Michigan GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers was caught on leaked audio telling county Republicans he wants the Republican National Committee to send retired or off-duty police officers to polling places in Detroit — and only Detroit — as poll watchers. “All you got to do is open your jacket and you see the badge on the belt,” he said.
As Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias explains, this isn't a new tactic. In 1981, the RNC sent armed off-duty police officers to polling places in Black and Latino neighborhoods in New Jersey. The lawsuit that followed put the RNC under a court order that barred these programs for more than three decades. That order ended in 2017 as Donald Trump began his first term.
