Voting has started early in US election
Credit: Matthew Hatcher/Bloomberg
Bob Cushman felt compelled to answer Donald Trump’s plea to join the ranks of 50,000 poll watchers.
"This is going to be the most important election of my lifetime. It will dictate whether we continue to be a constitutional republic or go down the evil road of socialism," the 70-year-old retired pilot told the Telegraph.
Bob Cushman with his wife Christine will be monitoring polls
His apocalyptic language is symptomatic of how tensions are running high in the US, triggering fears that the country could descend into chaos on polling day and the weeks that follow.
In an increasingly bitter election, Mr Trump is trying to put boots on the ground to prevent the Democrats "stealing the election."
It has been a constant theme at his rallies over the last month or so. “Watch those ballots. Watch all the thieving, stealing and robbing they did," he said recently in North Carolina.
The US president has ramped up his claims of fraud and son Donald Jr has launched an appeal for "every able-bodied man and woman" to join an army "for Trump’s election security operation”.
Long-time Trump ally, Roger Stone, meanwhile, has called for ballots in Nevada to be seized by federal marshals.
It is not men like Mr Cushman, who has volunteered to monitor absentee ballots, who are causing alarm, but members of hard-right fringe groups who are also ready to respond to the president’s call to arms on election day.
The real concern is that they will turn up in large numbers at polling stations to dissuade people — especially in black areas — from voting.
Fears were raised last week when the Michigan branch of the neo-nazi Proud Boys, who were told by Mr Trump to "Stand Back and Stand By", reposted the president’s tweet "must have a fair election."
The situation is complicated by the kaleidoscope of laws governing poll watchers across the country.
In several states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Pennsylvania, the poll watchers are allowed to challenge individual voters as they arrive to cast their ballot.
The activities of Republican poll monitors gained notoriety when the party’s National Committee set up what it described as a National Ballot Security Task Force in New Jersey in 1981.
It was, in reality, a private vigilante force which included off-duty police officers and security guards. Wearing armbands and equipped with walkie-talkies they challenged black and Latino voters and even turned some away.
The case went to court and in 1982 it was settled with the Republican National Committee, which denied wrongdoing, signing a "consent decree" in which it promised to desist "from engaging in activities that suppress the vote, particularly when it comes to minority voters."
That decree expired in 2018, meaning that such restrictions will not be in force next month.
Such rhetoric has triggered fears that the party is ready to return to the early 1980s playbook.
"The RNC for the first time since 1982 is no longer bound by a consent decree, and this frees up the chance for Republicans and Trump to mount a more sustained effort to be at the polls on election day," warned Rick Hasen, professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine.
“if the Trump campaign targets only minority voting areas, it is going to be looked at as intimidation, particularly if it is done with armed people or in some kind of threatening manner.
"If that happens I expect to see voting rights groups and Democrats running back to court."
There was an early legal skirmish in Philadelphia last month when Trump campaign officials turned up at satellite election offices and used their mobile phones to monitor people turning up to request and complete absentee ballots.
They were ordered to leave, much to the fury of the president and his sons.
"They were thrown out. They weren’t allowed to watch. You know why? Because bad things happen in Philadelphia, bad things,” the US president said during his debate with Joe Biden.
The Democrats see their activities somewhat differently.
State polling US Presidential election 2020
"I fear the danger is that there will be misleading information that these people are law enforcement," said former Democratic congressman Barney Frank.
"But this time the Democrats are ready for it."
The Democrats have their own army of lawyers ready to act. Believing that the Republicans’ poll watchers programme amounts to intimidation, the party has deployed “voting protection staffers” in 19 states.
Party activists have also sent out advice how its voters should respond if impeded by a "poll watcher", including snapping a picture on their mobile phone and then calling the FBI’s Civil Right’s Division.
Coronavirus has changed the political landscape this year with a record number of Americans ready to vote by mail — which the US president believes will enable Joe Biden to "rig" the election.
The majority of the Trump poll-watcher army is likely to be made up of men like Mr Cushman, a descendant of Robert Cushman, one of the organisers of the Mayflower voyage.
He sees his task to ensure fair play when postal votes are counted in his pivotal home state of Michigan.
"The election has to represent the will of the majority and seen to be the will of the majority," Mr Cushman told the Telegraph.
Fellow Michigan poll watcher, Cliff Frost, a 73-year-old estate agent, has already sworn one court affidavit after being unhappy at how absentee ballots were being handled in August, fearing that they were not being checked against a pollbook to confirm that the person was entitled to vote.
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"I think there is a real risk the election could be stolen because the Democrat folk are trained in ballot harvesting and there have been cases in the news where absentee ballots for president Trump have been discarded," he told the Telegraph.
"If Biden wins and it is verified as a fair election, I would gladly accept it. If it is proven I would respect the choice of the voters."
A spokesman for the Trump campaign defended the decision to enlist a vast army of poll watchers.
"While President Trump has fought for a fair, transparent election since day one, Democrats have proven their lack of trustworthiness time and again this election cycle with their constant attempts to rig election rules, mere weeks before Election Day, to stack the deck for their lacklustre candidate.
"Poll watchers are critical to ensuring the fairness of any election, and President Trump’s volunteer poll watchers will be trained to ensure all rules are applied equally, all valid ballots are counted, and all Democrat rule-breaking is called out. "
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