Voter ID Billboard Intended to Intimidate Latinos?

You can file this under aggressive overkill.

The City of Southbridge, Massachusetts, will have a special election soon to fill a seat in the state legislature. Part of that community is largely Latino; they live clustered in a Latino enclave. So in advance of the special election a couple of groups, Empower Massachusetts and Show ID to Vote, both connected to the Tea Party Movement, paid for billboards in the Latino area that urge voters to, according to greenwichtime.com,

“protect the integrity of the vote” and “show ID” next to a picture of a white woman holding an identification card.

The groups will also have poll observers in at least 5 precincts.

Some Latino advocates in the community say that the billboards and the observers amount to voter intimidation – the important thing to know is that

“You don’t need your ID to vote in the state of Massachusetts,” said Alejandra St. Guillen, executive director of Oiste, a group that trains Latinos in Massachusetts run for office. “To place (the billboard) directly in Latino areas with the intention of intimidating Latino voter I find as a gross miscarriage of justice.”

The people who placed the billboards fall back on the typical rationale used for this kind of intimidation.

(Founder of Empower Massachusetts, Christen) Varley said the campaign is not about intimidating anyone, but rather to make sure the election is clean and fair after a contested election for the seat in November. She also said the billboard wasn’t intentionally placed in an area to target Latino voters.

“I called six different companies and that was the location I found. I wasn’t offered an alternative,” Varley said. “The billboard faces a parking lot. It has nothing to do with placement.”

So it has to do with fraud and random placement, when it has been established that the number voters pretending to be someone they’re not is incredibly minuscule and would not affect the outcome of an election?

I think it has more to do with making sure that the “right” people vote.

To counter the billboards and the observers the Oiste group is urging its members to go to the polls to monitor potential voter intimidation. If you’re interested in helping their cause, here’s their contact info:

59 Temple Pl # 337
Boston, MA 02111-1344
(617) 426-6633

Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda