Citing statements by President Trump, Attorney General Maura Healey on Thursday issued a formal advisory to local officials and community organizations to highlight laws stating that intimidating or interfering with voters is illegal.
The advisory references an Aug. 20 TV interview in which the president was asked if he would send poll watchers to monitor elections for possible voters fraud. “We’re going to have everything. We’re going to have sheriffs and law enforcement and we’re going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals, but it’s very hard,” Trump said, according to Healey’s advisory, which was issued in English and Spanish.
The advisory counters Trump’s statements in a Q&A format, with the attorney general prefacing the advisory by stating: “State and federal laws protect the rights of the citizens of Massachusetts to vote safely in elections, free from intimidation.”
“We won’t sit idle in the face of President Trump’s dangerous threats to undermine our electoral process and suppress votes,” Healey said in a statement.
Added Beth Huang, director of the Massachusetts Voter Table: “The President’s threats to increase the presence of law enforcement at polling locations will lead to the intimidation of voters of color and immigrants, who have been targeted by the administration’s racist and xenophobic policies and rhetoric in the past four years.”