TIL who I should actually contact if I witness anyone intimidating or harassing at polling places.
TIL who I should actually contact if I witness anyone intimidating or harassing at polling places.
This is in response to someone else's post from half an hour ago, which contained phone numbers controlled by a politically aligned organization. It doesn't matter which one.
Reports of election interference should go directly to the authorities:
https://www.usa.gov/voter-fraud
How to report voter fraud, intimidation, or suppression
If you suspect voter fraud, report it to your state or territorial election office. You can also report it to:
- A local FBI office
- A local U.S. attorney's office
- The Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division
If you witness or suspect voter intimidation or suppression, there are three ways you can report it:
- Contact your state or territorial election office
- Contact the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice
- Use the Election Complaint Report online form
LAST UPDATED: September 18, 2024
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None of the resources detailed in this post provide any form of immediate assistance to resolve an ongoing threat to your ability to cast your vote.
They will not help you find a lawyer. They will not help pay for that lawyer. They will not contact law enforcement and apply pressure to have them respond in a timely manner.
These should NOT be your first call. They should be who you report to after the fact to pursue long term remediation.
If you are a Democrat, call a left-leaning political org with sufficient funding and an army of lawyers.
If you are a Republican, call a right-leaning political org with sufficient funding and an army of lawyers.
THEN call the folks in the OP
If your ballot is never cast, it can't be fixed later. The best the folks in the OP can do is punish the people who committed the crime. They can't get your vote counted. The political orgs are specifically set up to help in real-time to make sure you and everyone else at your polling place gets to vote NOW!
Of course, if there is immediate danger, calling someone who can show up and help right away is always a good idea. (I wouldn't think this needs stating, but yes, I agree on this point.)
None of the resources detailed in this post provide any form of immediate assistance to resolve an ongoing threat to your ability to cast your vote.
The local election offices are not substitutes for police departments, but I think they are likely to respond quickly. They have phone numbers.
If your ballot is never cast, it can’t be fixed later. The best the folks in the OP can do is punish the people who committed the crime. They can’t get your vote counted.
This is untrue. It is better to get your vote recorded the first time, of course, but fixing things later is also possible. If regional authorities are made aware of election interference, they can initiate a re-count, refuse to certify the results until a new vote is taken, etc. That's part of their job.
Recounts do not include submitting new votes.
And either way, good luck getting a partisan controlled office to institute a recount or re-vote in the current political climate.
You are gambling on the hope that the problem gets fixed later. This is a terrible idea.
And local election offices - often under partisan control - have no obligation to assist individuals in getting their ballot cast.
You are either being extremely naive to the realities on the ground, or intentionally disingenuous.
Recounts do not include submitting new votes.
If you read my comment more carefully, you'll find that I mentioned those two things separately, as example responses to a problem. I did not say or imply that one included the other.
You are gambling on the hope that the problem gets fixed later.
No. I am saying that election interference reports must go to the election authorities. Directing people to a political organization instead undermines the process, and is not sufficient. (Reporting to both is fine, though.)
And local election offices - often under partisan control - have no obligation to assist individuals in getting their ballot cast.
If that is a problem where you live, then I suggest also reporting to the federal authorities. There's a whole list of contacts on the .gov page I provided.
And maybe making a special post aimed specifically at people in that situation. Not telling everyone, everywhere that a partisan political org is the place to report election interference, as was done in the problematic post.
(Again, reporting to the authorities and also reporting to a non-government org is fine; what's bad is leading people away from reporting to the officials. The officials need to know when this stuff is happening. We need to get it on the record.)
I would like you to direct me to any images or posts on fedi or similar that instruct people to call the numbers provided INSTEAD of calling government authorities
Because while your post explicitly calls out the instructions in these image as being wrong, giving the specific impression that people should call the numbers you provided and NOT political orgs (because you speak very critically of the political orgs, insinuating they should not be called), every post I've seen with political org numbers has simply provided the information without additional comment
Your initial post reeks of manipulation in an effort to drive people away from the political orgs.
Those orgs serve a very specific purpose that is NOT covered by the state and federal offices you've told people to call. Those government offices are not a replacement for the services provided by the political orgs and you should not be presenting them as if they are
And your combativeness isn’t helping anyone or anything. You need to check your tone. This post was obviously intended to help people. That it might not have met your definition of perfect doesn’t give you license to be disrespectful. It’s clear that there was no malice to OP here. Adding helpful information would embiggen to this post. What you did took away from it.
In other words, chill out.
This is untrue. It is better to get your vote recorded the first time, of course, but fixing things later is also possible. If regional authorities are made aware of election interference, they can initiate a re-count, refuse to certify the results until a new vote is taken, etc. That’s part of their job.
Is there precedent for casting a vote in the general election after election day in the United States?
Yes.
Example from 2018 in North Carolina:
(Note that the article also mentions another example in that state from 1975.)https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/north-carolina-is-getting-a-do-over-election/
Example from 2023 in Connecticut:
(I don't know if this one was considered a general election.)https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/election-redo-rare-connecticut-mayor-rcna129735
The North Carolina example is fascinating, I don't know how I missed that when it happened. Incredibly, Harris is running again this year since he wasn't among those convicted.
I'd argue the big difference would be if we're talking the presidential election, since it's not self-contained within a state or a city. I'd consider it unlikely the powers that be would let the presidential seat go vacant while they scramble to hold another election, but who knows?