I kid you not. This happened at the pre-election mass meeting of our county’s election officials. He was the first to speak. Judging on how quickly he left afterwards I expect he had better places to be. Okay so down to the nitty-gritty.
First off, he seemed like a decent enough guy. He would be a good choice to play “good cop”. He wasn’t threatening at all. There were a bunch of high-quality printouts on different security-related matters such as recognizing potential trouble, de-escalation procedures, awareness, and so forth. It wasn’t bad, really. Necessary? Not so much, at least not for our area… I think.
Look, I live in a very rural county. We don’t get much of that kind of trouble around here. Many of us have little tolerance for it. Besides that, we are so small we’re not worth the effort. Really. I mean, take the whole election fraud thing. If the globalists could somehow figure out to get away with stealing every vote in the county, it wouldn’t amount to a drop in the bucket. It might turn the tide in the Congressional race, but I doubt it.
So, he came, he spoke, he left. Meh. Okay. One thing he did touch upon I found quite interesting was a scenario where a voter walked in with a gun on his hip. Mind you, Virginia is an open carry state – no government permission required. That said there is a law (at least one) on our books prohibiting carrying firearms, open or concealed, in the polling place. I’ll leave the constitutionality debate for another time. As a practical matter, this HS fellow suggested we just move the person along, let him vote and move out. His perspective is the less s/he is agitated the better off we all are. I tend to agree.
The mostly type of person I see doing this is a strong 2A advocate who wants to challenge the law. Angry? Uhhhhh, well, yeah, I’d say angry – or at least perturbed. Not that I can blame them. Infringement ticks me off a bit too. Someone like this is either simply making a statement or spoiling for a fight – an argument, that is, not a gunfight. As such I think it is best to disappoint the hell out of him and just move him along. Done and done.
The real threat is the one nobody wants to talk about. I brought this one up during our last election officer training meeting when new posters were trotted out “laying out the law” concerning guns in the polling place. I only asked a simple question.
“So if someone comes in with guns blazing, are we supposed to point to the poster and tell them that is a no-no?”
Of course they blathered all around the obvious point. They tried to make light of it. What they could not, would not do is admit all the signs in the world ain’t gonna stop a determined evil doer. Remember the Democratic National Convention just held? They suddenly became very concerned about violent threats and requested additional security. Someone said we ought to send them a batch of “Gun Free Zone” signs and leave it at that.
Oh, one other thing about that Homeland Security guy. Like I said, most of what he was talking about doesn’t seem all that relevant to our county. However he did say other areas have seen some significant disruption in the past, including individuals who did their best to get a reaction out of poll worker (any poll worker but some are easier marks than others). He said when the agitator got a rise out of one, they’d send a bunch more that way to heat things up. He talked about other scenarios as well. He never said as much but at some points he seemed to be alluding to patriots doing this sort of thing. It would be interesting to hear what such folks would have to say in a decidedly blue district. Personally I would be abhorred if I found out someone posing as a patriot was involved in such shenanigans. We need to be above all that crap. That is not us – not who we are. If I am wrong about this than I stand alone because I will not be associated with such individuals, much less groups. What about you?