tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/gadsden-flag-94632/articlesGadsden flag – La Conversation2022-12-23T14:00:34Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1966382022-12-23T14:00:34Z2022-12-23T14:00:34ZCommittee report focus is not on demonstrators – 5 essential reads on the symbols they carried on Jan. 6<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502173/original/file-20221220-26-jghfgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C7%2C4962%2C3331&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The congressional investigation into Jan. 6, 2021, focused on one man, not the masses.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CapitolRiotInvestigation/eb11d0215eb547bf9b79a940c00679ce/photo">Al Drago/Pool Photo via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the <a href="https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/Report_FinalReport_Jan6SelectCommittee.pdf">final report emerges</a> from the congressional committee investigating the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, the focus is on the role of then-President Donald Trump and those close to him. That’s crucial information, but it leaves out another important chapter of the story.</p>
<p>There were thousands of people demonstrating on the streets of Washington, D.C., that day, whose actions are not recounted in detail in the congressional report. They carried a variety of political and ideological flags and signs. The Conversation asked scholars to explain what they saw – including ancient Norse images and more recent flags from U.S. history.</p>
<p>Here are five articles from The Conversation’s coverage, explaining what many of the symbols mean.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man carries the Confederate battle flag in the U.S. Capitol." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A man carries the Confederate battle flag in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, between portraits of senators who both opposed and supported slavery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporter-of-us-president-donald-trump-carries-a-news-photo/1230455296">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>1. The Confederate battle flag</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most recognized symbol of white supremacy is the Confederate battle flag. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-confederate-battle-flag-which-rioters-flew-inside-the-us-capitol-has-long-been-a-symbol-of-white-insurrection-153071">Since its debut during the Civil War</a>, the Confederate battle flag has been flown regularly by white insurrectionists and reactionaries fighting against rising tides of newly won Black political power,” writes <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jordan-brasher-345465">Jordan Brasher</a> at Columbus State University, who has studied how the Confederacy has been memorialized.</p>
<p>He notes that in one photo from inside the Capitol, the flag’s history came into sharp relief as the man carrying it was standing between “the portraits of two Civil War-era U.S. senators – one an ardent proponent of slavery and the other an abolitionist once beaten unconscious for his views on the Senate floor.”</p>
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<img alt="Gadsden flags fly at a Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the Capitol." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C36%2C6020%2C3974&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Gadsden flags fly at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/capitol-police-line-the-barricades-as-trump-supporters-news-photo/1230452268">Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>2. The yellow Gadsden flag</h2>
<p>Another flag with a racist history is the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. A symbol warning of self-defense, it was designed by slave owner and trader Christopher Gadsden when the American Revolution began, as Iowa State University graphic design scholar <a href="https://www.design.iastate.edu/faculty/bruski/">Paul Bruski</a> writes.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/yellow-gadsden-flag-prominent-in-capitol-takeover-carries-a-long-and-shifting-history-145142">Because of its creator’s history</a> and because it is commonly flown alongside ‘Trump 2020’ flags, the Confederate battle flag and other white-supremacist flags, some may now see the Gadsden flag as a symbol of intolerance and hate – or even racism,” he explains.</p>
<p>It has been adopted by the tea party movement and other Republican-leaning groups, but the flag still carries the legacy, and the name, of its creator.</p>
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<img alt="U.S. Capitol storming, gallows, Trump supporters" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=67%2C33%2C5540%2C3631&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A gallows symbolizing the lynching of Jews was among the hate symbols carried as crowds stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/trump-supporters-near-the-u-s-capitol-on-january-06-2021-in-news-photo/1230476983?adppopup=true">Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>3. Powerful antisemitism</h2>
<p>Another arm of white supremacy doesn’t target Blacks. Instead, it demonizes Jewish people. Plenty of antisemitic symbols were on display during the riot, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VKv2qFsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Jonathan D. Sarna</a> explains.</p>
