On Election Day Nov. 2008 I was chair of the Democratic
Committee of Coatesville, PA.
There was an incident late in the day at Coatesville’s First
Ward. At the time Coatesville’s First
Ward was heavily Democratic and there was a line around the corner waiting to
enter to vote.
A man hired by Rep. Tim Hennessey was passing out handbills
aimed at Democrats that said something like vote straight for Democrat for Obama and then
fill in the oval for Tim Hennessey. Hennessey is a Republican and the people
passing out the fliers for him were not received well by the mostly Democratic
voters waiting in line.
The man passing out the handbills was overwhelmingly
rejected. He appeared inebriated and increasingly belligerent. He began to push
the handbills hard into voter’s chests. Several fistfights nearly broke out.
The normal procedure when something like this occurs in
Chester County is to call on the State Constable who was elected by the voters
of Coatesville’s First Ward. The Constable is the only officer legally enabled
to enforce order at a polling place in Chester County.
But nobody ran for State Constable in Coatesville’s First
Ward and there was no Constable available.
I was called over to try to restore order. I saw in person
what was happening. I drove to Coatesville’s Fourth Ward where there was a
State Constable, who at the time was the only State Constable in the City of
Coatesville.
The State Constable gave me his phone to call the
Coatesville Police and then got on the line to tell police he gave them
jurisdiction to do what was needed to restore order to the Fourth Ward Polls.
When I came back to the Fourth Ward Polls a man working for
the Obama Campaign had artfully persuaded Hennessey’s drunk and disorderly paid
campaign worker to be respectful of voters.
When the Coatesville PD officer came by we waved him off.
The man quietly handed out his handbills the rest of the
evening without incident.
The people working for the Obama campaign were top-notch
campaign workers. They were truly impressive.
Working at the local level to elect Barack Obama in
Coatesville was an uplifting experience.
I don’t think the 2016 elections will be uplifting.
It’s very clear to me that Democratic Committee-people in
Chester County and probably all over America are driven to support Clinton mostly out of fear of retribution.
I expect some of the corrupt underbelly of professional campaign
workers in Hillary’s campaign and the usual corrupt professional Republican
campaign workers. I believe the
political professionals hired by Hillary for President will be some of the same people
hired by the GOP. They work for any political party. My experience with GOP campaign managers is they are without scruples.
I’ve run across a few Trump hat-wearing people talking up
Trump on the street and inside stores but I think they are volunteers maybe
working for Trump on their own.
I don’t know if the Trump Pence Campaign will have a paid staff on the ground in Pennsylvania.
I think the Republican Party has a mixed view of Trump. Some
Republicans will even support Hillary Clinton.
I believe the Chester County Republican Committee will have
people working for down ballot Republicans. They may antagonistic towards Trump supporting Republicans.
I believe some local Republicans are more extremist than Donald Trump. They will be out supporting Trump.
I think it’s going to be a rough election for poll workers
this year.
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