Fascists Step Up Efforts to Steal the Election, Suppress the Vote

October 23, 2020 | revcom.us

Trump is already stealing the election. The fascist regime and its fascist enforcers are already suppressing the vote. 

Examples from this past week alone include:

• Hundreds of fascists gathered at the drive-up voting box in Nevada City, California, blaring music, honking horns, waving Trump banners, and ranting over a bullhorn. The county registrar described the scene as a “pro-Trump rally” and said, “Many, many vehicles and people were not able to access the outdoor drop box that we have and our constituents felt they were intimidated—didn’t want to get out of their cars.” Nevada City was the scene of violent attacks on Black Lives Matter protesters in August by a mob of fascists that included at least one cop.  
• An armed Miami cop, in full uniform, showed up at a polling station wearing a face mask with “Trump” superimposed on the U.S. flag. As the chair of the Dade County Democratic Party pointed out, “This is not only voter intimidation, it is a crime.” 
• In Albuquerque, New Mexico, caravans of flag-waving Trump supporters disrupted voting at two polling locations in heavily Latinx neighborhoods. At one, about 50 slow-moving vehicles interfered with access to a polling location; at another, about 100 Trump fascists lined the streets, standing next to and in some cases encircling people trying to get to the boxes. “Voters felt like they had to run the gauntlet trying to get to the polling station, and many of them saw what was happening and just turned around their vehicles and left,” an observer from the group Common Cause said.  
• Similar incidents occurred in Hialeah, Florida, and Hendersonville, Tennessee. In Monona County, Iowa, a camouflaged military-style truck with a huge Trump banner parked outside the county courthouse polling station.
• A ballot box was set on fire in Baldwin Park, a largely Latinx suburb of Los Angeles. The fire may have destroyed 100 ballots estimated to have been in the box. The Los Angeles County Supervisor said that “the arson of an official ballot drop box by the Baldwin Park Library has all the signs of an attempt to disenfranchise voters and call into question the security of our elections.” 
• A federal appeals court consisting entirely of Christian fascists ruled that Texas does not have to notify voters to give them a reason their ballots were rejected for a supposed signature mismatch. An attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project pointed out that this ruling upholds Texas’ “error-prone signature comparison procedure, which leads to the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters every major election…” 

Mobilizing legions of screaming fascists to intimidate people trying to vote, destroying ballots, using the courts to discredit votes—all these and more are part of the Trump/Pence regime’s rolling coup.This is outright Nazi behavior, trying to wrench society back to a time when Black people in the South (and elsewhere) were violently kept from voting¹; when people of Mexican descent and other people whose primary language was Spanish were systematically prevented from voting in Texas and other states.  

People fought hard, and many died, to establish the right of people of color to vote. This right needs to be defended now, in massive numbers. People need to vote, and stand up to fascist attempts to intimidate people, especially Black and Latinx people, away from the polls. At the same time, as Revolution has written: “VOTING WILL NOT BE ENOUGH—AND SIMPLY RELYING ON VOTING WILL VERY LIKELY LEAD TO DISASTER. WE NEED TO TAKE TO THE STREETS NOW, AND STAY IN THE STREETS, DEMANDING TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW!”

Sources: 

Federal court rules Texas doesn’t have to notify voters whose ballots are tossed, Houston Chronicle, October 19, 2020.

Nevada County officials address voter intimidation concerns, KCRA, October 17, 2020.

A Miami cop wore a Trump mask to vote, inflaming Democrats: ‘This is city funded voter intimidation’, Washington Post, October 21, 2020. 

Monona County Officials Working To Remove Military-Style Truck With Campaign Flags From Voting Site, Iowa Public Radio, October 10, 2020.

California ballot drop box set ablaze in possible arson, damaging up to 100 ballots, USA Today, October 20, 2020.

Watchdog group cites interference at polls in Latino areas, Associated Press, October 21, 2020.

1. See revcom.us series American Crime, Case #11: The Violent Suppression of Black People’s Right to Vote.  [back]

A sizeable force of shouting Trumpites at an early voting location in Fairfax, Virginia, September 21.

Camouflaged military-style truck with a huge Trump banner parked outside the county courthouse polling station, Monona County, Iowa.

A ballot box that had been set on fire in Baldwin Park, a largely Latinx suburb of Los Angeles. (Screen grab: RMG News)

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