Oath Keepers head honcho Stewart Rhodes put out a call to militia members to turn up at the polls to “hunt down voter fraud.” From the Oath Keepers website:
The Oath Keepers is calling on members to form up incognito intelligence gathering and crime spotting teams and go out into public in their local communities on election day, dressed to blend in with the public, without any Oath Keepers hat or T shirt on, and with video, still camera, and notepad in hand, to look for and document suspected criminal vote fraud or intimidation activities, by any individuals, groups, or parties, and then report those incidents to local police.
What could go wrong with a bunch of militia-types turning up at voting locations outside their district to stand around and “observe”? Rhodes did ask members not to report for Election Day duty with guns, he’s worried that could be seen as voter intimidation. And he’s right. And he should be worried about being seen as intimidating voters—it is a federal crime. So, how exactly are they going to protect the vote? They’ll be dispatching to swing states to “observe.” One member in the video below says he’ll be leaving his home state of Montana to go and observe polling locations in Indiana. Rhodes helpfully suggests that if a bus or van pulls up to a location, they should take notes and then follow the bus to the next location, apparently fearful that roving buses of Democrats are just hopping from location to location to vote repeatedly. How would you feel if you noticed militia types following around buses of low income or disabled voters who need help to the polls? Isn’t that by itself a form of intimidation?
There are many current and former police officers in the Oath Keepers organization and Rhodes especially wants them to join the poll-watching operation:
In particular, we are calling on our retired police officers, our military intelligence veterans, and our Special Warfare veterans (who are well trained in covert observation and intelligence gathering) to take the lead and apply their considerable training in investigation, intelligence gathering, and field-craft to help stop voter fraud. We ask that those most highly trained and experienced Oath Keepers members form up the intel gathering and crime spotting teams, and then lead those teams of Oath Keepers on election day. Rank and file members are, of course, encouraged to participate, and please do also invite your friends and family to help, but please let our most experienced LEO/military experts in your local chapters provide you with leadership and guidance on how to do it right.
He also noted the Oath Keepers would “stand with” any responding officers called (by them) to a location to investigate alleged voter fraud, a totally non-existent problem. But, how does one identify who might be committing voter fraud? Well, even though the Oath Keepers claim to be non-partisan, Rhodes tells supporters the "leftists" are the likely culprits. No word on how they’ll determine who’s “leftist” and who’s not.
“We are, indeed, most concerned about expected attempts at voter fraud by leftists, but we will spot, document, and report any apparent attempt at vote fraud or voter intimidation by anyone, of whatever party, as is our duty,” he wrote on the Oath Keepers site.
Good luck with your covert operation, fellas.