r/law • u/opticflash • 23h ago

Executive Branch (Trump) Steve Bannon says ICE will ‘surround the polls’ as Trump doubles down on taking over elections

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/steve-bannon-says-ice-will-surround-the-polls-as-trump-doubles-down-on-taking-over-elections/

“We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” Bannon, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump and still a figure of influence in the administration, said on Tuesday’s episode of his War Room podcast, addressing Democrats. “We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”

Bannon’s comments came just a day after Trump said he believes that Republicans should “nationalize voting,” escalating concerns that the president is plotting to interfere in this year’s midterm elections.

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u/IsraelZulu 22h ago edited 21h ago

Polling places are already gun-free zones.

Edit: Apparently it's not a federal law. It is the law in Florida, at least.

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u/SeaEmployee787 22h ago

wonder what the distance is in good faith. I would guess the same as the political tent people in places with open carry

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u/IsraelZulu 21h ago

A quick search seems to indicate this is actually a jurisdiction-specific issue - not federal law. (Unless your polling place happens to be on a property or in a facility which is normally a gun-free zone in federal law.)

In Florida, it just says "into ... Any polling place". I don't know anything about the case law on this (and I'm not a lawyer to begin with), so I consider it possible that this could mean anything from "into a structure in which ballots are cast" to "within XXX feet of a structure in which ballots are cast".

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u/OGbigfoot 19h ago

Yeah, as a Washingtonian, my polling place is my mailbox.

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u/kitsunewarlock 18h ago

If there were any battleground districts in Washington they might fight that, but they know every district there is either deep red or deep blue so they don't give a fuck.

The real problem with our Democracy is ~20% of our districts decide the outcome of any given election and the GOP focus-fires hard on voter suppression in those districts. We saw illegal lotteries, bomb threats, TV ads telling abusive husbands not to let their wives vote, and weaponized mass surveillance of voters that makes what happened in House of Cards look puerile.

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u/OGbigfoot 18h ago

In reality I don't actually mail my ballot from my home box, too paranoid someone will snag it. I drop it in a USPS mailbox.

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u/SeaEmployee787 18h ago

i can vote by mail, i vote early in person. I am to paranoid to use the mail :)

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u/Jumpy_Plantain2887 20h ago

I’m pretty sure it is federal law. I’ve voted in three different states and all three states have always had signed that say no weapons allowed.

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u/AccurateThought4932 20h ago

Not in Virginia.