Armed troops do not belong near ballot boxes," the head of the District of Columbia ACLU told Common Dreams. Will send armed agents to intimidate voters during the midterms, the DC Board of Elections told Common Dreams on Friday that it is responding to complaints of National Guard troops stationed outside a ballot drop box near downtown. Washington DC-based political and legal commentator Bryan K. Randolph, posted a video to TikTok showing what he said were three members of the National Guard stationed in front of a "giant white box with the word 'ballot' pretty hard to miss." A spokesperson for the DC Board of Elections confirmed to Common Dreams that it "has received complaints regarding National Guard personnel posted near a ballot drop box next to the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro station." "We are addressing the concerns with the National Guard directly and have requested that they impose limitations on the placement of National Guard service members near drop boxes and other voting locations in the District," she said. Joint Task Force-District of Columbia, the military command overseeing National Guard operations in the capital, did not respond to a request for comment. In June, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), the nonvoting delegate from DC in the House, asked National Guard members near a drop box if they'd been told to stay away. One Guard member responded, "No. Not at all." "The fact that Guard personnel reportedly had not been instructed to avoid ballot drop boxes suggests a troubling lack of awareness by leadership of the impact these deployments are having on the district and its residents," Norton said. "Armed troops do not belong near ballot boxes," Monica Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia, told Common Dreams. "At minimum, troop presence at the ballot box creates the appearance of voter intimidation and risks discouraging DC residents from exercising our fundamental right to vote."
'Affront to Democracy': Trump's National Guard Troops Seen in Front of Ballot Box in DC
