Voters in Northeast Ohio are getting mass-texts encouraging them to challenge people at the polls who they don鈥檛 think should be voting. The message encourages them to take guns and claims, in part, that 鈥淚t鈥檚 our right as American citizens to stop anyone who looks like they are voting illegally.鈥�
But the federal Voting Rights Act prohibits non-election officials from harassing voters.
Jon Greenbaum is chief counsel of the and a former Justice Department lawyer. He recommends that voters immediately alert poll workers if they鈥檙e challenged. He says they can also call a national hotline.
鈥淲e will help in terms of getting the election official on the line, in some places there are people working with our program who will actually go down to the polling place and observe what鈥檚 happening.鈥�
The hotline number is 866-OUR-VOTE.
Ohio does not specifically prohibit guns in polling places, but most are in schools and churches that do forbid weapons on their property.
