Thread by @doctorow

In 1981, the RNC entered into a consent decree to halt its "Ballot Security Task Force" - a voter-intimidation squad that harassed Black voters by accusing them of "improper voting" and threatening them with arrest and fines.

nytimes.com/1981/12/14/nyr…

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In 2018, a New Jersey judge declined to renew the consent decree. Now, Republican operators are planning to reinstate the voter harassment service for 2020. They're recruiting ex-military and ex-police supporters to haunt Black and Native tribal polling places.

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The plan was shared at a Council for National Policy ("a secretive foundation on the religious right") meeting in Orange County that @theintercept's @lhfang reports on.

theintercept.com/2020/04/11/rep…

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The strategy session included plans to suppress vote-by-mail because Republicans perceive expanded electoral participation as favorable to Democrats.

pluralistic.net/2020/03/31/rea…

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The group leading the voter suppression charge is True the Vote, whose founder, Catherine Engelbrecht, called for Navy Seals to watch over polls and tell prospective voters, "No, no, this is what it says. This is how we’re going to play this show."

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Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs executive director Trent England endorsed the plan, as did Brad Smith (a GW Bush FEC commissioner) and Morton Blackwell (RNC).

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Heritage Foundation fellow and ardent opponent of expanded voting rights Hans von Spakovsky spoke alongside Engelbrecht at the session, laying out plans to disqualify voters.

propublica.org/article/a-shor…

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True the Vote relies on a rogues' gallery of evil plutes for funding, including Richard Sackler, the disgraced architect of the opioid epidemic, and Trump heavy donors Eric M. Javits and Lawrence Post.

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True the Vote is currently using their money to sue to block universal vote-by-mail in New Mexico, and lobbying against plans for postal voting in other states.

They allege that postal voting opens up the possibility of voter fraud.

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There's no evidence of this -- with one exception: the far-right North Carolina Republican Mark Harris, whose victory was invalidated when he admitted that he'd won thanks to fraudulent postal votes.

washingtonpost.com/politics/in-nc…

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In more candid moments, Republicans admit that the reason they dislike postal ballots is that they increase turnout, and that when everyone gets a vote, Republicans lose elections.

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Georgia House Speaker David Ralston said that increased turnout "will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives."

ajc.com/news/state--re…

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And, of course, Trump (master of saying the quiet part out loud), said that if you allowed every eligible voter to vote, "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again."

commondreams.org/news/2020/03/3…

eof/