On Election Day, polling sites should be ‘islands of calm,’ says Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon

A month after right-wing influencers cut a deceptively-edited video purporting to show weaknesses in Minnesota’s elections system, democracy advocates and the state’s top elections officials are gearing up to protect citizens’ right to vote.

“Unfortunately, this is not a normal election. We have already witnessed numerous attacks on democracy,” Minister JaNaé Bates Imari, co-director of the interfaith democracy advocacy group ISAIAH, told dozens of fellow faith leaders at the Capitol Thursday morning.

The possibility that agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal law enforcement agencies could interfere with Election Day voting is troubling for communities still processing the ordeal of Operation Metro Surge last winter, said Pastor Quinlan Koch, who leads the First Lutheran Church of Red Wing. 

“We have heard about plans to send ICE to polling places … Imagine what that communicates to an immigrant, a naturalized citizen,” said Koch, who was one of about 100 clergy members arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport during a January sit-in.

At a Capitol press conference a short time later, Secretary of State Steve Simon said that concern weighs on the local elections officials he’s in touch with across Minnesota, too.

“The number one question I get asked is what do we do if there’s ICE at the polling place,” Simon said.

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His answer, in part: Federal agents are bound by the same “clear and precise” state laws that dictate who all is allowed at the polls during voting hours. 

By law, the only people allowed inside a polling place or within 100 feet of the building where it’s located are voters, election workers, people who normally work in the building and one individual designated in writing as a “challenger” by each major political party, Simon said. Challengers must remain at least six feet from people who are actively voting and can challenge only from personal knowledge – “no ‘vibes,’” he said.

In other words, federal law enforcement agents – like everyone else – need to remain outside the 100-foot perimeter. 

Further, local law enforcement agencies can’t preemptively post up at a polling place, even if they’re simply trying to ensure things go smoothly on Election Day. Once the polls open, they can go inside to respond to medical emergencies, altercation and the like, “but absent that invitation, they are not allowed there,” Simon said.

And state law prohibits anyone – including federal agents – from engaging in behavior at polling places that could “reasonably be interpreted as harassing or intimidating a voter,” Simon added.

As the assembled clergy departed the Capitol to attend a “voter protection” training at a nearby church, Simon and Melanie Hazelip, his office’s voting outreach director, said they recognized that democracy advocates are energized this election cycle. New groups are interested in getting involved this year, and the Secretary of State’s office is coordinating with them to “ensure whatever their approach might be is consistent with our policies,” Hazelip said.

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But in keeping with his mandate to ensure polling places remain “islands of calm” on Election Day, Simon said even well-intentioned groups should think carefully about how others might perceive their presence at polling places.

“Our advice is that people should be careful and considerate about the actual deployment of people on Election Day, even if it comes from the right place,” he said. “If a voter is feeling distressed and they see a group of people wearing the same color T-shirt, they don’t know whether they are the good or the bad guys. We want low drama, not high drama.” 

Then again, those seeking no drama at all have alternatives to Election Day voting in Minnesota thanks to a lengthy early voting window and no-excuse mail balloting. 

“Only one of [those options] requires you to go to a polling place at a designated hour on a designated day,” Simon said. “You can vote from your kitchen table – you don’t have to run the gauntlet or … have anyone confront you.”

The post On Election Day, polling sites should be ‘islands of calm,’ says Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon appeared first on MinnPost.

Originally reported by MinnPost by Brian Martucci. Read the full story at the source.