<p>Sarna is a Brandeis University scholar of American antisemitism and describes the ways that “<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-scholar-of-american-anti-semitism-explains-the-hate-symbols-present-during-the-us-capitol-riot-152883">[c]alls to exterminate Jews are common in far-right and white nationalist circles</a>.” That included a gallows erected outside the Capitol, evoking a disturbing element of a 1978 novel depicting the takeover of Washington, along with mass lynchings and slaughtering of Jews.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a horned hat and displaying Norse tattoos." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man known as Jake Angeli, now imprisoned for his role in the Capitol riot, wears a horned hat and tattoos of Norse images.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporters-of-us-president-donald-trump-including-jake-news-photo/1230468102">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>4. Co-opted Norse mythology</h2>
<p>Among the most striking images of the January riot were those of a man wearing a horned hat and no shirt, displaying several large tattoos. He is known as Jake Angeli, but his full name is Jacob Chansley, and he is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/17/politics/jacob-chansley-qanon-shaman-january-6-sentencing/index.html">serving a 41-month sentence in prison</a> for his role in the riot. </p>
<p>Tom Birkett, a lecturer in Old English at University College Cork in Ireland, explains that many of the symbols Chansley wore are from Norse mythology. However, he explains, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-capitol-riot-the-myths-behind-the-tattoos-worn-by-qanon-shaman-jake-angeli-152996">These symbols have also been co-opted by a growing far-right movement</a>.”</p>
<p>Birkett traces the modern use of Norse symbols back to the Nazis and points out that they are a form of code hidden in plain sight: “If certain symbols are hard for the general public to spot, they are certainly dog whistles to members of an increasingly global white supremacist movement who know exactly what they mean.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C622%2C4914%2C3014&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rioters scale structures while flying flags outside the Capitol." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C622%2C4914%2C3014&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The yellow-and-red-striped flag of the defeated American-backed Republic of Vietnam flies at the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trumps-supporters-gather-outside-the-news-photo/1230458129">Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>5. An outlier, of sorts</h2>
<p>Another flag was prominent at the Capitol riot, one that doesn’t strictly represent white supremacy: the flag of the former independent country of South Vietnam. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/longbui/">Long T. Bui</a>, a global studies scholar at the University of California, Irvine, explains that when flown by Vietnamese Americans, many of whom support Trump, the flag symbolizes militant nationalism.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-flag-of-south-vietnam-flew-at-us-capitol-siege-152937">[S]ome Vietnamese Americans view their fallen homeland</a> as an extension of the American push for freedom and democracy worldwide. I have interviewed Vietnamese American soldiers who fear American freedom is failing,” he explains.</p>
<p><em>This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives and is an update of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/symbols-of-white-supremacy-flew-proudly-at-the-capitol-riot-5-essential-reads-153055">article previously published</a> on Jan. 15, 2021.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The role of then-President Donald Trump and his aides and advisers is important, but there is a lot more to the story of Jan. 6, 2021, than what happened behind closed doors.Jeff Inglis, Politics + Society Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1932872022-11-01T12:46:45Z2022-11-01T12:46:45ZVigilantes at the polls were a threat in the 19th century, too, but the laws put in place then may not work in 2022<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492153/original/file-20221027-29020-ancqnm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C16%2C5318%2C2739&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">State laws dictate how far away campaign signs and workers need to be from polling places. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/EarlyVotingTexas/6034de4ab1b942b894293cd339a07ac2/photo?Query=campaign%20worker%20polling%20place&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=33&currentItemNo=10">AP Photo/Eric Gay</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Author <a href="https://www.poemuseum.org/who-was-edgar-allan-poe">Edgar Allan Poe</a>, the 19th-century master of American macabre fiction, may have died of dirty politics. According to legend, a gang of party “poll hustlers” kidnapped and drugged him. They forced him to vote, then <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr/vol26/iss3/3/">abandoned him near death</a>. Details are murky, but we do know Poe died in Baltimore days after the Oct. 3, 1849, election.</p>
<p>The story, though likely untrue, is certainly plausible. Election Day in 19th-century America was a loud, raucous, often dangerous event. Political parties would offer food, drink and inducements ranging from offers of bribes to threats of beatings to encourage voters to cast the party’s official ballot.</p>
