Armed Militias And Poll Watchers: Know The Laws In Illinois

ILLINOIS — At the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, President Trump used the stage to call for volunteers to stand watch at November election polls, once again citing his evidence-free claim that U.S. elections are “rigged” or fraudulent.

The call to monitor polling places prompted an enthusiastic response from known neo-Nazis and right-wing activist groups.

“I got shivers,” Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, wrote in a post the day after the debate. “I still have shivers. He is telling the people to stand by. As in: Get ready for war.”

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The president’s call also sparked trepidation among state election and law enforcement officials, who now are preparing for the threat of voter intimidation, arrests and even violence on Election Day.

Poll watchers have historical significance in both Illinois and U.S. elections.

In an op-ed for the Washington Post, former Republican lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg called poll watchers “fundamental” to the election process — but if Trump’s calls are heeded, the Republican Party would see the type of activity at polling places it has sought for years to avoid.

“Should Trump seek to delegitimize the presidential election, he would most likely begin by causing delays and chaos in precincts that voted heavily against him in 2016. His most obvious tactic would be having the RNC instruct its poll watchers to abandon their traditional role and, instead, lodge mass challenges both as voters cast their ballots and then as mail ballots are tabulated,” Ginsberg wrote.

While it’s unclear what activities to expect at Election Day polls in Illinois, each state has laws barring unauthorized private militia groups, according to the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University.

According to federal law, voter intimidation is prohibited. In fact, the right of each voter to cast his or her ballot free from intimidation or coercion is a foundational principle of a free and democratic society.

The institute at Georgetown recently compiled fact sheets detailing federal and state statutes on voter intimidation. Sheets also outline what to do if groups of armed people are near a polling place or voter registration drive.

Here’s a look at the laws in our state:

• Illinois law makes it illegal for groups of people to organize as private militias without permission from the state. It is a misdemeanor for "any body of men or women, other than the regularly organized militia of this State," the US. armed forces, and veterans organizations, "to associate themselves together as a military company or organization, to drill or parade with arms in this State."
• "Independent regiments" may "associate themselves together as a military body" and "drill or parade with arms in public" in order to "better enable them to serve the State in time of public peril," but only "with the consent of the Governor."
• It's also a felony in Illinois to either:
  • "Teach or demonstrate" how to use, apply, or make "any firearm, explosive, incendiary device or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, knowing or having reason to know and intending that same will be unlawfully employed for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder;" or
  • "Assemble with one or more persons for the purpose of training with, practicing with, or being instructed in the use of any firearm, explosive, incendiary device or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, intending to employ unlawfully the same for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder.