White supremacists solicit 'poll watchers' for Election Day
Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to sign up as poll watchers to prevent voter fraud. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Laura Bult
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Wednesday, November 2, 2016, 3:53 PM

White nationalists and alt-right vigilantes have announced plans to monitor polling sites on Election Day due to fears over supposed widespread voter fraud.

The hate groups appear to be responding to Donald Trump’s fear-mongering over an election that is “rigged” in Hillary Clinton's favor and the prospect of losing key states due to fraudulent votes.

The alt-right web site “the Right Stuff,” announced plans to mobilize thousands of poll-watchers, install video cameras at voting sites in Philadelphia and dole out marijuana and liquor in the “ghetto” to keep potential voters from casting their ballots, according to a report in Politico.

Trump has specifically cited Pennsylvania when touting fears of voter fraud, saying in August that he could lose the hotly contested state if “in certain sections of the state they cheat.”

White supremacists and fringe groups said they will be present at the polls in "urban areas." (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Mark Potok, a senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the white nationalist groups' plans to intimidate minority voters are a sign of Trump's influence on the once-fringe movements. 

"This is just one more indication that the white supremacist radical right in America is very much in Donald Trump's camp and is listening to every word that he says," he told the Daily News. 

A representative for “the Right Stuff” who would not be identified by name, outlined their plans to focus on polling sites in Philadelphia in a statement to Politico.

Roger Stone announced plans to recruit "exit poll" watchers and take surveys from voters to match with official election results.  (Mary Altaffer/AP)

“We are organizing poll watchers in urban areas to cut down on the most traditional type of voter fraud. We also will have stationary cameras hidden at polling locations in Philadelphia, to monitor anyone that comes in to vote and make sure that the same people are not voting at multiple locations. If we see people voting in multiple locations the footage will be submitted to the FEC as well as put out on social media to undermine the legitimacy of Clinton should she steal the election.”

Research shows that voter fraud is extremely uncommon. A recent Loyola Law School study cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that there were only 31 cases of potentially fraudulent votes of more than 1 billion ballots cast between 2000 and 2014.

Among early voters in this election, so far only one person, a Trump supporter, has been accused of voter fraud in Iowa. The voter, 55-year-old Terri Rote, attempted to cast multiple ballots and was arrested for the scheme.

The evidence to the contrary has not stopped some fringe groups who say they’ll show up to the polls on Election Day. 

Andrew Anglin, a neo-Nazi leader and editor of the the right-wing radical The Daily Stormer, told Politico he had already galvanized “an army of Alt-Right nationalists to watch the polls” and that had he led a “big voter registration drive.” A request for comment from Anglin was not immediately returned.

Potok, of the Souther Poverty Law Center, calls Anglin's threat a gross exaggeration. 

"He's an exaggerating, chest-pounding braggart really," Polok said, adding that he preditcs fewer than five people nationwide would actually respond to his call. 

Trump’s longtime adviser and friend, Roger Stone, announced plans to organize “exit poll” watchers in order to compare official election results match their own voter surveys. 

The effort, called “Stop the Seal,” has recruited more than 2,700 exit pollers so far, according to their web site.

Andrew Anglin, a neo-Nazi leader and editor of The Daily Stormer," said he is "sending an army of Alt-Right nationalists to watch polls." (Youtube)
The Oath Keepers, a right-wing group of former law enforcement officials who often show up to political demonstrations heavily armed, also announced plans to be present at the polls with cell phones to record activity. They have discouraged members from bearing arms, which could constitute voter intimidation, a federal crime.

In a video, Oath Keepers president asked supporters “to go out as part of our call to action, to go and hunt down, look for vote fraud and voter intimidation and document it, to do the best we can to stop it this election.”

Louisiana state Senate candidate and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke—who openly supports Trump—has also said his supporters will monitors the polls, specifically sites in “some of the more inner-city areas.”

Voting rights advocates say efforts by white supremacists to intimidate voters at the polls will likely backfire.

“If on the morning of Election Day it turns out that we have white supremacists standing around looking threatening at polling places, I think it would arouse anger,” Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center told Politico. “People would vote just to prove they’re not being intimidated by these radical racists.”

A newspaper affiliated with the KKK, The Crusader, endorsed Trump this week, saying they believe a “White Christian” leader will “make American great again.”
While Trump was criticized for being sluggish to disavow Duke’s support of his candidacy, his campaign called the white supremacist publication “repulsive.”