The feds can't do much to stop voter intimidation, thanks to the Supreme Court
The Justice Department will be severely limited in how it is able to address concerns of voter intimidation in the upcoming presidential election thanks to a three-year-old Supreme Court ruling, The New York Times reports:
By comparison, in 2012 observers were sent to jurisdictions across 13 states. "We do not want to be in the position we're in," said Vanita Gupta, the top civil rights official at the Justice Department. Election monitors will still be posted outside polling places in 25 states, but they will not be the experts normally allowed inside.
Fears of voter intimidation have spiked after Donald Trump called for his supporters to "go out and watch" the polls. "I'll look for ... well, it's called racial profiling. Mexicans. Syrians. People who can't speak American," one Trump supporter recently told The Boston Globe.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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