"On Election Day in November, some polling places could be patrolled by off-duty police officers and veterans, according to a plan hatched by Republican operatives.

The idea is a reprisal of once-illegal Election Day “ballot security” intimidation tactics, intended to challenge voter registration and remove voters from the rolls. At a strategy session in February attended by conservative donors and activists, several people expressed a specific need for Republican poll watchers in “inner city” and predominantly Native American precincts, according to audio recordings of the event obtained by The Intercept and Documented.

'You get some [Navy] Seals in those polls and they’re going to say, ‘No, no, this is what it says. This is how we’re going to play this show,’” said Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote, a group that lobbies for voting restrictions and organizes volunteers to go into precincts and aggressively challenge voters who they believe are improperly registered. “That’s what we need. We need people who are unafraid to call it like they see it.”

Black voters here in Coatesville, PA will not be intimidated by our PD.

I can’t say that the rest of Chester County local PD will not interfere on Election Day. I’m particularly concerned with West Goshen PD. However the Democratic Party, not the Chester County Republican Committee now has control over County Government, which includes the District Attorney’s office & Chester County Detectives.

Most of Pennsylvania’s Counties are Republican Party controlled. To anticipate the incidence of armed patrols in minority area on Election Day I would look at those PA Counties where the DA is not a Democrat.

The law preventing armed police at polling places was not renewed in 2018. There is no such law for the 2020 elections:

Using former soldiers and law enforcement as poll watchers was banned in 1981 by a judicial consent decree imposed on the Republican Party, but that ban was lifted in 2018 when a New Jersey judge declined to renew it. The ban came explicitly in response to an effort by the Republican National Committee to intimidate voters in African American communities by creating a so-called Ballot Security Task Force, threatening arrest and a $1,000 fine for improper voting...

“This is an absolute front-line fight. Around every corner, you find a new way to cheat this process,” said Engelbrecht. Democrats, she warned, would use “mob rule” to siege elections with fraudulent votes. “The swarming tactics of a radicalized socialist mindset is a dangerous thing to behold.”

“Of interest here, we have a new initiative called ‘Continue to Serve,’ which is about recruiting veterans and first responders to work inside the polls,” she said, before suggesting that former Navy Seals should be tapped to watch the polls. “You want to talk about people who understand and respect law and order and chain of command...

The original consent decree came as a result of the Ballot Security Task Force, a plan used by the RNC to sway the 1981 New Jersey gubernatorial election, which Republican Tom Kean clinched by a mere 1,797 votes.

That year, RNC officials sent nonforwardable letters to voters in heavily African American neighborhoods. The party then recruited off-duty police officers, many of whom reportedly carried holstered guns, to patrol nonwhite precincts with lists of people whose names appeared on the 45,000 bounced letters, claiming that the list was enough evidence to show they were illegally voting.

The Ballot Security Task Force placed posters nearing polling stations that read: “Warning: This Area Is Being Patrolled by the National Ballot Security Task Force: It Is a Crime to Falsify a Ballot or to Violate Election Laws,” along with an offer for a $1,000 reward for any “information leading to arrest and conviction of persons violating New Jersey election law.” There was no effort to make clear that the deployed officers were working for the GOP or any disclosure that RNC had paid for the posters.

The Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit over the tactic, alleging that the task force harassed poll workers, refused prospective voters from entering polling places, ripped down Democratic posters, and forcibly restrained volunteers from helping voters cast their ballots.

The resulting court order, which forced the RNC nationwide and the Republican Party of New Jersey to obtain advanced permission for certain poll watching and “ballot security” initiatives, had been in place for more than three decades. That changed finally in 2018, when District Judge John Michael Vazquez ruled that the order would not be renewed, lifting any future restrictions on the party. In a brief filing, Vazquez noted that he was ending the consent decree in part because the DNC had failed to show the RNC in violation of its terms...

