You might think that even in today’s highly polarized election environment there would be a bipartisan consensus to protect election workers from intimidation and harassment. If you thought so, you would be wrong. In recent weeks, there have been a series of lawsuits aimed at undoing protections for election workers.
Nevada recently
enacted a new Election Worker Protection Law to combat the increasing threats faced by election workers. The law, which passed the Legislature unanimously and was signed by the Republican governor, makes it a crime “to use or threaten or attempt to use any force, intimidation, coercion, violence, restraint or undue influence with the intent to interfere with the performance of the duties of any elections official relating to an election; or retaliate against any elections official for performing duties relating to an election.”
Shortly after the law was enacted, the Republican Party’s failed 2022 attorney general candidate — who is currently a Republican National Committeewoman — filed a
lawsuit to block the law. Her argument is that the law violates her First Amendment rights and is too vague to understand.
Meanwhile in Arizona, right wing organizations, including America First Policy Institute founded by former Trump aides, are
suing to block the anti-harassment provisions of the state’s Election Procedures Manual from going into effect. Among the provisions they find objectionable are those that prohibit:
- Any activity by a person with the intent or effect of threatening, harassing, intimidating, or coercing voters (or conspiring with others to do so),
- Aggressive behavior, such as raising one’s voice or taunting a voter or poll worker,
- Using threatening, insulting or offensive language to a voter or poll worker,
- Following voters or poll workers coming to or leaving a voting location, including to or from their vehicles,
- Questioning, photographing or videotaping voters or poll workers in a harassing or intimidating manner, including when the voter or poll worker is entering or leaving the polling location.
It is not only election officials that right-wing groups want to be able to harass — it is also voters. In Minnesota, an anti-voting outfit ironically called the Minnesota Voters Alliance is
challenging a law that prohibits making statements that intend “to impede or prevent another person from exercising the right to vote”’ within 60 days of an election.
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