Anyway, stop_the_rats signed up to be a poll watcher in Jefferson County, a predominantly black Rat stronghold and home to the XXX42 FReep. The people that typically have run the poll "show" there and in some other Arkansas counties as well, are apparently accustomed to being able to run their game unimpeded and it was my impression, even from my own experience, that poll watchers are not something they have much experience with.
The poll workers were informed in advance that there would be poll watchers present in the polling places and stop_the_rats had signed on to work every day during early voting. On the first day, there was a big NAACP meeting in a building across the street where the people had been bused in, fed and taken to vote, complete with voting instructions in hand (all Rat candidates marked on a "sample" ballot), and pasted with campaign stickers, buttons, and t-shirts, which are not allowed inside polling places. She took a picture, which got the NAACP "coaches" up in arms, making the first claim of black voter intimidation. She also took a picture of an "instructional" ballot to which they raised another fuss. At that point there had been no challenges to the ballots but she had to challenge the poll workers numerous times to get them to ask for ID. Once they got to where they were doing that, they were then "feeding" the voters the information on the ID's for verification purposes. It wasn't until a voter presented a Michigan driver's license that a ballot was challenged and that was when all hell broke loose. After the second ballot was challenged, an elderly woman in a wheel chair who apparently didn't even know where she was and had no identification, she (stop_the_rats) was literally being shouted at by the poll worker and being told to get out or she would call the sheriff. She was then subjected to this NAACP mob shouting and chanting at her and she had to leave. At this point she went to Jay Dickey's office, told them what had happened and 2 of the people there escorted her back over to the courthouse. From that point on, the people in charge generally made her job as difficult as they possibly could and even called the sheriff on her who then tried to make her leave. After verifying with other officials that she did indeed have the right to be there and to do the things she was doing he allowed her to go back in. Meanwhile the NAACP crowd had set up their own watchdogs on her even going so far as to follow her to her car whenever she would leave the building. She even appealed to the sheriff for protection for herself to which he replied that once whe was outside the building it was the "problem" of the city police of Pine Bluff.
I am sure that many of you heard the complaints being leveled against Arkansas poll watchers in Jefferson County by various media sources, not the least of whom was Alan Colmes, claiming black voter intimidation. It was our own tenacious FReeper working hard to do her job that was the target of these accusations. The chairman of the Rat party here put the word out on the AP and it hit many national papers and all the cable news channels and the intimidation she had to endure didn't stop there. When Terry McCaulliffe got wind of it, he actually wrote a letter to the justice department making the same ridiculous accusations that black voters were being intimidated. This is the kind of constant pressure she was under during the entire period of early voting and as a result she was very afraid of drawing any more attention to herself and was concerned that many of these news types and Rat operatives might even be trolling at FR and she was already concerned for her son, a Hutchinson campaign worker, who was dragged into it by the local newspaper in Pine Bluff. Her name was all over the papers along with false claims and accusations which she has yet to be able to clear.
And as if that wasn't enough, she also noted irregularities with absentee ballots on election day, particularly with ones that had arrived late, and is still meeting with someone (argh...I forget what his position is) regarding this. The absentee ballots do not have to be certified until Tuesday. So she still has some concerns there. She is also concerned that some of these NAACP gestapo types may try to bring a lawsuit against her for voter intimidation....blacks only of course; never mind that challenged ballots were not limited to black voters nor did she have any knowledge at all of how a voter might vote. But given their history, I would agree that she has cause for concern.
I know that all you wonderful FReepers who contributed so much to this thread and to getting the word out about some of the Rat shenanigans in Arkansas would want to know some of the rest of the story, and I am sure that I have probably forgotten some of the details, which will undoubtedly be corrected by some of the others who were at the meeting. But I also wanted to give all of you the opportunity to congratulate stop_the_rats and to give her some words of encouragement and support. She was truly a trooper on the front lines against the viciousness of the Rats and their attempts to railroad yet another election. They may have even succeeded in Arkansas again, but at least now they know that the gig is up and it isn't going to be so easy from here on out.