Thread by @somethingfishie

A few of you know I am an election judge in the Houston area. In October I will be working early voting for the November election.

Something tells me it won't be smooth sailing. 1/

First, I agreed to work the election because they really needed a Republican alternate judge in the location I'm assigned to. That provides the checks to the Democrat presiding judge.

Not enough people work elections in general. Early voting is even harder to staff. 2/

Additionally, early voting has been expanded to three weeks in Texas. Not crazy about that, but I get it. We start on 10/13.

And as alternative judge, I'll work 14 hour days most of the time. 6 am to 8 pm or later. (the overtime is great though) 3/

I signed up for those long hours, and I'm not complaining. I'm explaining what the working conditions are.

As for voters, so far the worst I've encountered are people who want to use their phone in the voting booth, or a drunk guy with some beef about which door to use. 4/

We don't typically have major confrontations at the polls out where I live. In town you'll have Sheila Jackson Lee show up to campaign in the polling places (which nobody stops) or stuff like that, but rarely do we see major disturbances. Voting is usually uneventful. 5/

Well, voting WAS uneventful until spring when the county clerk rolled out a vote-anywhere-for-the-primary scheme. You might remember those long lines of people voting until 2 am. That was her doing. 6/

To briefly recap, she mandated equal numbers of voting machines at each location for Rs and Ds, regardless of whether an area trended more blue or red.

The lines were in D areas, where voters could see machines standing empty on the R sides while they waited. 7/

Many thought that was a move to force parties to let the county run the party primaries, something we vehemently opposed. Right now parties choose their election staff. They wanted a 'nonpartisan election staff' to run primaries too, and we know 'nonpartisan' isn't trustworthy 8/

Anyway, with COVID and everything, we now have extended days to vote into mid October, and now I hear we will have 'drive-thru voting' (God knows what that is) and some locations open for 24-hour voting.

Fine, fine, sure, accessibility and all that. 9/

But they're rolling out these new procedures and options FOR A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

That's a problem.

I already anticipate some hiccups, but this seems like way too many things that could go wrong. Which could be intentional, idk. 10/

But here's the thing I've started to think about since seeing the cities on fire.

WHAT WOULD PREVENT THESE KINDS OF DISRUPTIONS FROM TAKING PLACE AT THE POLLING LOCATIONS? 11/

I'm trying to imagine what we could do if thirty or so people marched into a polling location and occupied it.

Stop and picture that for a moment. 12/

TImagine thirty or forty people blocking access to the building, or pushing over voting booths, or chanting and screaming at voters.

Imagine they do it on the first day of early voting.

Imagine they take video of it.

Imagine everyone sees it. 13/

Do you think regular people would then feel safe going to vote if, on the first day of voting, mobs are swarming the polling locations?

Don't you think many would just stay home? 14/

We could effectively staff each early polling place with an officer or two in our county. But would that be enough? It wouldn't be possible on election day.

And if a polling place was targeted, would that then trigger the inevitable access lawsuits to keep polls open longer? 15/

We have seen they will storm colleges, council chambers, legislatures, restaurants.

We have no reason to expect they will not try this for the November election.

Does anyone think this crowd would take 'mobbing polling places' off the table? 16/

I'm struggling to think how we could handle it during early voting.

Our local law enforcement would definitely engage.

I think. 17/

But in cities where cops have been told to stand down, what happens if the mobs come to disrupt voting?

Will the cops be allowed to restore order THERE? Will that throw the election into those lawsuits to extend hours? 18/

I'm also going to tell you, I'm 4'11". And 50 years old. I'm relatively YOUNG for an early voting Republican worker.

And relatively spry, I like to think.

God help the grandmas and grandpas who usually do this work if these mobs come for the elections. 19/

It'd be nice to have backup for the election, but unless you are election staff, a voter, a peace officer, or filling another enumerated role, you can't legally be in the polling place.

Best would be large strong guys willing to take a day or a few weeks and work with us. 20/

Additionally, everyone should probably take people with them to vote, not just for turnout, but for safety.

I wish I was joking. But again, we have seen there are no boundaries anymore. Better to be prepared for the threat that never materializes. 21/

I hope this is just an overactive imagination keeping me up nights.

I pray I'm being ridiculous.

I don't want to be thinking about this, be embarrassed to say anything, and then something happens and I never brought it up. 22/

Bottom line:

-Vote early.
-Vote with other people.
-Be aware of everything you can in the polling place.
-Volunteer to work elections if you can (it pays $17/hr here!)
-If you're in a situation, call the cops and start recording.

It's all I got. Happy voting. fin