Two armed men made an appearance at an early voting poll in St. Petersburg, Florida claiming they were hired by the Trump campaign to do so.
Although the Trump campaign denied the allegation on Wednesday, it’s a known fact that Trump repeatedly called for an “army” of poll-watchers “to go into the polls and watch very carefully.”
Trump has vehemently pushed the idea of “election fraud” so much that people are literally taking the matters into their own hands. Pinellas County election supervisor told WFLA News, that both men came into the polls donned in security attire Wednesday.
Both men told authority deputies that they were hired by the Trump campaign and plan to return back to the early voting poll on Thursday.
“The sheriff and I take this very seriously,” Marcus told WFLA. “Voter intimidation, deterring voters from voting, impeding a voter’s ability to cast a ballot in this election is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in any way, shape, or form.”
There are seven states that ban firearms at polls, Florida is one of them, Fas Company previously reported and according to Guns Down America, a gun-control advocacy group, 85 voters claimed they saw guns at polls in more than 24 states.
Deputy Press Secretary Thea McDonald told the news outlet that the men were not hired by Trump nor his team. “The Campaign did not hire these individuals nor did the Campaign direct them to go to the voting location.”
But Trump should watch his words, even if he’s not speaking in literal terms, some members of his fan base believe he is. Furthermore, the celebrity-in-chief’s team has been known to brag about the “Army for Trump” team that supposedly consists of 50,000 trained volunteer poll watchers.
The Sheriff of Pinellas County Bob Gualtieri says he will work closely to keep voting polls safe but did not go into details on his plan of making this happen. “I just don’t want to get too deep into the specifics because we’re trying to balance it,” Gualtieri told WFLA. “But I’ll say it’s a combination of uniformed personnel who will be in the area and also we’re gonna use some undercover personnel just to monitor the situation.”
