Thank you to Steve Bannon for giving away the game:

@randahl

As pointed by Devereaux, Bouie and probably many others, they don't have enough goons to do that, and by far.
And as shown by Minneapolis, if they try that in some voting places (which is the maximum their numbers can allow), getting their behavior on camera won't bring them good results overall.

I'm not saying that they won't try it, but they can't pull it out with the current political equilibrium.

@lienrag @randahl But they only have to do it in a few key places where the winning margin is usually small one way or the other.

And they only have to be seen doing it in a few places and spread rumours that it's happening in more to put people off going anywhere near their voting location.

Thank you to Steve Bannon for giving away the game:

Step 1: Show the people that ICE can kill anybody.

Step 2: Have ICE show up at polling stations in areas where people vote against Trump, so those neighborhoods do not go vote.

@beecycling

They have to do it at enough key places to offset the counter-effect that we've seen with the Pretti-Good answers to the Minneapolis situation (as far as Texas).
They don't have enough goons to do that.

And the chilling effect has to also offset the anger effect.

Remember, don't comply in advance.

There are reasons to worry (and to register as an observer in order to prevent them from succeeding), but not to capitulate.

@randahl

@lienrag @randahl I hope that counter effect is still going by November. I'm sure they will do many more terrible things by then. They're probably out to provoke a response that gives them an excuse to cancel the elections entirely. If they can't get that, they will steal them, however blatant they have to be about it. You're not going to get a normal election again until these people are gone, and they're not going to go quietly.

@randahl Steve Bannon? The guy from the Epstein files? No way, I can't believe it!!

Also, it is illegal for federal agents to be at polling locations without an active crime being committed. Let's see how they twist the law this time.

Thank you to Steve Bannon for giving away the game:

Step 1: Show the people that ICE can kill anybody.

Step 2: Have ICE show up at polling stations in areas where people vote against Trump, so those neighborhoods do not go vote.

@ricardoharvin Bullshit. If they really didn't, they wouldn't be pouring so much money and effort into making it harder to vote.

Thank you to Steve Bannon for giving away the game:

Step 1: Show the people that ICE can kill anybody.

Step 2: Have ICE show up at polling stations in areas where people vote against Trump, so those neighborhoods do not go vote.

@ricardoharvin @dmitry

An election with only one allowed outcome is not an election.

This "election" is performative, to make people think they can still vote so they will accept all these measures. If they get away with it, it will be the last one. This performative election is the last faint chance to object to fascism, that is why they are spending so much - to render any opposition to the current administraton ineffective so that resistance will fail.

@ricardoharvin Bullshit. If they really didn't, they wouldn't be pouring so much money and effort into making it harder to vote.

@katrinakatrinka @randahl

They can't do the whole country, but they don't need to, they just need to do certain districts. This is about holding on to a razor majority in congress.

And you have to remember, states like Texas with Greg "the fucker" Abbott are going to be gleeful little helpers in making this happen.

I don't want to demoralize people from voting, but we have to be prepared for the real possibility of it being stolen.

Thank you to Steve Bannon for giving away the game:

Step 1: Show the people that ICE can kill anybody.

Step 2: Have ICE show up at polling stations in areas where people vote against Trump, so those neighborhoods do not go vote.

Thank you to Steve Bannon for giving away the game:

Step 1: Show the people that ICE can kill anybody.

Step 2: Have ICE show up at polling stations in areas where people vote against Trump, so those neighborhoods do not go vote.

@ricardoharvin Bullshit. If they really didn't, they wouldn't be pouring so much money and effort into making it harder to vote.

@randahl @energisch_

The USA never were a democracy, although they made a pretty convincing cosplayer some of the time.

@randahl
ICE doesn't have that many people.

Also, Minnesota had a special election with ICE oppressing them and scaring people from going out in public. They voted in spite of it.

https://www.the-downballot.com/p/minnesotans-just-showed-theyll-crawl

@dmitry @ricardoharvin If they only use one tactic to undermine the whole election, then people can point to it and say "see, if they hadn't done *that* then the election would have gone differently".

If they try ten different things, where no individual one on its own is sufficient to change the outcome, but any six would be - then any time discussion focuses on one tactic, they can deflect by saying "oh come now, any effect from that was too small to change the outcome anyway, get over it".