Later in the meeting, Engelbrecht called repeatedly for more collaboration among conservative groups, suggesting that participants at the meeting work with groups like the Republican National Lawyers Association to formulate plans to challenge registrations and disqualify voters.

“We have to have someone to be able to pass the baton off to. Because of the New Jersey consent decree, we are rusty,” said Engelbrecht.

The Trump campaign, notably, has voiced support for the end of the RNC consent decree. Last November, at the Republican National Lawyers Association conference, Justin Clark, a strategist and attorney for the Trump campaign, gave remarks on the importance of winning states like Wisconsin. During his speech, he explained “what is going to be different about Election Day operations in 2020 versus 2016.”

“There are a lot of huge differences,” said Clark. “First and foremost, the consent decree is gone, OK?” The end of the consent decree, he explained, would mean increased ballot security work, but also expanded coordination between various GOP committees and the Trump campaign, which he, called a “huge, huge, huge, huge, deal.”

“Police violence has historically been used as tool for voter intimidation in America, especially in communities of color,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause. “This is why many states have laws stating police cannot be at polls,” Albert added. “Encouraging law enforcement to monitor polls is another old tactic that partisan operatives are trying to use to stop Americans from exercising their constitutional right to vote.”

“If law enforcement joins in with groups like True the Vote, they will be making it very clear that they have no interest in serving as a trusted resource to the community,” said Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change.

“They haven’t been able to prove voter fraud, so they’re including law enforcement and military folks in search of a problem that doesn’t exist,” added Robinson. “We actually don’t have a problem with voter fraud, we have a problem with voter suppression, and in a country with incredibly low rates of voter participation, we want to create another barrier to voting?”

True the Vote has since released appeals on its website, along with a sign-up form, to recruit police officers and former military to serve as poll watchers.

“My brothers spilled their blood on the battlefield so people can vote their beliefs,” said Ed “Iron” Hiner, a retired Navy Seal and volunteer with True the Vote, in a recorded message promoting the effort. Hiner, who has been outspoken in the press in support of Eddie Gallager, the Navy Seal accused of murdering a prisoner and attempted murder of civilians in Iraq, described the poll watching program as a continuation of service for members of the military.

“Once you get out and retire like I did, there’s a hole, there’s something, you’re used to having a mission,” said Hiner, speaking next to Engelbrecht in the video.

True the Vote grew out of King Street Patriots, a local tea party chapter in Houston, Texas that was involved with intimidating voters at multiple polling locations in predominately nonwhite neighborhoods during the 2010 election. Volunteers with the group were reportedly seen “hovering over” voters, blocking lines, and engaging in confrontations with election workers. In 2012, True the Vote deployed poll watchers in Wisconsin who attempted to prevent students from voting.

Blackwell, Engelbrecht, and True the Vote did not respond to a request for comment. The group, organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit claims that it is nonpartisan and simply devoted to upholding “election integrity.” The organization, however, maintains extensive ties to the Republican establishment.

Brent Mudd, one board member, previously served as the treasurer for the Super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign. Greg Phillips, another True the Vote board member, worked at the same Gingrich Super PAC and was previously an official with the Alabama and Mississippi state Republican parties.

True the Vote is also supported financially by a number of foundations run by prominent conservative donors. Eric M. Javits and Lawrence Post, two frequent donors to Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, are among the disclosed donors to True the Vote. Richard Sackler, a member of the billionaire family that founded Purdue Pharma, the company that invented Oxycontin and marketed the highly addictive opioid to millions, also donated to True the Vote, tax records show...

The GOP has strained to present actual evidence for vote-by-mail fraud. One of the rare examples of a campaign going door to door to collect and manipulate ballots was North Carolina Republican Mark Harris, whose victory in 2018 was invalidated over widespread evidence that his consultants illegally collected and forged ballots from voters.

There is no evidence of widespread voting fraud in America. Studies have revealed isolated cases of a few voters voting improperly for both major parties, but no determined effort to break the rules has been discovered.