Ronni ButtsLeading up to Election Day, some N.C. Central University students said that they intended to vote despite recent incidents of voter interference around the country.
There appeared to be no cases of interference or intimidation in North Carolina. However, several states across the country have each faced incidents since early voting began.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has been outspoken in her efforts to assure voters that this election will be secure.
“There’s no upside to disrupting our elections,” Benson told reporters during a news conference live-streamed from Detroit.
The threats have not deterred some NCCU students.
“It doesn’t intimidate me,” said Iyanna Boston, a biomedical sciences sophomore. “If anything, it makes me feel more empowered. I’m going to go vote anyway.”
“I feel that I’m in a secured place that wouldn’t have that type of stuff going on,” said Jeremiah Grantham, an informational technology sophomore. However, he does note that learning about these forms of voter intimidation does make him anxious.
“I mean, we’ve seen the election tampered with in other places, so that’s already showing that [the vote count] is not going to be accurate,” Grantham said.
Since the beginning of early voting, three absentee ballot boxes have been set on fire in three states — Arizona, Washington and Oregon — destroying several ballots.
In Phoenix, a 35-year-old suspect was arrested on charges of destroying about 20 ballots.
Similar incidents have occurred recently in Vancouver, Wash. and Portland, Ore., where ballots were set on fire inside ballot boxes. Someone reportedly wrote “Free Gaza” on two of the devices used to start the fires. A third device found in Vancouver, which was removed before igniting, reportedly read, “Free Palestine.”
According to the New York Times, investigators were trying to determine whether these incidents were the work of Pro-Palestinian activists or of individuals using these messages to frame Pro-Palestinian activists.
Southern states also faced numerous cases of voter intimidation in October, according to local news accounts.
One teen in Duval County, Fla. was arrested after allegedly brandishing a machete at voters at a polling site. The teen, along with a group of juveniles, were also chanting “in support of Trump” according to the Neptune Beach Police Department.
In another case in Loxahatchee, Fla., a man verbally harassed a woman campaigning for a Republican candidate for the Florida State House, yelling slurs and repeatedly driving his car dangerously close to her and others.