<p>Reforms at the end of the century – particularly after an <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-vote-that-failed-159427766/">especially dirty 1888 presidential election</a> – aimed to stop the shenanigans, assure the safety of voters and elevate the act of voting. </p>
<p>That is why the U.S. now has secret government-printed ballots rather than party-provided ballots. And all 50 states have laws <a href="https://www.nass.org/resources/2018-election-information/electioneering-boundaries">that ban potentially intimidating behavior</a> at polling places. </p>
<p>Yet there appears to be increasing risk of such voter intimidation. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/25/pro-trump-republicans-court-election-volunteers-challenge-any-vote/">The Washington Post reports</a> that the Republican Party has held “thousands of training sessions around the country on how to monitor voting and lodge complaints about … midterm elections.” Former President Donald Trump’s ally and conservative firebrand <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/25/pro-trump-republicans-court-election-volunteers-challenge-any-vote/">Steve Bannon has urged followers to head to the polls</a>, claiming “We’ll challenge any vote, any ballot.” And <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/26/cities-midterms-elections-interference-militias-mayors-police-poll-extremists?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email">Axios reports that</a> “Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers are looking to sway the upcoming midterms in favor of their preferred candidates by signing up as poll workers and drop-box watchers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men fighting at the polls in 1857" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elections in the 19th century were sometimes wild affairs; this cartoon is from 1857.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3c18012/">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Vestigial laws?</h2>
<p>The idea behind these anti-electioneering laws is to prevent the kind of "poll hustling” to which Poe may have fallen victim. </p>
<p>Party tough guys cannot follow – or drag – helpless voters into the polling place, or watch them to make sure they vote the correct ballot with the implicit threat that a “wrong” vote could result in a beating. </p>
<p>These laws generally prohibit campaign activities at or near polling places – wearing campaign paraphernalia, shouting slogans, even loitering inside those polling places. Distance requirements for campaigners, ranging from <a href="https://www.pa.gov/guides/voting-and-elections/">10 feet from a polling place in Pennsylvania</a> to <a href="https://www.sos.la.gov/ElectionsAndVoting/Vote/Pages/default.aspx">600 feet away in Louisiana</a>, help to assure that secret ballots are actually cast in secret.</p>
<p>But these vestigial laws meant to purify 19th-century elections may be ill equipped for our hyperpartisan modern elections </p>
<p>If voters come to the polls wearing symbols like the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-shifting-symbolism-of-the-gadsden-flag">Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flag</a> that has evolved into an anti-government symbol, a <a href="https://www.history.com/news/how-did-the-rainbow-flag-become-an-lgbt-symbol">rainbow pin</a> associated with gay pride, or even a <a href="https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2020/02/26/spicing-up-the-political-discourse/">sticker from a spice company</a> whose owner detests Trump, those symbols can take on a perceived political meaning. Under these laws, these people could be accused of illegally campaigning where people vote.</p>
<p>How can anti-electioneering laws keep politics out of the polling place when politics already suffuses so much of life? And in 2022, polling places for many may be the kitchen table or a ballot drop box. In that context, do these laws still have relevance?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gloved hand inserts papers into the slot of a black and yellow box labeled Ballot Box" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An election worker puts mail-in ballots collected from vehicles in a ballot box at the Clark County Election Department on Oct. 13 in North Las Vegas, Nev.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/clark-county-election-department-worker-kelley-george-puts-news-photo/1280091056?adppopup=true">Ethan Miller/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Purifying’ elections</h2>
<p>Political reformers in the late 1880s <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-vote-that-failed-159427766/">saw elections as too closely tied to party machines and their Election Day carousing</a>. Much of the reform around this time was focused on “cleaning up” politics and destroying the nefarious influence of party machines. </p>
<p>In fact, the current popular understanding of party machines as being universally corrupt and lowbrow might be because “good government” activists won, so <a href="https://www-jstor-org.pitt.idm.oclc.org/stable/2151546?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents">they got to write the history</a> </p>
<p>Yet now, these reforms meant to purify 19th-century elections may not have the effect the authors intended. </p>
