Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is looking into claims that a private security company was recruiting armed security guards to work poll sites on Election Day, NBC News reports.
Ellison said any effort to stage armed guards at polling places would intimate voters, which is against the law.
According to a lawsuit filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, of Minnesota and the League of Women Voters of Minnesota, Atlas Aegis allegedly posted Facebook advertisements, which have since been deleted, for U.S. military Special Operations personnel to guard polling sites in Minnesota on Election Day.
“Minnesota and federal law are clear: no one may interfere with or intimidate a voter at a polling place, and no one may operate private armed forces in our state,” Ellison said in a news release on Tuesday. “The presence of private ‘security’ at polling places would violate these laws.”
Ellison said the presence of armed guards “would make no one safer and is not needed or wanted by anyone who runs elections or enforces the law. For these reasons, my office is formally investigating Atlas Aegis.”
According to Atlas Aegis’ website, the company is based in Tennessee and is run by military veterans. A job listing shows that Atlas Aegis was working with an unidentified “locally licensed firm in Minnesota.”
NBC News reports that Atlas Aegis is not licensed to provide security in Minnesota, according to a database search of the Minnesota Board of Private Detective and Protective Agent Services, a state regulatory board.
Earlier this month, Atlas Aegis Chairman Anthony Caudle would not identify the company’s client but confirmed the advertisement’s authenticity to The Washington Post.
Caudle told the newspaper that armed, former U.S. military personnel would not intimidate voters. He said the armed veterans would not be visible outside polling stations.
“These people are going to be never even seen unless there’s an issue,” he said. “They’re there to make sure that the antifas don’t try to destroy the election sites.”
Executive director of CAIR Minnesota Jaylani Hussein issued a statement that Atlas Aegis’ alleged actions were part of a long history of intimidating and suppressing voters of color.
“Today we affirm our stand against this clear plan of voter intimidation and suppression by armed forces targeting communities of color and new Americans,” Hussein said. “Our democracy depends on the right to vote and this right must be maintained and protected.”
In the same statement, Michelle Witte, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Minnesota, said the Voting Rights Act was written to protect against voter intimidation.
Ellison asked Atlas Aegis to "cease and desist any planning and stop making any statements about engaging in this activity."
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