Judge Hits Trump Campaign With Restraining Order

Here's what's new in alleged voter suppression around the country
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 4, 2016 5:51 PM CDT
Dems Sue GOP in 6 States Over Voter Intimidation
The New York Times has created a playable Oregon Trail-like game called "The Voter Suppression Trail."   (Screenshot)

A federal judge in Ohio filed a temporary restraining order Friday against the Trump campaign, as well as Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, to prevent them from harassing or intimidating voters at the state's polling locations on Election Day, the AP reports. This comes after the Trump campaign has encouraged supporters to be "election observers" and protect against fraud at the polls. Lawyers for Democrats have filed lawsuits against Republicans and the Trump campaign in six states—Arizona, Michigan, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania—to prevent voter intimidation. But alleged voter suppression is also making the news elsewhere:

  • The New York Times released an Oregon Trail-like playable computer game called "The Voter Suppression Trail." The game's tagline: "Find out if your vote can survive the great, flawed adventure of American democracy."
  • Fake Twitter ads are popping up encouraging voters to use a phone code to text their vote for Hillary Clinton, Fortune reports. The ads, which appear to target black and Latino voters specifically, claim to be paid for by the Clinton campaign and include the slogans "Vote from Home" and "Avoid the Line."
  • Vice looks at the history of voter fraud and suppression—going all the way back to Edgar Allen Poe—and compares it to what's happening this year.
  • The AP reports that 39 states allow citizens to challenge the eligibility of any voter at the polls, and only 15 of those states require proof from the challenger. These laws mean "untrained private citizens could create chaos" on Tuesday.
  • North Carolina's version of the above law was called "insane" and "like something that was put together in 1901" by a federal judge, according to Vox. Voters whose eligibility is challenged by a random person must show up at a hearing to prove they can legally vote; people who don't have time or money to show up at a hearing have their eligibility stripped. So far 7,000 North Carolina residents—a disproportionate number of them black—have been purged this way.
(More Election 2016 stories.)

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