<p>For example, a New Hampshire woman <a href="https://www.nbcboston.com/news/politics/decision-2020/nh-woman-votes-topless-over-anti-trump-shirt-dispute-report/2192282/">opted to vote topless</a> in that state’s September 2020 primary after election officials told her that her anti-Trump T-shirt ran afoul of New Hampshire laws forbidding campaigning within a polling place. </p>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/electioneering.aspx">10 states</a> currently have laws on the books regulating the kinds of clothing voters can wear to the polling place.</p>
<p>These laws may violate the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition on limits to free speech, but not all have been tested in court. In the 2018 opinion <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/minnesota-voters-alliance-v-mansky/">Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky</a>, the Supreme Court ruled that the state’s laws to create an “orderly and controlled environment” around the polling place were overly vague. </p>
<p>According to the Minnesota opinion, “a rule whose fair enforcement requires an election judge to maintain a mental index of the platforms and positions of every candidate and party on the ballot is not reasonable.”</p>
<p>Poll workers, then, do not need to keep abreast of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/28/business/fred-perry-proud-boys-intl-scli-gbr/index.html">what a black-and-yellow polo shirt means</a> or which spice company has engaged in political advocacy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492142/original/file-20221027-24414-xt4ylg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Screenshot of legal language in a section of California law regulating electioneering." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492142/original/file-20221027-24414-xt4ylg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492142/original/file-20221027-24414-xt4ylg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492142/original/file-20221027-24414-xt4ylg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492142/original/file-20221027-24414-xt4ylg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492142/original/file-20221027-24414-xt4ylg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492142/original/file-20221027-24414-xt4ylg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492142/original/file-20221027-24414-xt4ylg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Buttons, hats, pencils, pens, shirts, signs, or stickers containing electioneering information’ are forbidden by California law within 100 feet of a polling place.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=ELEC&sectionNum=319.5.">California Legislature</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Bad things happen in Philadelphia’</h2>
<p>Even so, teasing out what constitutes a “political message” seems easy compared with teasing out what constitutes a “polling place” when so many voters will cast their ballots before Election Day.</p>
<p>In the Sept. 29, 2020, presidential debate, Trump warned that <a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/president-donald-trump-bad-things-happen-philadelphia-presidential-debate/">“bad things happen in Philadelphia</a>.” Earlier that week, a paid Republican poll watcher in Philadelphia was denied entry into a building that was not a formal polling place. Instead, it was handling, among other things, voter registration and pickup and drop-off of mail-in ballots. The Trump campaign sued, but the state court <a href="https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/decision-2020/judge-rejects-trumps-suit-over-philly-satellite-elections-offices/2559325/">rejected the campaign’s argument</a>, explaining that watchers are allowed only at polling places on Election Day, not Board of Elections offices at other times. </p>
<p>If anything, though, concerns about voter intimidation are greater in 2022, largely because of reactions to baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/voting-rights/article/How-Texas-hardest-fought-voting-law-impacts-2022-17522652.php">Efforts in Texas</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/georgias-gop-overhauled-the-states-election-laws-in-2021-and-critics-argue-the-target-was-black-voter-turnout-not-election-fraud-192000">other states</a> to “clean up” purported voter fraud, some in response to the <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/07/texas-ken-paxton-2000-mules-sid-miller/">debunked film “2000 Mules,”</a> may end up suppressing the vote in 2022.</p>
<p>Indeed, a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-two-five-us-voters-worry-about-intimidation-polls-reutersipsos-2022-10-26/">Reuters/Ipsos poll recently found</a> that 40% of respondents are worried about threats of violence or voter intimidation at polling places in 2022.</p>
<p>The unfounded claims of election fraud have spurred <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/voting-rights-tracker.html">changes to election laws in many states</a>. For example, <a href="https://theconversation.com/georgias-gop-overhauled-the-states-election-laws-in-2021-and-critics-argue-the-target-was-black-voter-turnout-not-election-fraud-192000">Georgia’s new election law enables organized groups to challenge the eligibility</a> of an unlimited number of voters, meaning that some early voters have turned up to vote, only to find they <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/22/georgia-early-voting-obstacles-new-election-law">need to jump through more hoops</a> to cast their ballots.</p>
