This story is from The Guardian:

Many black voters are well aware of the role law enforcement officers played in suppressing the black vote in the south – particularly in the time leading up to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” said Julie Houk, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The potential for voter intimidation is especially high this year, especially for black voters, who, according to a recent publication by the Center for American Progress and the NAACP, are more likely to vote in person and the group least likely to vote by mail.

In 2018, a nearly 40-year-old consent decree expired, which had banned the Republican National Committee from engaging in “ballot security” activities, such as hiring off-duty police to patrol majority-minority precincts while wearing “National Ballot Security Task Force” armbands. In response, the RNC now plans to hire 50,000 volunteers in 15 states in order to combat “voter fraud” by challenging ballots and voters deemed suspicious.

Read the full story here.