Voting and civil rights advocates shared their concerns of potential voter discrimination and intimidation as well as violence at the polls on Election Day, on Wednesday during a conference call.

Included on the call were Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; and Safa Rifka, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Without naming him, those on the call Wednesday pointed to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s rhetoric during his campaign and said, as a result, they worry about the possibility of voter suppression of minorities on Election Day.

“We are on the precipice of the most chaotic election for people of color in 50 years,” Henderson said. “… Threats of voter intimidation, the most racially-bigoted election in generations and the specter of voting discrimination … have created a perfect storm for disenfranchisement.”

Henderson added that voters “must be protected” on Election Day.

In central New York, federal prosecutor and Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Eurenius was recently appointed to handle claims of voter fraud, discrimination and intimidation on Election Day, according to Syracuse.com.

Clarke said this election cycle has been the busiest one in the 14-year history of the Lawyers’ Committee, a nonpartisan voter protection program that recruits people to help safeguard voters’ access to ballots.

She made reference to Trump’s calls for law enforcement and his supporters to keep an eye out for voter fraud on Election Day.

“We are concerned about this toxic rhetoric,” she said. “We believe it has a chilling effect on minority voters.”

Rifka, meanwhile, brought up Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States, saying that it has resulted in an “incredible amount of hate and fear” within the Arab-American and the Muslim-American communities.

Like Clarke, he also referenced Trump’s calls for his supporters to monitor polling places on Election Day.

“Our fear is that people are going to heed this call,” Rifka said. “They’re going to go out to areas that are predominantly Arab or Muslims, and they’re going to try to disrupt the votes, either by making unfounded challenges within the polling places themselves or standing outside the polls and trying to intimidate those they perceive as being Arab or Muslims.”

The group of voting rights advocates planned to release a joint letter urging election officials to create plans to prevent disenfranchisement on Election Day, according to a press release.

Published on October 26, 2016 at 9:52 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu