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News reports claim Trump allies use ‘voter suppression’ tactics

By Anna Douglas and Tony Pugh, McClatchy Washington Bureau
Published: October 27, 2016, 9:24pm

WASHINGTON — Media reports of possible voter-suppression activity involving groups that support Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump have swelled concerns about widespread voter intimidation in the November general election.

Trump has repeatedly excited his base with charges about a “rigged” election and he has claimed that reporters and Democratic political operatives are in cahoots against him.

On Thursday, Bloomberg News quoted a senior campaign official from “inside the Trump bunker” as saying, “We have three major voter suppression operations underway” to discourage voting among three Democratic-leaning groups: “white liberals,” young women and African-Americans.

The report came amid other recent revelations of grass-roots volunteers orchestrating exit polling and monitoring at polling places in major cities and swing states nationwide.

One such plan comes from Trump ally Roger Stone’s group, Stop the Steal, a tax-exempt political organization that promoted claims that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is trying to “cheat” or rig November’s election.

The Guardian reported last week that Stop the Steal will be active across the country on Election Day. Stone told The Guardian that nearly 1,300 people — all volunteers from Citizens for Trump — will do exit polling in cities like Charlotte, Detroit, Cleveland and Las Vegas.

Earlier this week, The Huffington Post reported on a widespread volunteer effort by Trump supporters known as “Vote Protectors” that would send volunteers to ask voters about “election fraud” as they exited polling places.

The group has said it will simply conduct exit polling, not harass voters.

Vote Protectors bills itself as an anti-voter-fraud group. But The Huffington Post reported that the group would issue fake ID badges to the volunteer pollsters, a tactic that has been used in the past to intimidate voters.

The specter of untrained, partisan polling place observers inspired by Trump’s race-baiting rhetoric has caused concern among minority voters, who’ve been frequent targets of voter intimidation in the past.

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