Armed Wisconsin Poll Watchers Plan To Target African-American Voters
September 22, 2014

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we're going back to Wisconsin for more fun and nonsense.

Meet the Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia, a group of lunatics who really loathe Black voters and would like to make sure none of them dare cast a ballot on Election Day. I wonder if True the Vote offers trainings in armed poll watching? They make the scare tactics over the New Black Panthers look mild by comparison.

Daily Kos:

A Facebook group calling themselves the "Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia" (update: page has since disappeared and now it's back!) is threatening armed intimidation of voters who signed the Scott Walker recall in 2012 who also have any outstanding warrants or tax defaults. The page claims "Our militia will watch polling places and report known felons and other people wanted by law enforcement. The police are looking for you, so are we."

Don't believe me? Check the screenshot below:

militiaarmed

Their Facebook page has been scrubbed of the detestable postings they put up, and is now private with the message that "Somebody's watching me."

I sure as hell hope somebody is watching. Somebody like the US Department of Justice, for example.

As AnnieJo at DK points out, Wisconsin now has a concealed carry law and permits poll watchers to stand within three feet of voters. Intimidation, much?

But this might just be the creepiest part of all:

They are finding their targets using a searchable database compiled after the recall, where rightwingers hand-entered the information from the recall petitions into a database, and then cross-referenced with publicly-available court information databases.

Here's another sample of their handiwork, via PoliticusUSA. This is where you get the full sense of how ratf*cking Republicans plan to win the election for Scott Walker:

47e543112d3932e15049fdaa7abd3e6846724ccf

Even Rushbo got into the act, giving the database a thumbs-up and a free plug on his show:

The website got a recent shout-out from none other than radio talker Rush Limbaugh, who tied the tax dodgers to every liberal who protested Gov. Scott Walker's crackdown on public workers.

Limbaugh said the website was the work of an "anonymous researcher."

"Thanks to his hard work, we finally know who is not paying their fair share of taxes in Wisconsin," he said.

And it's not just Wisconsin. Another group calling themselves Nationwide Poll Watchers plan to target Latino voters as "illegals":

screenshot_2014-09-22_00.45.39

And this declaration:

We are not affiliated in any way with the "Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia". We intend to stop illegal aliens from voting as well as criminals with outstanding warrants. Yes, 98% of criminals and illegal aliens vote Democrat so it will obviously be a targeted effort. It's time that we finally take our country back!

But all is not lost. There is now a Facebook page to watch the poll watchers, and they're naming names and pointing out associations.

The Wisconsin Poll Watchers Militia appears to be associated with the Wisconsin Association of Polling Place Monitors, who organized their Saturday "training" in order to be watching those polling places.

Here's what they'll be doing on Election Day:

And what has Scotty Walker done about these lawless thugs?

Not a damned thing.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon