Nevada's top prosecutor warns against voter intimidation
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said Thursday he is worried about the possibility of voter intimidation after President Donald Trump implored supporters to “watch very carefully” at the polls. State prosecutors plan strict enforcement, Ford said in an interview.
Trump made the comments during the first debate with Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Ford said he believes Trump “wasn’t talking about poll watching. He was talking about voter intimidation.”
"Believe me when I say it: You do it, and you will be prosecuted,” Ford tweeted on Tuesday.
Ford, a Democrat, told The Associated Press that he viewed Trump’s comments as threatening because Trump has also declined to denounce white supremacists or commit to a peaceful transfer of power.
He called Trump's poll watching comments a “dog whistle” that could lure his supporters to voting locations and disregard Nevada’s poll watching laws.
“I do not appreciate, frankly, a rehashing of what we saw during the Civil Rights era where folks were intimidated from exercising their constitutional right to vote,” Ford said.
Nevada law allows people to monitor polling places as long as they don't talk to or interact with voters. It's been a felony since 1960 to intimidate, threaten or impede people from exercising their voting rights.
Trump's poll watching comments have centered on swing states like Nevada and Pennsylvania, and Trump during the debate blasted Philadelphia officials for not allowing uncertified poll watchers to enter satellite election offices.
Pennsylvania law allows certified poll watchers to observe activity at voting precincts, but no poll watchers have yet been certified for the Trump campaign, the Republican Party or other Republican...