I went to vote today in Georgia USA. People showed up wearing bed sheets over them. What is this supposed to communicate exactly??

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    15 days ago

    So, unfortunately, the police are often not politically neutral and usually skew towards a conservative bent - this is also likely explicitly outside their jurisdiction since it involves a federal election (and America has a really dark history of law enforcement interfering with elections) so, charitably, they may have been unable to act even if they wanted to.

    The correct authority in this case would be one of these folks I believe (I’m not a Georgia native):

    https://sos.ga.gov/form/stop-voter-fraud

    https://law.georgia.gov/resources/election-fraud-complaint-hotline

    https://www.eac.gov/voters/register-and-vote-in-your-state?field_state_target_id=18206

    In actuality, it might be best to start by just calling these folks (phone number from the page above).

    404-656-2871

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      15 days ago

      Now I’m curious on what the laws are. Everyone’s familiar with the signage of no campaigning past a certain distance from the polling area, but wouldn’t any activity that isn’t actual voting related be considered trespassing right now? If an official there told them to leave and they refused, wouldn’t that mean the police or sheriff gets involved?

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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        15 days ago

        Yea - to clarify I’m not a lawyer and, while I’m legally curious, this isn’t something I’ve read a lot of. I know that during the Civil Rights era Johnson sent the national guard into some voting locations to specifically keep police and sheriffs out… in theory that was resolved with the voting rights act but the Supreme Court decided to effectively repeal most of that so… I dunno. I’d like to clarify that my statement regarding police officers was entirely speculation.

        The information about fraud reporting is as accurate as I can manage though - the federal government has a page to look up that information on a state by state basis.

        • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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          15 days ago

          It’s a good thing to alert people on, as I’m sure this won’t be the lone example of odd activity, in Georgia or other states. The best place to affect votes is at the voting places, and lots of ways to do it, subtle or otherwise.

    • acosmichippo@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      this is also likely explicitly outside their jurisdiction since it involves a federal election

      states run federal elections though, plus there are probably local issues on the ballot too. why are police even there if it’s outside their jurisdiction? and how do you expect federal entities to enforce laws at every single poll in the country? it makes no sense.