Tea Partiers and New Black Panthers To Square Off At Polls In Texas - fuck yeah #p2 #tcot

Members of the fringe group the New Black Panther Party have announced they intend to be at the polls in Harris County, Texas tomorrow. So has the Tea Party-backed group True the Vote -- with more than 1,000 poll watchers, they say. Both sides have already traded accusations of voter intimidation -- but, despite all their press coverage, neither will likely play a deciding factor at the polls tomorrow.

The face off between poll watchers alleging massive voter fraud in Harris County and many voters in minority neighborhoods of Houston during the early voting period have already been racially tinged. New developments indicate it will only get worse.

The New Black Panther Party has been designated as a hate group by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League. The group became the subject of media scrutiny after one of their members was videotaped brandishing a nightstick at a polling place in Philadelphia during the 2008 election. While the individual accused in the case was eventually punished, the Department of Justice refused to pursue charges against the organization, leading to backlash from many conservatives.

On the other side, the Tea Party-backed group True the Vote used a doctored photo of an African-American voter in one of their videos that warned of voter fraud and has been accused of focusing their poll watching efforts on minority neighborhoods. Witnesses have said they are targeting Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods.

Justice Department officials, who have already confirmed they were looking into accusations of voter intimidation, are sending officials to monitor the election in the area.

J. Christian Adams, the former Civil Rights Division lawyer who accused the Justice Department of reverse racism over the department's resolution of a voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party, wrote that the New Black Panther Party was "emboldened by stupid decisions inside the Justice Department. And on cue, the Houston New Black Panthers announce a polling place operation for Tuesday."

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