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Trump Supporters Block Voting Site in Virginia

BY September 19, 2020

When Donald Trump speaks, his fan base takes him literally, often repeating his words as their own. And so when he called for MAGA Nation to become “poll watchers” to make sure no one was “voting twice”–an unverified lie he has repeatedly pushed both in his speeches as well as his tweets–his loyalists answered by showing up to intimidate early voters in Fairfax, Virginia on Saturday morning.

A video posted on Twitter by filmmaker Anthony Tilghman shows protesters holding MAGA flags as they gather in front of a voting site, blocking voters from entering. They can clearly be heard chanting “FOUR MORE YEARS!”

 

Democratic strategist (and former advisor to Hillary Clinton) Adam Parkhomenko gave everyone an overdue Civics lesson:

Voter suppression and intimidation is of course illegal, as is campaigning in front of a polling site. Officials forced them to move 40 feet away as required by law, but such blatant electioneering (when an individual attempts to convince someone else to vote for or against a particular candidate/bill/amendment/etc. Every U.S. state prohibits electioneering within certain distances of polling places during voting hours. Specific distances, definitions, and legal consequences vary by state) this early in the election season sets a dangerous precedent as Trump continues to attack the voting process.

Even clothing and accessories like buttons and pins can also be considered electioneering materials if they advocate for a specific candidate or campaign and voters may be asked to cover or remove them. These particular protesters mostly scattered once security showed up, according to a follow-up tweet by Tilghman.

Fortunately, the line of voters Saturday morning wasn’t nearly as long as the one that snaked for blocks when the polls opened early on Friday, but the threat of the violence seen at previous MAGA protests hangs over any pro-Trump gathering.



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