Ballot Security Task Force

The National Ballot Security Task Force (BSTF) was a controversial group founded in 1981 by the Republican National Committee located in New Jersey, as a means of intimidating voters and discouraging voter turnout among likely Democratic voters in the gubernatorial election. The Ballot Security Task Force was alleged to have carried out 'voter-suppression' and intimidation.

Overview

The task force consisted of a group of armed, off-duty police officers wearing armbands, who were hired to patrol polling sites in African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods of Newark and Trenton.[1]

Initially, 45,000 letters were mailed (using an outdated voter registration list) to primarily Latino and African-American citizens.[2] These letters were later returned as non-deliverable and the 45,000 addresses were converted into a list of voters.[3] These voters were then challenged by the BSTF. In addition, the Republican National Committee filed a request for election supervisors to strike these voters from the rolls, but the commissioners of registration refused when they discovered that the RNC had used outdated information.[4]

On New Jersey's election day in 1981, the BSTF posted large signs, without identification but with an official appearance, reading

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[5][6]

Armed officers in the task force were drawn from the ranks of off-duty county deputy sheriffs and local police, who prominently displayed revolvers, two-way radios, and BSTF armbands. BSTF patrols challenged and questioned voters at the polls.[4] Democrat James J. Florio lost the gubernatorial election to Republican Thomas H. Kean by 1,797 votes.

1982 Lawsuit

A civil lawsuit was filed after the election, charging the RNC with illegal harassment and voter intimidation.[7] The suit was settled in 1982, when the state and national Republican parties signed a consent decree in U.S. District Court saying that they would not allow tactics that could intimidate Democratic voters, though they did not admit any wrongdoing.[8] The consent decree limited the activities of the RNC with regards to poll watching and fighting voter fraud, and was set to expire on December 1, 2017.[9][10]

2016 Lawsuit

The Republican candidate for the presidency, Donald Trump, called for supporters to watch the polls closely in the 2016 elections with special emphasis made for monitoring East Coast urban areas, like Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Democratic National Committee subsequently filed a motion on October 26, 2016 in a New Jersey courtroom to find the Republican National Committee in violation of the decree, and to extend the consent decree another eight years. [11][10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Sullivan, Joseph F. (November 13, 1993). "Florio's Defeat Revives Memories of G.O.P. Activities in 1981". New York Times. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  2. ↑ Dugger, Ronnie (September 20, 2004). "Poll Position". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  3. ↑ Smith, Glenn W. (2004). The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. John Wiley and Sons. p. 124. ISBN 0-471-66763-3. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  4. 1 2 United States Congress (October 5, 2004). Maximizing Voter Choice. Library of Congress. p. 65. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  5. ↑ Felzenberg, Alvin S. (2006). Governor Tom Kean. Rutgers University Press. p. 184. ISBN 0-8135-3799-1. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  6. ↑ Larsen, Erik (October 27, 2016). "NJ's 1981 vote: Armed men at the polls". Asbury Park Press. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
  7. ↑ Piven, Frances Fox; Cloward, Richard A. (2000). Why Americans Still Don't Vote. Beacon Press. p. 245. ISBN 0-8070-0449-9. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  8. ↑ Raymond, Allen (2008). How to Rig an Election. Simon & Schuster. p. 17. ISBN 1-4165-5222-7. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  9. ↑ "RNC Can't Fight Voter Fraud Until 2017 After It's Too Late | www.independentsentinel.com". www.independentsentinel.com. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  10. 1 2 "Rachel Maddow Versus the Poll Watchers". 2016-10-25. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  11. ↑ "Democrats: RNC violating anti-voter intimidation agreement". POLITICO. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
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