Ross: Voter suppression and dirty tactics ahead of November election
Oct 26, 2018, 8:28 AM
(AP)
(AP)
Ten days before the big November election, and as usual, it’s like a football game without referees.
This is when candidates and interest groups can lie like crazy knowing that no one will see the fact-checked response in time. The best minds in politics are doing all they can to frighten you into moving that pencil a fraction of an inch up or down.
So anything goes. Except for one thing: I keep hearing about voter suppression. The various attempts to intimidate voters into staying home by making them think they’re not qualified to vote.
According to the US Code, voter intimidation is a criminal offense. No one, from the governor on down to a poll worker, is allowed to stop you from voting in a federal election. If someone tries, you call the cops, you press your phone’s video button, you confront that person and you quote federal law.
US Code, Title 18, chapter 594 states:
Whoever intimidates, threatens … or coerces any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, shall be fined … or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
I know the law can sometimes be fuzzy, but this is one of the clearest laws I’ve ever read. It doesn’t even mention ID. It says vote suppressors can go to jail.
I say we try it out!
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
