Guns at voting sites emerge as flash point in Michigan amid nationwide election tensi

[votebiden]

As tensions mount ahead of Election Day, a legal battle in Michigan is highlighting fears some officials and civil rights groups have about what will happen when people show up at polling sites with guns — which is legal in numerous jurisdictions across the United States.

Michigan, already the site of election-year unease, was thrust into the center of the armed-voter debate after state officials announced a ban on openly carried weapons at polling sites, saying guns could intimidate voters or election workers. Gun rights groups challenged the move in court and have argued it forces Michigan residents to choose between their right to vote and their right to bear arms.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...105_story.html

[votebiden]

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) invoked the possibility of voter intimidation when she announced this month that she was banning people from openly carrying guns at or around polling places.

“The presence of firearms at the polling place, clerk’s office(s), or absent voter counting board may cause disruption, fear, or intimidation for voters, election workers, and others present,” Benson, the state’s top elections official, wrote in her directive, issued on Oct. 16.

[Walt]

It is going to be a bad situation.