When author and editor Elaine Elinson heard Trump Jr. urge supporters to “join the Army for Trump’s election security operation” and “help us watch them,” her mind went back to 1994, when she was an election observer in El Salvador.
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That March, after a 12-year civil war left more than 75,000 dead or disappeared, Salvadorans headed to the polls for the first democratic election in a generation. Elinson, then a @ACLU_NorCal staffer, was one of hundreds of international observers sent by the United Nations.
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Their role at the polling booths was to “create a visible presence so that the voters would feel safe,” writes Elinson. The idea was that by showing up, anyone who “tried to menace voters would be deterred.” Elinson was issued a blue shirt labeled “Misión Observadora.”
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An hour before the polling booths opened at her assigned station in downtown San Miguel, Elinson recalls “long lines of voters snaked around the block in the pre-dawn darkness.”
“Many had walked long distances to get to the city,” she continues. “Some were barefoot.”
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“Many had walked long distances to get to the city,” she continues. “Some were barefoot.”
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She still remembers when a red Toyota pickup truck—"the signature vehicle of the infamous death squads, who had wreaked terror on the Salvadoran countryside”—drove slowly down the street.
“I watched the line collectively recoil as people instinctively withdrew from the curb.”
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“I watched the line collectively recoil as people instinctively withdrew from the curb.”
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Her memories from 1994 have returned in recent weeks, but she draws comfort from the fact that orgs such as @NAACP_LDF, @ACLU, and @LawyersComm have recruited lawyers to ensure people can vote freely.
“Tens of thousands have volunteered,” she writes.
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“Tens of thousands have volunteered,” she writes.
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