Although the images of uniformed black panthers standing outside polling places holding billy clubs is ugly, I fail to see how that can influence anybodies vote on a private secret ballott. In fact, as long as they are not allowed to enter the actual booth with the actual voter, I can only see such an act as extremely counter-productive
They may not frighten you or me but we can’t read the minds of other voters.
You write that you fail to see how the events in PA could influence potential voters. I think what you are not realizing is that the presence of these alleged thugs may have been a filtering mechanism for who was allowed to vote in the first place.
I myself was once intimidated by a thug like this at a polling place, and I almost didn’t vote as a result.
The very first time I voted, at age 18, I was living in a University of Chicago residence hall on the far south side of campus (Burton-Judson Courts, for anyone who knows the area). As such, my polling place was south of the campus. Anyone who knows the area will know that south of the University of Chicago was not a usual hangout for skinny white kids.
At the time, I was a very skinny, short white kid. I went looking for the polling place, found it, went inside, and was immediately confronted by a large middle-aged black man who said to me “what are you doing here, lilly?” (I later realized that “lilly” was probably short for “lilly white.”) His body language was clear: I wasn’t going to get past him to vote. Like the apparent thugs in the linked video from PA, my questioner didn’t hit me, didn’t shoot at me, didn’t do anything overt, but clearly intended to block me from voting.
Fortunately for me, an election judge nearby interceded, took charge, and helped me cast my first vote. If the election judge hadn’t been nearby, I don’t know if I would have been voting that day. I suppose I could have left, and tried to come back with a police escort, but I don’t know if I would have been successful in such an attempt. One thing seemed certain at the time: I wasn’t going to make it to the voting booth on my own.
So, please take it from me, people can, in the absence of nearby help, be dissuaded from voting.
In the story from PA, there was not one, but two, potentially intimidating persons at the polling place. Both were apparently out of view of the election judges. And one was apparently armed. I can certainly imagine myself, as a young, very busy, person, being unable to get in to vote. Therefore, I can imagine others in the same situation. In short, I can imagine these apparent thugs not directing how people vote, but influencing who votes at all. This is a problem, in my opinion.