Let’s think through how ICE/BP thugs doing voter intimidation could possibly swing the midterms.
Have to pick close races, pick the right precincts, not inspire backlash, and do all that in enough places to overcome a likely national wave.
They’ll try, it’s wrong, but I second the anti-doomerism.
My point here is that knee-jerk doomerism rests on not doing the actual analysis that needs to be done.
Might there be vulnerable-R seats with heavy Hispanic representation where targeted polling station patrols are likely to suppress D more than R? Maybe! But can't just assert the doom.
Voter intimidation isn’t new, and the counters to it are well established. Black voters in the south, for example, faced some at various times.
Ideally, use early voting to make intimidation harder. Otherwise, show up to vote on Election Day, braving whatever they try.
Not sexy, but it works.
I’ve been getting tired of the drumbeat of warnings without any analysis to what is feasible and what are our countermeasures. All it does is scare the shit out of me and a lot of other pro-democracy folks. Yes, we should be concerned but what are our real vulnerabilities and what do we do?
Feb 4, 2026 20:05Crucially, pulling off that balancing act you describe is an insane feat of needle-threading in a cell-phone-camera world where the first ICE/CBP agent to rough up a voter is going to be *everywhere* on social media within an hour or two.
You know, while polls are still open.
It seems me the most likely outcome of that, by far, is that they intimidate some very small number of voters but enrage some rather a lot larger number of voters.
Rough up hispanic voters in NC, still lose the senate seat there, but also Texas is blue now kind of outcome.
