“Early voters dropping off ballots in Berks County, Pennsylvania, are confronted by a sight surprising for elections in the United States: A pair of uniformed sheriff’s deputies armed with guns and tasers guarding the ballot box,” CNN reports.
Critics say this amounts to voter intimidation.
In Berks County, Pennsylvania, law enforcement officers are guarding drop boxes as voters deposit ballots. Critics say it amounts to intimidation.: https://t.co/KeBqTDvNrw
— Ravi Ratna (@medical91) November 3, 2022
While some say the officers’ presence and direct questioning amount to intimidation, others see it as deputies trying to ensure a fair and clean election.
Having deputies at drop boxes “can obviously be very intimidating in the moment to those voters,” said Mary McCord, executive director of the nonpartisan Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center.
But it also “sends this broader message that our elections aren’t secure, that there’s widespread fraud … and what’s really abhorrent about this is, it’s based on a lie, it’s based on disinformation,” McCord added.
CNN didn’t seem too happy about armed deputies guarding drop boxes:
The scene playing out in Berks County may be one of the more visible examples of law-enforcement intervention in the 2022 voting process. But there are others, and many of those efforts are tied to a fringe group of elected sheriffs influenced by former President Donald Trump’s repeatedly disproven claims of vote fraud. Those sheriffs have been telling their constituents they plan to police the midterm elections – even though that is normally the duty of election officials.
Some of them are aligned with so-called “constitutional sheriffs” groups that claim their members have the right to ignore or block federal or state laws they deem unconstitutional and to intervene in elections. While they make up a tiny minority of sheriffs across the US, these law-enforcement officials could play a vital role in efforts to cast doubt on elections and make it easier for partisan officials to overrule voters’ choices this fall and in 2024.
Group encourages law enforcement to get involved in elections
Sheriff Mark Lamb, of Pinal County, Arizona, has perhaps been the most vocal of the bunch. He co-founded Protect America Now, a group that claims to be engaged in “a battle for the soul of America.” The group counts about 70 sheriffs as members – including Berks County Sheriff Eric Weaknecht.
Emails obtained by CNN through public records requests show Lamb has reached out to sheriffs across the country to tell them things such as “Here’s how YOU can enforce election integrity.” In the emails, his group recommends sheriffs increase “patrol activity around drop box locations” and engage in “video surveillance” with “access points directly on Sheriff Department computers.”
KKTV also appeared displeased with the actions of sheriffs to ensure election integrity across the country:
Lamb is far from the only sheriff spreading bogus election conspiracy theories.
“I saw the True the Vote documentary ‘2,000 Mules,’ … It should open anybody’s eyes … and if the federal government is not going to investigate that, I think the sheriffs should,” said Grayson County, Virginia, Sheriff Richard Vaughan.
“I talked to some guys yesterday that actually showed the algorithm of the machines,” said Johnson County, Kansas, Sheriff Calvin Hayden. “I think they’ve been programmed in by some foreign entities, and they are manipulating the vote.’
“They get offended when you start questioning the election. Folks, this has been going on a long time, this vote manipulation, this electronic, computerized voting,” said Barry County, Michigan, Sheriff Dar Leaf.
Again, none of that is true.
The fear of what could happen in this midterm election is based on what’s happened in America’s past.
“Law enforcement meddling in elections throughout history in this country has been used for oppressing Black voters, other minority populations. And the signaling there is, ‘We don’t trust you. We think you’re cheating,’” said Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy & Protection at Georgetown Law.
Pennsylvania’s interim secretary of state warned Berks County to “not station deputy sheriffs outside of ballot drop boxes in Berks County,” and to “refrain from stopping and questioning prospective voters.”
That didn’t happen.
Fact is, this is a county that went for former President Donald Trump. There is no vote fraud. The deputies are nice. Voters don’t seem to mind the deputies.
“Because of everything that has gone on with the contentious things happening, that’s perfectly fine. If it makes people feel better, great,” said Raedell Marks, a voter in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
But remember, people should have already felt great about the last election in Berks County. It was secure. It was fair.
Unnecessarily having armed deputies guard this election may be sending an entirely different message.
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