Senate Dem urges DOJ to enforce poll monitoring rules

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D) is calling on Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to ensure every American’s right to vote is protected following reports that white nationalists plan to intimidate voters at the polls on Tuesday.

{mosads}In a letter Thursday, Casey urged Lynch and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta to provide U.S. attorneys, their designated district election officers and county officials with the necessary resources to ensure election monitoring rules are being enforced.

Politico reported earlier this week that neo-Nazi leader Andrew Anglin is rounding up thousands of poll watchers across all 50 states and that his partners at “alt-right” website the Right Stuff plan to set up hidden cameras in Philadelphia.

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is encouraging his supporters to watch polling sites, especially in minority-heavy areas.

“You’ve got to watch your polling booths, because I hear too many stories about Pennsylvania, certain areas,” Trump said at a rally in Manheim, Pa., last month.

“I hear too many stories, and we can’t lose an election because — you know what I’m talking about. Go and vote and go check out areas, because a lot of bad things happen, and we don’t want to lose for that reason.”

In his letter to the DOJ, Casey called Trump’s calls “irresponsible and “illegal” if executed.

“In the absence of credible and substantial evidence to support the claim that elections in Philadelphia are subject to widespread fraud, these calls to action are little more than thinly veiled attempts to suppress and delegitimize the votes of predominantly minority citizens, inflected with innuendo that recalls dark times in our country’s civil rights struggle,” he said.