<p>And in other cases, conspiracy theorists are taking matters into their own hands: Some voters in Arizona are reporting that monitors, including armed vigilantes in one case, are patrolling ballot drop boxes, <a href="https://www.gpb.org/news/2022/10/26/monitors-at-arizona-ballot-drop-boxes-draw-complaints-of-voter-intimidation">possibly running afoul of federal voter intimidation laws</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1583976792062185472"}"></div></p>
<h2>How clean is too clean?</h2>
<p>In her 2004 book “<a href="https://www.oupress.com/books/9779895/diminished-democracy">Diminished Democracy</a>,” political scientist <a href="https://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/people/theda-skocpol">Theda Skocpol</a> describes 19th-century reformers as working “for measures that would emphasize an unemotional, educational style of politics.” </p>
<p>Demanding the protection of the purity of the polling place and politics, Skocpol argues, “treats politics as if it were something dirty and implicitly holds up the ideal of an educated elite safely above and outside of politics.” </p>
<p>Certainly, few Americans would advocate allowing the country’s literary greats – or anyone else – to fall prey to roving political gangs. But determining how to protect the integrity of elections is difficult when elections are everywhere. </p>
<p>And it may not be as easy as relying on rules meant for a different time, a different means of voting and a different electorate.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/19th-century-political-parties-kidnapped-reluctant-voters-and-printed-their-own-ballots-and-thats-why-weve-got-laws-regulating-behavior-at-polling-places-147238">a story that originally was published</a> on Oct. 21, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristin Kanthak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>All 50 states have laws that ban potentially intimidating behavior at polling places. They will need enforcement during the 2022 midterm elections.Kristin Kanthak, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1676862021-09-15T19:19:09Z2021-09-15T19:19:09ZCapitol Police prepare for a return of insurrectionists to Washington – 5 essential reads on the symbols they carried on Jan. 6<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421185/original/file-20210914-27-1860236.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. Capitol Police are making security preparations for the planned rally.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CapitolBreachFence/2c65b78735bc44cba43fc30ef9d5d891/photo">AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A rally in Washington, slated for Sept. 18, 2021, is being billed as an effort to <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2021/09/08/capitol-police-prepare-for-sept-18-rally-lawmakers-invited/">support people who face criminal charges</a> for their involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.</p>
<p>Many of the same groups who participated in January are <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/proud-boys-oath-keepers-extremist-rally-september-18-washington-d-c/">expected to return to the nation’s capital</a> for this demonstration. Capitol Police are <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/08/politics/capitol-hill-security-september-18-rally/index.html">reportedly preparing for violence</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/13/politics/capitol-hill-fencing-returns/index.html">erecting protective fencing</a> around the building.</p>
<p>The groups involved in January’s attack on the Capitol carried a variety of political and ideological flags and signs. The Conversation asked scholars to explain what they saw – including ancient Norse images and more recent flags from U.S. history – and what those symbols mean.</p>
<p>Here are five articles from The Conversation’s coverage, explaining what many of the symbols mean.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man carries the Confederate battle flag in the U.S. Capitol." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378635/original/file-20210113-20219-10pr52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man carries the Confederate battle flag in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, between portraits of senators who both opposed and supported slavery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporter-of-us-president-donald-trump-carries-a-news-photo/1230455296">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. The Confederate battle flag</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most recognized symbol of white supremacy is the Confederate battle flag. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-confederate-battle-flag-which-rioters-flew-inside-the-us-capitol-has-long-been-a-symbol-of-white-insurrection-153071">Since its debut during the Civil War</a>, the Confederate battle flag has been flown regularly by white insurrectionists and reactionaries fighting against rising tides of newly won Black political power,” writes <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Vjw_kxsAAAAJ">Jordan Brasher</a> at Columbus State University, who has studied how the Confederacy has been memorialized.</p>
<p>He notes that in one photo from inside the Capitol, the flag’s history came into sharp relief as the man carrying it was standing between “the portraits of two Civil War-era U.S. senators – one an ardent proponent of slavery and the other an abolitionist once beaten unconscious for his views on the Senate floor.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Gadsden flags fly at a Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the Capitol." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C36%2C6020%2C3974&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gadsden flags fly at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/capitol-police-line-the-barricades-as-trump-supporters-news-photo/1230452268">Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. The yellow Gadsden flag</h2>
