title:  Senator Asks DOJ To Step In After White Supremacists Vow To Engage In Poll Watching
text: A senator from Pennsylvania is asking the Department of Justice to step in following widespread media reports of white supremacists who have vowed to engage in poll watching on election day to guard against voter fraud.Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) wrote a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, pleading for the DOJ to intervene. These plans to monitor the polls are little more than thinly veiled attempts to suppress and delegitimize the votes of predominantly minority citizens, inflected with innuendo that recalls dark times in our country s civil rights struggle,  Casey wrote.  These calls are more than wrong and irresponsible; if executed, they could be illegal. It has been reported that the National Socialist Movement elements of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Freedom Party are planning to send members to polls in Philadelphia, and elsewhere across the country. Their goal is to ensure that Donald Trump isn t cheated out of the presidency due to voter fraud and a  rigged  election.One alt-right website is even claiming that white supremacists will be handing out liquor and marijuana in the  ghetto  of Philadelphia to help make sure minorities don t make it to the polls to cast their ballots. It has also been reported that hidden cameras will be installed throughout the city to help monitor activities.Casey told the DOJ that appalling tactics such as these must not be permitted under any circumstances. We have come too far to allow a group of white nationalists to intimidate minority voters in Philadelphia or anywhere throughout the nation,  he wrote.Trump has worked his bigoted base into a frenzy over claims that the election is  rigged.  (It s not.) He has convinced his supporters that  voter fraud  is a viable threat, when in fact, it is virtually nonexistent. These poll watching activities aren t even remotely intended to protect our system of fair elections. The only purpose for white supremacists to come out in droves to guard the polls with guns is to intimidate minorities and prevent them from voting.Featured image via John Moore/Getty Images