Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists Cook Up Idiotic Plan to Keep Black People From Voting

On Tuesday, the Crusader, the official newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan, published a lengthy editorial supporting the presidential bid of Donald Trump. The glowing review of Trump’s candidacy is just one of many efforts by neo-Nazis, white nationalists and other avowed racists to get out the vote for the Republican candidate. Politico reports that in response to Trump’s repeated and dangerous assertion that the election is rigged against him, and his requests for supporters to monitor polls in heavily minority districts, the white supremacist base is taking steps to suppress the black vote. One group, relying on ridiculous racial stereotypes even in its voter suppression stunts, says it plans to hand out drugs and alcohol in “ghettos” to keep black folks from voting.

“We... have some teams going into the ghettos in Philly with 40s and weed to give out to the local residents, which we think will lead to more of them staying home,” an unnamed representative of alt-right website TheRightStuff.biz wrote to Politico in an email. “We have had success with this in the past.”

Andrew Anglin, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as the founder of the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, is all in for Trump and claims to be behind a large effort to get likeminded white voters to cast their ballots for Trump. Politico says Anglin sent an email stating he has a “big voter registration drive” underway, and that he is “sending an army of alt-right nationalists to watch the polls.”

“Jews, blacks and lesbians will be leaving America if Trump gets elected—and he’s happy about it,” Anglin said back in April. “This alone is enough reason to put your entire heart and soul into supporting this man.”

TheRightStuff, which says it’s working in partnership with Anglin, says it has more voter intimidation tactics, targeting African Americans and other minorities, in the works.

“We are organizing poll watchers in urban areas to cut down on the most traditional type of voter fraud,” a rep for the site wrote in an email to Politico. "Many polling locations are in schools, and black schools are so disorderly that pretty much any official-looking white person with a clipboard can gain access to them ahead of time and set up a hidden camera. You don't really ever even have to speak with an adult. Simply walk in like you belong there and no one even asks you why you are there. So we usually go in teams of two, one person driving and one person dressed as a blue collar worker with a clipboard, and we set up a hidden camera in the school cafeteria. Go during lunchtime and the teachers are all so busy trying to contain the kids that no one says anything. We already have a few set up."

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center expressed concern that Trump’s “rigged election” talk could inspire altercations at voting sites around the country.

“The possibility of violence on or around Election Day is very real,” Potok told Politico. However, he suggested the campaign of intimidation by white nationalists and others on behalf of Trump might have the opposite of its intended effect. "If on the morning of Election Day it turns out that we have white supremacists standing around looking threatening at polling places, I think it would arouse anger. People would vote just to prove they’re not being intimidated by these radical racists."

It’s hard to know how many of the claims by white nationalists and other groups is real and how much is bluster, because we're talking about neo-Nazis—as a rule, not the most trustworthy or honest group. The Anti-Defamation League’s Mark Pitcavage told Politico it is unlikely Anglin will “get even close” to pulling off the effort he’s boasted about. He is worried that groups like the Oath Keepers, a militia outfit Politico describes as “drawn largely from the ranks of former military, law enforcement, intelligence and first responders and a track record of mustering heavily armed members in public places” will be more organized and targeted in its voter suppression efforts.

According to the Atlantic, Democrats have filed suit against the Trump campaign’s voter intimidation efforts in Arizona, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“They argue that Trump’s calls for his supporters to ‘watch’ polling for suspected ‘cheating’ and ‘fraud’ violate two laws: the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was passed during Reconstruction to protect newly emancipated freedmen from harassment at polls, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits ‘intimidation,’ ‘threats,’ and ‘coercion’ of voters. The parties are also suing their respective Republican Party counterparts, along with a man named Roger J. Stone Jr., who is allegedly recruiting poll watchers and organizing ‘ballot security’ efforts in a number of states.”

The report goes on to note that an Ohio official claims that “Trump supporters have already visited the county elections board identifying themselves as poll observers, even though they did not appear to be credentialed as poll observers as required under Ohio law.”

The Atlantic also cites the lawsuit filed in Nevada, which indicates that “a Trump supporter harassed and intimidated multiple voters outside of the Albertsons early voting location on Lake Mead Boulevard, repeatedly asking voters for whom they were voting, and then yelling at them belligerently and attempting to keep them from entering the voting location when they stated they were not voting for Donald Trump.”