Independent UK - While police are allowed inside polling stations in the US, the American Civil Liberties Union points out they are principally there to help prevent illegal voter intimidation – including aggressive questioning of voters about their citizenship or eligibility to vote. The police themselves are also subject to laws against such intimidation.
Nonetheless, as the Republican party recruits tens of thousands of volunteers to spot and dispute “suspicious ballots” in various key states, various advocacy groups have raised concerns that state-level party representatives are pushing to install police officers at polling stations in an intimidating manner.
The US has a long history of police interfering with both voter registration and in-person voting, particularly prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. While the legislation formally blocked many iterations of police interference, there have been multiple incidents since.
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