Why are people doing this at voting locations in the USA?
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21109313
I went to vote today in Georgia USA. People showed up wearing bed sheets over them. What is this supposed to communicate exactly??
spooky month 👻
The fact that there are no other images of this is odd, but assuming it is at an early voting location today, perhaps they are pretending to be “ghost voters”:
As that drama played out, readers asked Snopes to look into social media posts and media stories reporting that multiple counties in the U.S. had more registered voters than voting-eligible residents. One such story was published by the Washington Times and headlined, "Judicial Watch finds 1.8 million 'ghost voters' in 29 states, warns of 'dirty elections.'"
Judicial Watch, a right wing legal activist organization, claimed to have discovered in an October 2020 study that "353 U.S. counties had 1.8 million more registered voters than eligible voting-age citizens."
Source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ghost-voters-in-29-states/
Some further important context, the 'comparison' Judicial Watch made to come to this conclusion was based on, on one side, 'the most recent voter registration data for counties' and on the other, a math-based population estimate collected over the course of five years.
It's kind of like claiming that Johnny, age eighteen, is a different person from Johnny, age thirteen, based on height difference.
Edit: A better analogy might be standing in front of Johnny, taking off your glasses, and then demanding the blurry blob tell you what it did with Johnny.
Or perhaps accusing someone of short changing you based purely on the sound the coins make on the counter.
Isn't it generally illegal to film or take photos in a voting location? And now people are further spreading it? Considering how divided this country has gotten, an argument can be made this is dangerous for those in the picture.
I'm not sure a good argument can be made. Being at a polling place doesn't say who you're voting for. I don't see the danger.
It's not quite generally prohibited, but Georgia is one of 12 states where it is prohibited.
Filming / photography in public is a First Amendment protected activity.
In public (and only when one would have a reasonable assumption of privacy, or whatever). Poll places don't follow those same rules. If they can prevent people from wearing campaign-related tshirts within X feet of a polling place, then they can prevent people from taking photos. Which they do.
First ammendment doesn't protect you from a baseball bat.
It is halloween after all 👻👻👻👻👻🎃🎃🎃🎃
Sharia law is getting out of hand smh
Funny as fuck😂😂
You mean taking pictures of people at polling locations?
Which is prohibited in polling locations in Georgia. That is why they were asked to leave. You can wear costumes to vote as long as they don't constitute electioneering. The definition of electioneering can be fairly broad however. Wearing a black lives matter tshirt, for instance, has been considered electioneering.
This is not my picture; I only crossposted it (original was in !nostupidquestions@lemmy.world ). I also only did so because it was apparently being deleted and I wanted it not to be lost (sorry if it's a loose fit for the community because of that).
According to OP, it was an early voting location in Georgia. The thread was deleted 9 hours after being posted, with a score of 125 and 36 comments.
Edit: the deletion my not be as nefarious as I assumed; there's a similar thread in this community that (as I write this) still exists. https://lemmy.world/post/21116630
Weird, your linked post seems to be gone now
Edit: actually, I can't find any of the original posts. And when I try to Google it I can't find anything either. Wtf
Edit 2: okay, it took some digging but by searching all of Lemmy by comments and filtering by time, I was able to find the two original posts. Both have been deleted, I assume by moderators? And I can't find anything when I reverse Google search the image. Something smells fishy. For SEO: Georgia election; election interference; voter intimidation; KKK; sheets; ghosts; early voting; Cobb County
This time I had the foresight to take screenshots:
I can't tell if the original post is an elaborate hoax with a link that never worked in the first place or if something is legit happening. Why would there be lines to vote already? Maybe I'm naive and early voting is that difficult in Georgia that people are lining up now. I don't know, my ballot gets mailed to me by default and I can just walk up and drop it off any time up until polls close on election day. This feels like it's a post to sow discord but 🤷♂️
If I had to guess it's to protect their identity so that they can vote without being harassed. But I will fully admit I only looked at the picture and didn't click the link or anything.
It's a mystery! Get Scooby and the gang! They'll unmask those ghost.
Are they trying to prove that they can vote without being identified or something?
These are trump branded kkk hoods with misquoted portions of the constitution printed on the inside, poorly made in China.
It's not just, you know, Halloween?
Checks calendar. No, it's not.
Just sad people wanting attention that you are giving them
I guess it is to protect the personality. Maybe MAGA maybe some fearful Democrats or GREENS :O
Well whatayaknow, Republicans are right
Dead people really are voting