Watch out for voter intimidation on Nov. 2

The Fairfax County Democratic Committee is urging its members to watch out for voter intimidation on Election Day, in light of Fairfax County Electoral Board Vice Chair Hans von Spakovsky’s involvement in voter suppression efforts around the county, particularly in districts with a heavily minority or low-income population.

The committee cites a report on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, about how von Spakovsky trained Republican volunteers in Illinois to intimidate minority voters in low-income precincts. Earlier this year in Fairfax County, von Spakovsky persuaded the board to stop distributing voter registration applications in languages other than English at community registration events run by the Electoral Board. In 2007, the Senate blocked President Bush’s nomination of von Spakavsky to the Federal Election Commission.

After the election, you can expect the Republicans to make a lot of baseless charges of voter fraud. The Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law documents how von Spakavosky has used such allegations to manipulate elections.