Tag: voter intimidation

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News Round-Up: October 28, 2020

(screen capture via CBS News)
Some news items you might have missed: • USA Today: A new report says five states – Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Oregon – are at a high risk for activity by armed groups of civilians around the November 3 election. The report lists nine, large multistate right-wing groups that could present problems to Pennsylvania and other states, including Three Percenters, Proud Boys, and Oath Keepers. • The Advocate: A dispute between two people inside the popular gay bar Paco’s Ranch in Puerto Vallarta escalated into a physical altercation that spilled outside of the Romantic Zone establishment. One left, returned with a gun, and shot two men. • Statista: Although Donald Trump has claimed his 2016 win “was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan,” his triumph was not the landslide he pretends. In fact, he won fewer electoral votes than all but one president since Ronald Reagan.
(graphic via Statista)
• Page Six: Willie Garson, who played Carrie Bradshaw’s bestie “Stanford Blatch” on the hit series Sex and the City recently revealed why he stayed in the closet as a straight actor. “For years I didn’t talk about it because I found it to be offensive to gay people.” • OUT: International pop star Ricky Martin says “as a Latino, as a gay man, and as someone ‘married to an Arab’ — his husband is Syrian painter Jwan Yosef — he can’t imagine voting for Trump.” Martin added that seeing news about ‘Latinos for Trump’ is “really scary.” • Twitter: A Trump supporter in California was caught on video threatening a female motorist outside a polling place this past weekend. In the clip, the man walks in front of the woman’s car and appears to take a picture of her license plate. “We got your plates, baby. We know who you are now. You’re gonna vote for Trump whether you like it or not. You got no choice. You cannot resist Trump. We got you. We fucking got you.” #VoterIntimidation

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News Round-Up: October 20, 2020

Matt Morton (screen capture)
Some news items you might have missed: • Edge Media: Thirst-trapping, self-described ‘typical alpha male footballer’ Matt Morton (above) comes out at 30-years-old. • NBC News: The Texas Board of Social Work Examiners voted unanimously to remove anti-LGBTQ discrimination protections from a section of its code of conduct last week following a recommendation from Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott’s office said the change was suggested because the board’s nondiscrimination clause went beyond the state’s policy on social work. • Boy Culture: Donald Trump and Mike Pence were set to be interviewed by 60 Minutes, with Trump and Pence appearing together for a walk-around at the White House. But Trump apparently bailed 45 minutes into his interview with Lesley Stahl, then took to Twitter to shame her for not wearing a mask. Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris are also set to appear in the episode, and their segments apparently went off without problems.

• US Elections Project: Of the states that provide party-registration information (which includes battleground states Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania), about 53% of early votes have been cast by registered Democrats compared with 25% by registered Republicans. • Politico: The Fox News crowd may be salivating over the recent stories about Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, but over 50 former senior Intelligence officials say the reports have “all the classic earmarks of Russian disinformation.” • CNN: A poll worker in Shelby County, Tennessee, was fired last week for asking voters to turn their Black Lives Matter t-shirts inside out before letting them vote, violating his training as a nonpartisan election worker. The state bans voters and poll workers from wearing clothing that endorses a political candidate, but Black Lives Matter is neither a candidate nor a political party. • Law and Crime: Miami police officer Daniel Ubeda was photographed Tuesday morning at a Florida polling location wearing a “Trump 2020: No More Bullshit” face mask, a move the department said is an “unacceptable” and a violation of MPD policy. Florida election law Chapter 102.101 states that “No sheriff, deputy sheriff, police officer, or other officer of the law shall be allowed within the polling place without permission from the clerk or a majority of the inspectors, except to cast his or her ballot.”