On Friday, early voting in Virginia opened. By Saturday, footage emerged of Trump supporters seemingly attempting to physically intimidate voters and block them from a polling place, or at least make a show of trying to. The apparent attempt at voter intimidation took place in Fairfax County, Virginia, which is in the vicinity of Washington, D.C. The Trump supporters were physically blocking prospective voters from entering the polling place, so according to a reporter on the scene — Anthony Tilghman — authorities moved the line of voters to inside the building.
The Trump movement is so vitriolic that voters can’t even cast their ballots in peace if the president’s most passionate supporters are around, it seems. It’s worth noting — the pro-Trump demonstrators may have been breaking the law on Saturday. Under Virginia state law, it’s illegal for people to “loiter or congregate” within 40 feet of the entrance of a polling place while those polls are open. To suggest that the petulant Trumpsters were within 40 feet would be an understatement. Footage from the scene shows the pro-Trump crowd apparently right outside the front doors of the polling place.
Check out that footage below:
Trump Supporters came over to the early voting site to protest while people are in line to Vote in FairFax Virginia. #EarlyVoting pic.twitter.com/Lkkl4o2aAc
— Anthony Tilghman (@AnthonyTilghman) September 19, 2020
In other footage from the scene, the Trumpsters can be heard chanting “Four more years!” Check out some more footage from the debacle below:
As you can see here they are blocking the entrance to the voting site. #EarlyVoting #VA #FairFax pic.twitter.com/KJ6fbLdP3G
— Anthony Tilghman (@AnthonyTilghman) September 19, 2020
Saturday was the day after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, and one voter cited Ginsburg’s death as an impetus for them to make sure to cast their ballot right away. The voter told NBC/ MSNBC reporter Amanda Golden, who seemed to be at the same polling place that the angry and belligerent Trump supporters eventually showed up at:
‘I was already anticipating on coming out to vote early but after the passing of RBG last night, I made sure I was here at 7:30 this morning… We need to come out to vote like our lives depend on it so that’s why I’m here.’
One voter told me: “I was already anticipating on coming out to vote early but after the passing of RBG last night, I made sure I was here at 7:30 this morning…We need to come out to vote like our lives depend on it so that's why I'm here.”
More coming up on @MSNBC https://t.co/Emev8I55T8
— Amanda Golden (@amandawgolden) September 19, 2020
Trump has pushed the idea to his supporters that “thieving and stealing and robbing” will occur at polling places, but there’s no evidence for his claim. Neither is there any evidence for his concurrent claim that mail-in voting will lead to some kind of widespread, election-altering fraud. However, the fact that Trump supporters showed up in Fairfax County, Virginia on Saturday underscores the possibility that the president’s followers could take the president seriously to the point of trying to personally “solve” his made-up problems.
