets behind in the voting booth. The idea is that polling station is neutral territory and the law forbids any kind of electioneering by anyone. As for the poll workers, there is a further restriction on the colours of clothing we are allowed to wear: it can’t be any colour associated with a political party, which rules out red, blue, orange and green.
But, but, but, intimidation tactics is free speech, libslurs! Grow a thicker skin and quit being a crybaby! Unless we’re intimidating you directly, in which case grow a thinner skin, cry, and fall over yourself trying to appease us. Otherwise we’re going to have to do a violence to you because you are the violent ones for provoking us by failing to display appropriately servile behavior! /s, if that wasn’t obvious.
Re: Law and Order, the usual conservative approach to those things is the same as the relationships which Abrahamic Religions have traditionally had with their holy books: My rules for thee, lots of exceptions for me. Outsiders must strictly follow their rules, no exceptions, and even then they’re still not fully trusted and must still be punished a little for being outsiders; insiders get lots of justifications and loopholes justifying how “thou shalt not steal, rape, or kill” aren’t absolute prohibitions for true believers.
@ holmes #1
I worked as a volunteer in my local precinct for more than twenty years. Voters who won’t turn their t-shirt inside out, remove a button/pin, or take their hat off are assholes. They will create problems for absolutely everybody even if they don’t intimidate any voter also at the poll or tell them wrong information or campaign for their particular candidate/issue. We observe, and voters have told us they were intimidated (after they are gone).
What we are seeing here isn’t a matter of difference of kind, it is a matter of difference of degree. They intend to start a fight. Now, we poll workers are usually pretty good at getting people to stand down and obey the rules. But not always.
This needs qualifications. Most US citizens eligible to vote don’t register, and of those, most don’t vote at all. So anyone who does come to the polls instead of voting by mail is someone with stronger than average opinions and orneriness. This is sometimes true even for voters who come directly from work or are retirees in tshirt and shorts (it’s California, it’s still warm in November) and are totally ordinary looking, they can be stealth-problematic instead.
So this rule is a proxy for safety, order, and civility.
When I lived in Colorado the location for my voting precinct was in a church. I voted in person wearing a pure black t-shirt with eight-inch-tall white lettering of “FUCK GOD” in two lines across the chest. Although many of the other voters complained, the poll workers explained that my shirt did not violate CO rules forbidding electioneering within polling locations. I certainly thought my shirt was political and even intimidating to some, but no more so than having to vote in a church was to some. After two years of my appearing at every vote in this shirt the church decided not to host elections there anymore. Many other churches also stopped hosting as more polling locations moved into schools and libraries. These had always been available, but the local county clerk being extremely conservative had pushed for churches as polling places for the intimidation factor. Over the years diversity increased and conservatism decreased, but I moved for climate related reasons and live in a very progressive part of the country now and feel much happier.
@11: A few years ago I cast my ballot at a polling station in a church and was pleased to note that they had covered up all the religious iconography in the room.
@11. Hope you like where you live at least. If it’s any solace, Colorado is no longer a weird political zone. Sure it has conservative areas but that’s found everywhere (just like liberal areas being found all over all despite the location). I guess this is me saying you should not hesitate to visit the state more or even moving back if you had to.
@ 12 Trickster Goddess
My regular Federal poll is in a rather old Anglican Church Hall (United Empire Loyalists in the surrounding graveyard).
No religious iconography but I always think I am back in the 19thC. The first time I voted there, I had to look twice to reassure myself that the portrait was of Queen Elisabeth and not Queen Victoria.
I live in WA state where we vote by mail and never have to experience vicious right wing thugs at a polling place.
I’ve read (can’t find the source right now) that the nature of the polling stations has a detectable effect on the outcome, at least in the UK. In particular, using churches favours the right, using schools the left.