This diary about North Carolina caught my eye for a brief discussion of ‘poll trolls”— otherwise known as Trump’s devotees engaged in intimidating voters outside poll stations through such methods as filming people, noting license plates, and fake badges.
This hysteria surrounding the Republicans’ tactics is, in a way, surreal for me. It feels like ‘regular’ people believe these dirty tricks are new and related to the bizarro world election, and that they are a steroidal way of trying to turn the tide of public opinion and intimidate liberals into believing supporting Hillary is not worth their safety.
Such behavior is not new. Those of us fighting for reproductive rights have been subject to these abusive tactics for many years. These Republican rules of engagement have succeeded in obfuscating science, playing to the emotions of the Republican base, demonizing those of us trying to provide basic health care, and terrorizing people in their homes so they think twice about working for women’s rights.
So when someone says to me, “how can they stand outside a polling place with a fake badge and get away with that” I laugh, but it isn’t amusing in any way. They get away with it because most of the public has already accepted that deceiving people or terrorizing reproductive health workers is fine.
I see all the usual strategies of our anti-choicers trotted out in this election, this time focused on repressing non-white non-Christian voting. The strategies that have made us all in the field so weary and their corresponding election versions:
- O’Keefe’s doctored videos (“Project Veritas”)
- Threats of violence and acts of violence to attain political gain not being labeled as terrorism
- Hacking attempts (Wikileaks)
- Fake badges (Impersonating health center staff/poll trolls)
- Insider sabotage (CMP’s fake company/FBI leaks)
- Videoing people engaged in exercising their rights (taping cars and people going into and out of health centers/poll trolls)
- “Target lists” of ‘people of interest’
- Doxxing attacks on opponents on social media
- Reputational smears through innuendo and flat out lies (discredited Planned Parenthood videos; ‘baby parts’/Hillary...well, everything)
- Science denial (climate change denial/obfuscation of fetal development through ‘pain bills’ and renaming medical procedures)
- Targeted legislation (TRAP laws; Citizen’s United & Hobby Lobby)
- Endless investigations (Planned Parenthood/Hillary)
- Lack of enforcement of laws protecting the vulnerable (less than active enforcement of FACE laws protecting clinics/repeal of Voting protections)
- Lack of transparency about sources of data and real objective impact of Republican policies (Increase in maternal mortality in Texas due to anti-PP crusade/poverty, class war, etc...)
I could go on but you get the idea.
These tactics have worked for repressing abortion rights. People genuinely think that abortion is a dangerous procedure that can result in infertility or death and that women are getting third term abortions for convenience’s sake. Women have been shamed and terrorized into silence so there is no pushback except through 501c4 advocacy. It is hard to find people willing to go to work every day in a health center when there is a real chance that you will get your tires nailed, a threatening letter that identifies where your children go to school, or your name is on a “wanted poster” website. It is hard to find employees that stay once they realize the level of security they must live under. It is hard to find students that want to make reproductive health their medical career.
Because they will likely have to wear a bullet proof vest sometimes.
The demonization of pro-choice workers has been the gateway to these tactics being generalized. Trying to establish a buffer zone has been rejected due to free speech in context of ‘sidewalk counseling’. Free speech is important. But free speech has come to mean, at least for Republicans, that they can say and do whatever they want with no consequences. They can make deceptively edited videos designed to inflame and lie and there is no legal route to punishment as of this time. A victim can sue for defamation but those bars are high, and probably rightly so originally, as they were geared towards journalists. But now they apply to any yahoo with a camera. Any person can take a video of you at a poll and put you on a list at home.
These abuses were happening to us all along. I guess I am (happy? interested? relieved?)...something...to have everyone else see what we have been dealing with in relative silence, just keeping our heads down trying to do our work in spite of being turned into ghouls ripping babies out of wombs in between giving out aborting IUDs and giving sluts treatment. Unfortunately their success here means they’re taking these strategies big time to get their way.
So, a bit of advice from a veteran of these things... if you can, vote by mail or early. If you can’t and you run into a poll troll:
- Ignore them completely. Do not speak to them at all regardless of what they say. Or…
- Film them while saying nothing.
Then if you do film, send to the appropriate authorities after you are safe and away from them.
I am trying to reassure myself that the rock has been turned over and now we all see. But that won’t change anything tomorrow, at work.