Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Election History: The Poll Guard Incident, Yesterday and Today

A mural in the Logan neighborhood of Santa Ana, Calif., one of the city's oldest Mexican neighborhoods, bears the faces of local men who served in the armed forces. Credit Andrew Cullen for The New York Times.
Tom Fuentes
Last week the New York Times came to town and Rebel Girl couldn't help but notice the lede for their feature article on Santa Ana, "This City Is 78% Latino, and the Face of a New California." It recalled one of SOCCCD Trustees Tom Fuentes most infamous acts (and that's sayin' something). Too bad the NYT didn't identify Fuentes by name.

excerpt:
Vicente Sarmiento remembers when the local Republican Party here posted uniformed guards at polling stations in a closely fought State Assembly race three decades ago and they hoisted signs in English and Spanish warning that noncitizens were prohibited from voting. The guards were removed after state elections officials threatened legal action.
Yes, on election day in November of 1988, at 20 polling stations in Santa Ana, the local GOP posted uniformed guards. According to the LA Times: "Republican Party Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes confirmed that the security guards "were part of our Election Day security effort" in mostly Latino neighborhoods in central and south Santa Ana."

A police officer holds part of a sign seized at a polling place in Santa Ana in 1988, when uniformed guards were stationed at 20 polling sites in the city by the GOP. (Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times)
Lately, that incident has also been recalled by others in the wake of Donald Trump's persistent assertions about "rigged" elections.  This from Kurtis Lee's LAT article, "Donald Trump's call for poll watchers brings back fears of 1988 Santa Ana":
Now, nearly three decades later, as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump calls for his supporters to volunteer as election observers, concerns of voter intimidation have come to the forefront. At a rally in Pennsylvania last week, Trump used strong racial overtones to allege to his mostly white audience that “certain areas” of the state — such as Philadelphia, where almost half the residents are black — will commit voter fraud to support Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.


See also:
That notorious episode: Tom's "goons"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank God that this year a needy Latino and bastardized Catholic such as myself can now vote without issue.

Anonymous said...

See also That notorious episode: Tom's "goons" --RB

Anonymous said...

Not related to the Election Poll History, but I am hearing from friends up north at IVC that there is now another possible administrative problem?? What is the story? Anyone? Any truth in this? Is the IVC ASG Director being heavy handed? Why did one staff member quit and another is now on leave. I am told it is over bullying and bad stress in the office? What is the deal with IVC's administration issues its inability (supposedly) to hire non-abusive competent management. Is the Board of Trustees just slow to respond or is it indifference and carelessness to IVC issues? What is going on over there, why do we hear about this stuff again and again and again?? I know the faculty and staff were happy when one of the other VPs retired a couple of months ago, they thought here would be a little less abuse and stress. Just asking what's up now, we've been hearing this stuff for a long long time over there from IVC, obviously it must be more than a few whiny faculty or staff.

Anonymous said...

1:14, if what you're saying is correct then there are zero staff in the ASG office, just a director?

Anonymous said...

yup, and she is nutz!

Anonymous said...

Where do they find these people? Why can't they get good leaders? Why is it always the meglomanic sociopath that gets hired?

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

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