President Donald Trump sounded an alarm at the first presidential debate Sept. 29 when he told his supporters to “go into the polls and watch very carefully.”
The statement along with Trump’s repeated baseless claims of voter fraud have triggered severe backlash in Nevada and across the nation from Democrats, many of whom accused Trump of pushing for voter intimidation in an election that is expected to be close in many states.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford has been one of the key voices here criticizing Trump’s remarks.
“We don’t have to go back to Jim Crow South to understand what was intended by those words,” Ford said, stating that he was concerned about “the verbiage I heard, the rhetoric I heard from the president.”
Thea McDonald, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, criticized what she called the media’s “breathless obsession” with Trump campaign poll watchers and said recruiting poll watchers is a typical campaign tactic.
She called poll watchers “key to election transparency and accountability.”
“Poll watchers are critical to ensuring the fairness of any election, and President Trump’s volunteer poll watchers will be trained to ensure all rules are applied equally, all valid ballots are counted and all Democrat rule breaking is called out,” McDonald said in a statement. “And if fouls are called, the Trump campaign will go to court to enforce the laws, as rightfully written by state legislatures, to protect every voter’s right to vote.”
Ford agreed that poll watchers have their place on Election Day, but he said Trump “wasn’t talking about poll watching. He was talking about voter intimidation.”
“There are ways that you can become a legitimate poll watcher,” Ford told The Washington Post. “It requires certain attestations, and you are disallowed from intimidating or engaging with those who are voting.”
Trump’s debate-night statement brought a warning from Ford. “FYI — voter intimidation is illegal in Nevada,” Ford said on Twitter. “Believe me when I say it: You do it, and you will be prosecuted.”
Voter intimidation is illegal under both state and federal law, and Ford said anyone who does engage in voter intimidation is “subjecting themselves to a category E felony.”
Category E felonies carry a minimum sentence of one year and a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
In a statement, Jennifer Russell, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office, said examples of voter intimidation included physically blocking a polling place so a voter cannot vote; questioning voters at the polls about their political choices, citizenship status, or criminal record; and using threatening language around a polling place.
Ford said he has heard of people during early voting coughing on others or yelling at other voters, though he said his office had not prosecuted anyone. Generally, he said, if an election official gets involved situations tend to calm down.
He’s heard of instances in which people have had to call the police, as well, which ends normally in a warning, he said.
“That’s appropriate,” Ford said. “Sometimes people don’t know they’re crossing the line, so you want to give them a warning.”
Simply observing an election, under the law, is fine, though it comes with caveats. Russell said that election observers must wear a name tag and sign an acknowledgment form that that they will follow observation rules.
Observers are not allowed to speak with voters, and they must direct any questions they have to an election official. If they break the rules, they will be asked to leave.
“Transparency is a key component of fair elections,” Russell said in a statement. “Accordingly, Nevada election officials welcome public observation of all aspects of the voting process.”
Observers — and any “member of the general public” — per state statute are not allowed to photograph or record the physical act of voting. Caveats are included in statute to allow journalists to do their work.
While election observers must exist in the background, poll workers are permitted to help voters if they’re having trouble casting their ballots, per the Nevada Voters’ Bill of Rights.
Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said poll workers in Clark County would be identifiable.
Kulin said, however, those workers should not discuss candidates or their policy positions with voters. They’re there, in essence, to make sure voters can vote, not to push them in one direction or another, he said.
It’s possible voters may see some electioneering when they go to the polls. However, campaigning within 100 feet of a polling location is illegal. Outside of that 100-foot barrier, though, campaigning is legal as long as there is no voter intimidation taking place.
“We’re not looking to stifle free speech,” Ford said.
Ford said that voters should reach out to a team leader at the voting site if they suspect or see voter intimidation and that the leader will know what to do in the situation.
Voters with complaints about polling site voter intimidation also can contact the secretary of state’s office (775-684-5708, [email protected]) or the Clark County elections office (702-455-8683, [email protected]).