The Illegal World of Voter Intimidation Tactics

Voter intimidation tactics, although illegal, have happened every election in America’s history, and this election is no different. 

Federal law says,”no person …shall intimidate, threaten, coerce…any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of [that] person to vote or to vote as he may choose.” Additionally, many states have their own laws prohibiting voter intimidation. Harassment at the polling booths, spreading false information about candidates, and many other smaller tactics can all be considered voter intimidation.

However, during this year’s election, both candidates and voters have used more blatantly aggressive and serious forms of intimidation. Earlier this month, fake ballot boxes were placed all over California. The California Republican Party admitted responsibility for placing over 50 deceivingly labeled “official” drop boxes for mail-in ballots in Fresno, Los Angeles, and Orange County. To the average voter, the differences between these fake boxes and real ones are indistinguishable. This scam left many voters unsure if their vote would be counted. 

A more common form of voter intimidation is spreading misinformation. Nowadays, social media is becoming a main news source. People are posting and seeing threads, articles, and infographics on their feeds detailing current news events. Especially during this election, people are posting about both candidates, but, unlike many credible news outlets, there is no one going through every post or tweet to check the information that is being shared. It is easy to create a post spreading false information about a candidate; whether or not the misinformation is positive or negative, it is still voter intimidation and it is illegal. 

Unfortunately, voter intimidation has become a huge part of our elections, despite its illegality.  It seems that with every election, tactics are becoming more aggressive. With that in mind, before you cast your vote in any election, always be sure that you have all the correct information from a credible news source about all the candidates.