With United States Election Day 2008 kicking off, there have been incidents of voting issues at the polls. States reporting such incidents so far are Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio.
One incident in particular is making headlines: Fox News reports Republicans have been intimidated at one of the polling areas in Philadelphia. Fox News says voters have been intimidated by two poll watchers that are allegedly members of the "Black Panthers."
In the videos above, these two poll waters are dressed in black military-style gear with the trademark black beret hats. From their appearances, they seem to be intimidating and could be classified as hostile. One of them had a baton in his hands.
Luckily, the situation has been dealt with by the police.
Rick Leventhal of Fox News was at the scene of the incident. He asked one of the men “guarding” the doors: “Is there any reason why you’re wearing that uniform?” In the video with Leventhal, there was a confrontation.
In response, Jacqueline Dischell, a volunteer for the campaign for Democratic Presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, disputes the Fox News story. According to the volunteer, there have been no incidents or reports of voter intimidation.
While Fox News did not confirm if the two were Black Panthers, Dischell says says they were. However, one of them was officially in charge of watching the polls. The other one was a friend that seemed to be hanging out (the one holding the baton).
From what Dischell explains, the one with the baton eventually left.
While it is confirmed that the situation was resolved by the police, Dischell said she explained the situation. After that, the police ended up driving away. According to Dischell, the police officers didn’t get out of the car.
“There was no fight, nothing,” Dischell explained. She adds that FOX News came to the scene at the same time a large group of men came with camera taking pictures of the place.
So far, this incident has been reported on FOX News, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Globe and Mail, Poligazette, and CNN.
Overall, the FOX News story explains of possible voter intimidation at the designating polling area. At the same time, an Obama volunteer disputes the story.
There are two taped instances of the situation. The first video was taken via a camera phone. This video was taken by a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
The second video was taken by FOX News.
It seems that things could possibly get dicey in Philadelphia before Election Day comes to a close. There is one major question that needs to be asked: Was there any voter intimidation at the polling area or not?