An armed Trump supporter showed up at a polling place in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday, as voters across the state and country turned out to make their voices heard in the ongoing presidential race. The man with the gun was wearing a Trump hat and was “circling” the premises while “several prominent local female politicians” spoke at the site, according to the local news outlet the Charlotte Observer. The event at which these local politicians were speaking was “cut short” after the armed Trump supporter showed up, the publication adds, and local Congresswoman Alma Adams (D) was reportedly “quickly whisked away” from the site. Eventually, the Trump supporter — who’s name is Justin Dunn — was arrested on a trespassing charge.
Thread: As several prominent local female politicians spoke at precinct 212, one of the largest Democratic polling places in the state, the event was cut short when a maskless white man open carrying a gun showed up and began circling the property. pic.twitter.com/E8mjZg4tsx
— Charlotte Agenda (@charlotteagenda) November 3, 2020
North Carolina residents are allowed to openly carry firearms — however, voter intimidation is illegal, and no matter any excuses, the net effect of showing up at a polling place with an openly displayed firearm is potential voter intimidation. According to on-site poll watchers, the armed Trump supporter was originally at the site for almost an hour before actually casting his ballot. Why was he sticking around and “circling” the premises, as the Charlotte Observer put it, if not to potentially intimidate his opponents? The polling place where the armed Trump supporter showed up is in a heavily Democratic area. Local police were called to the scene, and the man initially “was not arrested, but he was told not to return,” according to the Charlotte Observer — but about two hours later, he showed back up at the same polling place, and that’s when he was arrested on a trespassing charge.
Watch footage from the scene below:
An armed man showed up at a polling location in Charlotte, NC. #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/Ly3ofEwheE
— The Hill (@thehill) November 3, 2020
Incidents of potential voter intimidation perpetrated by Trump supporters have unfolded across the nation throughout the lead-up to Election Day. In an infamous recent incident, Trump supporters surrounded a Biden campaign bus as it was going down a highway in Texas, moving their vehicles around the bus while in motion as if trying to run it off the road. Reportedly, at least some of the Trump supporters on the scene were armed. Despite reports of an FBI investigation into the incident, the president and some of his top political allies have praised the Trump supporters’ actions. In other recent incidents, Trump supporters took over and partially shut down portions of major highways in both New York and New Jersey.
New York and New Jersey are unlikely to flip to Trump in this election — but North Carolina could go either way. Trump has offered tacit support for potential physical intimidation of opponents at polling places. At a debate between him and Biden, Trump said that he is “urging” his “supporters to go in to the polls and watch very carefully, because that’s what has to happen.”
Trump has suggested that violence may break out in the U.S. if there’s not a prompt and conclusive answer to the question of who won the presidential race. Trump claimed that a U.S. Supreme Court decision extending the time for ballot-counting in Pennsylvania “will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws” and “will also induce violence in the streets.” These claims are nonsense — and Twitter actually placed a notice next to Trump’s original post saying that “[some] or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”
