Report directly to the authorities

100% agree with this. You reported the post in politicalmemes with this as the reason:

misinformation; these phone numbers route to a politically-aligned organization

What was the misinformation? The title says “[META] Where to call if you witness anyone intimidating or harassing at polling places.” and the image clearly states who is behind it.

If you can state that they aren’t there to help, and provide proof, I’ll back down, but the fact that you came at it as “lies”, that’s a bold claim.

Again, contact authorities, but there’s nothing wrong with having other avenues to assistance.

I agree, but every avenue at our disposal are forms. They will receive them, and I encourage that people DO report them to the FBI and Justice department. What I’m also saying is that those methods async, while this one is offering real-time assistance.

I would never say “don’t notify the authorities”. I am just saying that if you can put some weight behind your report and get it resolved while you are there, that’s a good thing too.

You assuming that because they are a political org, they will play partisan politics, so to ignore them out-of-hand makes me wonder what you would do in their position.

Not all people are evil, and again, I’m not saying not to report to the proper authorities. I’m just saying that reporting to the proper authorities may take weeks or months, where this may help you in minutes or hours - in time for the vote.

I called the top number (the “NATIONWIDE” number).

They were very prompt. I asked them if someone - regardless of political leaning - were to call, what they would actually do, and how this would be a better solution to other services like the ones listed by OP.

One thing is there’s no real-time solution available anywhere in the U.S., from what I can find, nor what they are aware of.

Next, when we call, they will route your call to the proper escalation path, depending on the nature of the call. This also means that if you’re being intimidated, they will reach out to the law enforcement for your polling station (city/county/state as needed). This is regardless of your political leaning. They would be contacting the proper authorities on behalf of the Democratic National Support Hotline, which carries a bit of weight, as they do have an army of lawyers at their disposal, for if it’s not resolved in a timely fashion.

I was on hold for a while to get a better understanding of how things worked, to see if this was, in fact, a valid and viable option.

Yes, it IS partisan org, but they state they will not play partisan politics with intimidation.

TL;DR: they are there to do something the government can’t/won’t - provide immediate resolution to voter intimidation regardless of your political leaning.

As a mod, what I can say is this:

If something of yours is removed, or you receive a ban, send us a message. We can work through it. Also, if you see something, report it.

We’re volunteers, and don’t police every comment or post, as we have full-time jobs. We tend to look at the reports, try to gather some context if time allows, then take action or not, based on the community rules.

Thanks for your feedback. I really appreciate it!

Looking back, that was a bad day, with tons of reports coming in, and I believe the mod team was just working the reports as fast as they could.

It’s not that simple though; Israel wants to eliminate Hamas (and they have plenty of reason for that – if Mexico attacked the US like Hamas attacked Israel, there would simply put no longer be a Mexico). It would be tone deaf to Israel to say “leave Gaza” without that mission accomplished. They claim they don’t even want the area, they just want Hamas gone. Furthermore, Hamas is fighting with guerilla tactics. They’re intentionally trying to provoke war crimes. Israel doesn’t have to be so dang willing to fall for the trap. However, Hamas is making it exceptionally hard to fight a clean war from what I’ve read. Citizens in the Gaza strip are not just being abused by the IDF but by Hamas. I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden has his own Intel to back that all up. If it were as obvious as people want it to be, I’m pretty sure we would’ve stopped sending aid by now.

This was the comment. Emphasis added.

The reason a mod called it bad faith: Israelis were actively settling the land after the IDF cleared it out.

It was me who liked HFY. for the stories, not the moderation

deleted by creator

1. It was 5 months ago
2. when a user is actively commenting and violating the community rules, we may ban, then remove content.
3. When it is an active thread, we may accidentally put the wrong reason - yours was actually “multiple rule violations”, but it appears I mixed you and someone else up when putting in the reason.
4. You were being an ass
5. YESTERDAY you reached out to us for help. I explained I don’t like perma banning, and I was willing to work with you. I linked to your mod log, and invited you to appeal the ban. You decided to not appeal it, and called my moderation team corrupt fascist .

I’ve not used that in years. Didn’t even know it was still around.

This you?

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but try mulberry.

OMG

That’s not how this works. This will be the last time I ever interact with you.

I won’t stoop to your level with insults, I’ll just leave you with this: I fly 4 flags at my house: American, pride, Ukraine, and Palestine.

You spend so much time attacking us for some made up thing, when the truth is simple: your unbearable with your constant attack on anybody that doesn’t agree with you. I WILL be voting for Harris, because a vote for ANYBODY else is a vote for Trump, and there are MANY more issues I worry about.

• Homeless rights
• Feeding low income families
• LGBTQIA+ rights - I have a trans child, and a gay child
• Ensuring we don’t get a dictator

… And on and on.

YOU, for some reason, think it’s a simple thing, but it’s not.

Goodbye.

Yeah. You’re the victim. You break civility rules. There are plenty of pro Palestine people in the community. They just follow the rules.

Normal people apologize when they are called out for insulting others. That’s another difference.

At this point, it feels like you believe if you can get people to hate Harris, Jill will magically win.

It’s never going to happen. I’m sorry, but that’s not how this reality works.

I take it that was a swipe at me.

Sorry you feel that way.

I don’t do as much moderation as my co-mods, and that’s by design. All our moderators are active and spread across the globe.

I just happen to be the face of the community.

Also, thanks for being civil. You don’t want to see the DMs mods got. It was brutal.

I believe it’s what they learned growing up on YouTube/social media. Demonetization is why content is censored, but when perceived from a child’s eyes, without that context, it can easily be seen as “the norm”.

I’ve never cooked tofu myself. The one good meal I had, I had been eating for 6 months before realizing it was tofu! It was great. Sadly, I moved from South Texas to the north, and cannot find a place that can prepare tofu I can stomach.

admins of other instances can see who voted, and what they voted. You can easily build a self-hosted copy so you’re an admin, federate with Lemmy.world, and see who is voting on a post/comment.

Mods cannot see who votes on a post/comment, so this is the only way.