No place for intimidation on Election Day

Just because something is legal doesn’t make it a good idea.

Walking around downtown with a rifle slung over your shoulder is legal in Maine. But it freaks people out. They have no way of knowing your intention. It’s a bad idea.

Videotaping voters who choose to sign a petition may be legal. But it freaks people out. They have no way of knowing your intention. Also, a bad idea.

A certain type of gun enthusiast traffics in these tactics.

And the purpose is pretty clear: Intimidate people.

On Election Day, among many groups and causes collecting signatures for potential ballot questions, more than 100 volunteers from Maine Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense were collecting signatures at polling places from Biddeford to Eastport to put a common-sense question on the ballot that would require criminal background checks for the sale of guns by a private party, online or at gun shows.

But the petition gatherers were not alone. At polling places in Portland and elsewhere around the state, the signature gatherers were being shadowed by individuals calling themselves “Project Dirigo.”

Members of Project Dirigo claim that they were videotaping people signing the petition to make sure that the collectors were following the law.

I don’t believe it and neither should you.

These tactics are clearly meant to intimidate people and make them question whether it’s worth it to sign a petition and risk whatever retribution the would-be paparazzi might have in mind.

Roger Borelli Sr., who works for the Portland City Clerk’s Office, told the Press Herald’s David Hench that he had received a number of complaints about the process: “It’s a very intimidating process,” he said. “I know it’s legal, but where’s the borderline?”

In some cases, the people doing the recording were likely breaking the law by trying to influence voters within 250 feet of polling places; in others, they were more passive and even friendly.

But in every case, they were there to be noticed. And to send a message.

Shoshana Hoose, who was collecting signatures for the background check initiative in Portland, told the Press Herald she “felt intimidated.”

Katie Mae Simpson was collecting signatures at Portland’s East End School, where the tracker was polite and stayed a few feet away from her table.

Simpson, a volunteer and activist, has gathered signatures before, but she brought a friend who was collecting for the first time.

“She was nervous about being recorded,” Simpson said.

We’ve seen before what people with ill-intent can do with video. We only have to look so far as doctored videos about Planned Parenthood or other “stings” to find examples of footage being heavily edited to tell a story that isn’t true.

In Planned Parenthood’s case, the videos were doctored and purposefully misleading. They were the beginning of a sustained political attack on women’s health care.

The people who oppose background checks have a steep hill to climb. Polling nationally and in Maine shows that there is strong public support for requiring background checks for all gun sales, including closing the private sale loophole.

A Pew Research Center poll from August found that 88 percent of voters favor expanding background checks for gun purchases, including 79 percent of Republicans.

“There’s a dangerous trend across the country of people and groups claiming they’re acting to protect the election process when in reality, they are trying to intimidate or harass,” Zach Heiden, legal director for the ACLU of Maine, told the Press Herald. “We hope that trend is not making its way to Maine.”

Whether the goal was to scare away voters or volunteers or to capture footage that could be edited later for political gain, Project Dirigo’s tactics are nasty and, based on the media attention they have received, likely to backfire.

Nobody likes a bully.

Not when they’re walking down the street with a gun, and not when they’re videotaping people signing a petition.

While the spectacle of the videoing may have deterred some volunteers and petition signers, their activities have fired up the supporters of background check supporters.

According to campaign organizers, they had 114 volunteers collecting signatures on Election Day, and they collected more than 10,000 signatures, surpassing their goals for the day.

“They are working against public opinion on this,” Simpson, the signature gatherer, told me. “We’re going to get the signatures we need and this is going to be on the ballot in 2016.”

David Farmer

About David Farmer

David Farmer is a political and media consultant in Portland, where he lives with his wife and two children. He was senior adviser to Democrat Mike Michaud’s campaign for governor and a longtime journalist. You can reach him at dfarmer14@hotmail.com.