In Neptune Beach, Florida, it was a blond teenage boy brandishing a machete at Kamala Harris supporters.
In Pennsylvania, it was a member of the Republican National Committee allegedly intimidating voters and telling them how they should vote. And in Madison County, Indiana, it was a former GOP congressional candidate accused of stealing two election ballots.
Each incident happened this month during early voting, stoking fears that Election Day will be marred by disruption spurred on by a presidential nominee who continues to cast doubts about the process.
Republican Donald Trump has already questioned alleged voting irregularities in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state.
Just as they did in 2020, Trump’s campaign is spreading viral videos of supposed misconduct. Long lines in Buck County, Pennsylvania, where voters were waiting to request a mail-in ballot in person, are seen as suspect; one social media post from Trump campaign political director James Blair alleged a line in one area was shut down early.
“This is suppressive and intimidating,” Blair wrote in a post on X seen by 1.8 million people. Trump supporter and X owner Elon Musk replied: “Why are they doing this?”
What are you doing about this @GovernorShapiro?
— James Blair (@JamesBlairUSA) October 29, 2024
This is Bucks County Emergency Services shutting down the line in Doylestown right now at ~2:30 PM.
This is suppressive and intimidating. https://t.co/EUKsZYh5Me pic.twitter.com/m9noqX7MQD
Bucks County spokesman James O’Malley said Tuesday that lines were being closed early so the office can close by 5 p.m. The law doesn’t require county offices to stay open late like a polling site.
Belief in election interference has become a litmus test for Trump’s Republican Party, even though the candidate has lost more than 60 lawsuits claiming he was robbed of a victory in 2020.
A group of conservatives, including former federal judges, examined every allegation of electoral fraud by Trump and concluded the former president “failed to present evidence of fraud or inaccurate results significant enough to invalidate the results.”
Despite that, a Monmouth University poll conducted in June found 68 percent of Republicans believe Joe Biden won the presidency because of voter fraud.
And some are determined not to let it happen again, facts be damned.
On Tuesday, Caleb Williams, 18, produced a machete to “protest and antagonzie the other political side,” according to Neptune Beach’s police chief. Williams specifically targeted two women, ages 54 and 71, while they stood outside a polling place.
Williams is charged with aggravated assault and improper exhibition of a weapon.
That same day, Trump supporter Valerie Biancaniello was handcuffed and escorted from a Delaware County, Pennsylvania, voting precinct line after multiple complaints she “harrassed” voters and “told them who to vote for.
Ryan Herlinger, a spokesperson for Delaware County, told the Delaware Valley Journal that four witnesses in line voluntarily provided statements corroborating that harassment. Police responded and told Biancaniello to stop pestering voters and leave the area. She refused and was charged with disorderly conduct, Herlinger said.
On X, Biancaniello said she broke no laws.
“I encouraged people to stay in line and vote because the Democrats were discouraging voters from in-person voting today in Delaware County,” said the RNC official.
Larry Savage Jr., who lost a Republican primary bid for the U.S. House earlier this year, was charged with destroying an election ballot and theft for an incident that happened Oct. 3, according to Indiana state police.
Savage Jr. was among a group of citizens invited to witness the testing and to feed test ballots through the voting machines. After testing, election officials found that a Republican ballot and one write-in ballot were missing.
Savage Jr. then went on social media hours after the incident to allege that the Indiana vote count system was rigged.
“This is all political, bulls*** is all it is,” he said upon his arrest.
