50,000 strong "Election Day Operation Army for Trump" to monitor polls for non-voter-looking people

[essentialsaltes]

Calls for armed guards, 'Army for Trump' volunteers vex Minnesota election officials
New reports of private security job listings are being closely monitored.

Calls for armed military veterans combined with a volunteer "Army for Trump" to descend on Minnesota polling places have created fresh anxieties for state law enforcement and elections officials already preparing for a major election in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cybersecurity and the coronavirus pandemic dominated preparations for the vote this year, but state and federal officials are now closely monitoring new reports of one private security contractor advertising jobs that would illegally dispatch armed guards at Minnesota polling places,

Atlas Aegis, a Tennessee-based company, posted a job listing earlier this month that called for "security positions in Minnesota during the November Election and beyond to protect election polls, local businesses and residences from looting and destruction." The listing sought U.S. special operations forces veterans to guard against "Antifas" intent on "destroying the election sites."

Rodney Brown, CEO of 5326 Consultants, wrote that applicants would need to provide a rifle and pistol, plus body armor. There were no concerns about concealing their firearms from view while on the job.

"It's Overt because we are [goldurned] gunslingers and we want [people] to know we mean business," Brown wrote.

Minnesota law also does not permit "poll watchers," instead allowing for so-called challengers to be at polling places.

 

[Triumvirate]

@essentialsaltes - as it has not been posted here

I strongly advise circulating these factsheets as widely as possible.

In short, there are no legal grounds in any US state for these people to show up armed and pretending to be 'election monitors'. People should be armed with the appropriate foreknowledge of such, and to have such people removed by law enforcement.

Fact Sheets on Unlawful Militias for All 50 States Now Available from Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection

 

[essentialsaltes]

Trump spokesperson says armed guards outside St. Pete polling place were not hired by campaign

A spokesperson for President Donald Trump’s campaign says two people who were dressed as armed security guards outside a Pinellas County early voting location on Wednesday were not hired by the campaign.

Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Julie Marcus told 8 On Your Side Wednesday night the two people set up a tent outside an early voting site in downtown St. Petersburg and claimed to be with the Trump campaign.

“Sheriff [Bob Gualtieri] told me the persons that were dressed in these security uniforms had indicated to sheriff’s deputies that they belonged to a licensed security company and they indicated – and this has not been confirmed yet – that they were hired by the Trump campaign,” Marcus said in a video interview with 8 On Your Side’s Chip Osowski Wednesday night.

 

[Triumvirate]

So... at what point do we just declare the whole thing a failure and invite Queen Elizabeth back?

Chap, you needed to do that about 20 years ago, at an absolute minimum.

Though I shall admit I am patently biased on this point.

 

[DaisyDay]

Chap, you needed to do that about 20 years ago, at an absolute minimum.

Though I shall admit I am patently biased on this point.

"Chapess", maybe?

 

[durangodawood]

"Chapess", maybe?

"Chapelle"?

 

[FireDragon76]

After they lost to Obama in 2012, the Republican Party commissioned Reince Priebus to do an autopsy on the party to improve their chances going forward. He wrote what was called the Growth and Opportunity Project (yes, G.O.P.). It said that due to demographic shifts the Hispanic vote is going to be necessary to the Republican Party in the future. They should be able to get them because a lot of them are socially conservative.

In my experience, this is greatly exaggerated in certain media. It's not like Hispanics are space aliens, like Klingons in the Americas, just genetically wedded to reactionary Catholicism. Besides, the real religion of many people from Latin America is more like animism mixed with Catholicism, and doesn't really line up all that much with the stereotypical white American Catholic's perpetual quest for a marriage between Protestant aesthetics and Catholic authoritarianism. An image cultivated in the media for political ends.

 

[Fantine]

First, we should start small. Maybe just have independent election watchers from the UN try to ensure that this struggling democracy has a chance to go forward with a valid election, free from intimidation and interference.

The most ethical president emeritus ever, Jimmy Carter, has announced that the Carter Center will be monitoring our elections as it has done 110 other times---in third world countries!
The Carter Center monitors will be noticeably unarmed--except for the halos over their heads.
Carter Center details its first-ever oversight of an American election

 

[Ophiolite]

So... at what point do we just declare the whole thing a failure and invite Queen Elizabeth back?

Unfortunately it is a package deal. You also get Boris Johnson.

 

[Silmarien]

Unfortunately it is a package deal. You also get Boris Johnson.

Honestly... I feel like even that would be a step up right now, but we'll see what happens in a couple weeks.