“I don’t assume there was any option to want or really feel intimidated in any kind,” Mr. Rastatter mentioned. He added that county officers reques
“I don’t assume there was any option to want or really feel intimidated in any kind,” Mr. Rastatter mentioned. He added that county officers requested the group on a number of cases to again away from the curb, and that the group complied.
Bryan Graham, the chairman of the Fairfax County Democrats who was additionally on the polling middle, noticed it otherwise, writing on Twitter that “the Republicans are straight-up making an attempt to intimidate voters on the authorities middle.”
In an interview, Mr. Graham mentioned he’d “by no means seen or heard of something like this taking place earlier than.”
“I used to be there when the county govt was there and I noticed him stroll a number of folks by way of the gang as a result of they didn’t really feel secure,” Mr. Graham mentioned. “I don’t assume it’s acceptable. We shouldn’t be doing issues to make folks really feel unsafe.”
Steve Descano, the county lawyer, didn’t straight handle the demonstration in an announcement posted to Fb on Saturday, however mentioned that he was “instructing my workplace to pursue circumstances of voter intimidation which will happen.”
Virginia election legislation states that it’s unlawful to “hinder or delay a certified voter in coming into or leaving a polling place,” and that it is usually prohibited to carry out any type of political advocacy inside 40 toes of any entrance to a polling place.
Movies of the demonstrators shortly went viral on social media, and present them gathering exterior the doorway, holding up Trump marketing campaign indicators and chanting as voters walked previous them.
Some election rights teams mentioned that the Trump group might need nonetheless crossed a authorized line.
“In Virginia, the secure zone across the polling location is barely 40 toes, however that secure zone is for campaigning and attempting to alter an individual’s vote,” mentioned Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Widespread Trigger, a voting rights group. “Exterior of that, normally, there are legal guidelines towards intimidation. So I’d say that even when they’ve a proper to marketing campaign, which they completely do, they don’t have a proper to intrude with somebody’s proper to vote or to intimidate them.”