<p>Another flag with a racist history is the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. A symbol warning of self-defense, it was designed by slave owner and trader Christopher Gadsden when the American Revolution began, as Iowa State University graphic design scholar <a href="https://www.design.iastate.edu/faculty/bruski/">Paul Bruski</a> writes.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/yellow-gadsden-flag-prominent-in-capitol-takeover-carries-a-long-and-shifting-history-145142">Because of its creator’s history</a> and because it is commonly flown alongside ‘Trump 2020’ flags, the Confederate battle flag and other white-supremacist flags, some may now see the Gadsden flag as a symbol of intolerance and hate – or even racism,” he explains.</p>
<p>It has been adopted by the tea party movement and other Republican-leaning groups, but the flag still carries the legacy, and the name, of its creator.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="U.S. Capitol storming, gallows, Trump supporters" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=67%2C33%2C5540%2C3631&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377789/original/file-20210108-21-lkk5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A gallows symbolizing the lynching of Jews was among the hate symbols carried as crowds stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/trump-supporters-near-the-u-s-capitol-on-january-06-2021-in-news-photo/1230476983?adppopup=true">Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Powerful anti-Semitism</h2>
<p>Another arm of white supremacy doesn’t target Blacks. Instead, it demonizes Jewish people. Plenty of anti-Semitic symbols were on display during the riot, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VKv2qFsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Jonathan D. Sarna</a> explains.</p>
<p>Sarna is a Brandeis University scholar of American anti-Semitism and describes the ways that “<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-scholar-of-american-anti-semitism-explains-the-hate-symbols-present-during-the-us-capitol-riot-152883">[c]alls to exterminate Jews are common in far-right and white nationalist circles</a>.” That included a gallows erected outside the Capitol, evoking a disturbing element of a 1978 novel depicting the takeover of Washington, along with mass lynchings and slaughtering of Jews.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a horned hat and displaying Norse tattoos." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378899/original/file-20210114-18-lw7lz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man known as Jake Angeli, who is soon to be sentenced for his role in the Capitol riot, wears a horned hat and tattoos of Norse images.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporters-of-us-president-donald-trump-including-jake-news-photo/1230468102">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Co-opted Norse mythology</h2>
<p>Among the most striking images of the January riot were those of a man wearing a horned hat and no shirt, displaying several large tattoos. He is known as Jake Angeli, but his full name is Jacob Chansley, and he has <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/qanon-shaman-jacob-chansley-january-6-capitol-riot-guilty-plea/">pleaded guilty to one of six charges</a> as part of a plea deal for his role in the riot. </p>
<p>Tom Birkett, a lecturer in Old English at University College Cork in Ireland, explains that many of the symbols Chansley wore are from Norse mythology. However, he explains, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-capitol-riot-the-myths-behind-the-tattoos-worn-by-qanon-shaman-jake-angeli-152996">These symbols have also been co-opted by a growing far-right movement</a>.”</p>
<p>Birkett traces the modern use of Norse symbols back to the Nazis and points out that they are a form of code hidden in plain sight: “If certain symbols are hard for the general public to spot, they are certainly dog whistles to members of an increasingly global white supremacist movement who know exactly what they mean.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C622%2C4914%2C3014&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rioters scale structures while flying flags outside the Capitol." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C622%2C4914%2C3014&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The yellow and red-striped flag of the defeated American-backed Republic of Vietnam flies at the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trumps-supporters-gather-outside-the-news-photo/1230458129">Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. An outlier, of sorts</h2>
