Not really.
Recently, an allegedgroup called the Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia has announced on its Facebook page that it washeaded to polling places on Nov. 4 to confront—with weapons—voters who’d signed therecall petition against Scott Walker and others. According to the group’s posts, they wereonly going to target Democrats in Milwaukee, Madison andBeloit.
After some pressreports and requests for the state Department of Justice and MilwaukeeCounty District Attorney to investigate, the Facebook page has now morphedinto one called “You’ve BeenTrolled by Journalists with Zero Accountability.”
That page now saysthe call to arms was all a hoax.
Does that matter?
Not to Jay Heck,executive director of Common Cause of Wisconsin, who, along with the League ofWomen Voters of Wisconsin, asked AG J.B. Van Hollen to look into the matter.
“We were concernedabout it,” Heck told me. “Maybe it is a hoax, maybe this was a sucker punch. Wejust felt that it was pretty important, that if this didn’t go unanswered therewould be more of it. Apparently the [Milwaukee] DA’s office is going to look into it.”
He said the publicityand interest of law enforcement might have something to do with the newtrolling page.
“I think probably anyorganization like this group that posts something controversial and thenrealizes that maybe they went too far and try to backtrack is going to saythings that are going to try to throw people off that path,” Heck said.
And even if it is ahoax, “The mere posting of it is a form of intimidation,” Heck said.
That’s against thelaw. Wisconsin statutes prohibit anyone from issuing a threat against a voter:
(1) No person may personally or through an agent make useof or threaten to make use of force, violence, or restraint in order to induceor compel any person to vote or refrain from voting at an election.
(2) No person may personally or through an agent, byabduction, duress, or any fraudulent device or contrivance, impede or preventthe free exercise of the franchise at an election.
(3) No person may personally or through an agent, by anyact compel, induce, or prevail upon an elector either to vote or refrain fromvoting at any election for or against a particular candidate or referendum.
Then consider whereWisconsinites usually vote: public buildings, schools, libraries. These placesby and large ban guns on their property and, in the case of schools, anywhere near them. Soif any “poll watcher” shows up with a concealed weapon, they will breakadditional laws.
So whether the pagewas set up by a troll with too much time on his/her hands or if there truly are somenuts who are considering going to the polls with concealed weapons, the threatof "watching" the polls with guns is against the law. What may seem like a lot of laughs online certainly isn't in the real world.