<p>Another flag was prominent at the Capitol riot, one that doesn’t strictly represent white supremacy: the flag of the former independent country of South Vietnam. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/longbui/">Long T. Bui</a>, a global studies scholar at the University of California, Irvine, explains that when flown by Vietnamese Americans, many of whom support Trump, the flag symbolizes militant nationalism.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-flag-of-south-vietnam-flew-at-us-capitol-siege-152937">[S]ome Vietnamese Americans view their fallen homeland</a> as an extension of the American push for freedom and democracy worldwide. I have interviewed Vietnamese American soldiers who fear American freedom is failing,” he explains.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives and is an update of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/symbols-of-white-supremacy-flew-proudly-at-the-capitol-riot-5-essential-reads-153055">article previously published</a> on Jan. 15, 2021.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Groups who share support for white supremacy say they are planning to return to the nation’s capital for a demonstration to support those arrested for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection.Jeff Inglis, Politics + Society Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1451422021-01-06T23:10:32Z2021-01-06T23:10:32ZYellow Gadsden flag, prominent in Capitol takeover, carries a long and shifting history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C36%2C6020%2C3974&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gadsden flags fly at a protest Wednesday at the Capitol.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/capitol-police-line-the-barricades-as-trump-supporters-news-photo/1230452268">Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Flown by many protesters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the Gadsden flag has a design that is simple and graphic: a coiled rattlesnake on a yellow field with the text “Don’t Tread On Me.” But that simple design hides some important complexities, both historically and today, as it appears in rallies demanding President Donald Trump be allowed to remain in office.</p>
<p>The flag originated well before the American Revolution, and in recent years it has been <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125184586">used by the tea party movement</a> and, at times, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2010/midwifing-militias">members of the militia movement</a>. But it has also been used to represent the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. men’s national soccer team and a Major League Soccer franchise.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.design.iastate.edu/faculty/bruski/">scholar of graphic design</a>, I find flags interesting as symbols as they take on deeper meanings for those who display them. Often, people use a flag not because of what is explicitly displayed, but because of what the person believes it represents – though that meaning can change through time, and with one’s perspective, as has happened with the Gadsden flag.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A segmented snake labeled with colonial regions and captioned 'Join, or die.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1754 woodcut illustration in Benjamin Franklin’s ‘Pennsylvania Gazette’ is the first instance of the American Colonies being depicted as a snake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_Franklin_-_Join_or_Die.jpg">Benjamin Franklin/Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The beginning of a myth</h2>
<p>The flag’s origin isn’t entirely clear. It seems to begin with a simple illustration accompanying an essay by Benjamin Franklin in 1754, 20 years before American independence. The image, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002695523/">possibly drawn by Franklin himself</a>, portrays the American Colonies as parts of a divided snake, simply stating “Join, or Die.” The essay it accompanied addressed the major current issue for British colonists in North America: the threat of the French and their Native American allies. </p>
<p>Later, as the American Revolution took shape, the image took on a new meaning. Colonists hoisted various flags, including ones depicting rattlesnakes, a distinctly American creature believed to strike only in self-defense. The flag commonly known as the “First Navy Jack” had 13 red and white stripes, and possibly a timber rattlesnake with 13 rattles, above the words “Don’t Tread On Me.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The flag known as the 'First Navy Jack'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A flag showing a design possibly used by the early U.S. Navy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Army_52715_First_Navy_Jack_flies_high_on_CIDD_flagpole.jpg">Petty Officer 2nd Class Steven L. Shepard/U.S. Navy/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1775, as the American Revolution began, South Carolina politician Christopher Gadsden expanded on Franklin’s idea, and possibly the red-and-white flag as well, when <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=TxYvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q&f=false">he created the yellow flag with a coiled rattler and the same phrase: “Don’t Tread On Me.”</a></p>
<p>Gadsden was a slave owner and trader, who built Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston, South Carolina, which was a major slave-trading site. <a href="https://abcnews4.com/news/local/gadsdens-wharf-dig-in-charleston-reveals-layers-of-history-where-slaves-were-once-sold">As many as 40% of enslaved Africans</a> who were brought to the U.S. first arrived there. The site is slated to be the home of the <a href="https://iaamuseum.org/museum/">International African American Museum</a>, which estimates that <a href="https://iaamuseum.org/gadsdens-wharf-answers/">150,000 captured Africans</a> came through the wharf, and that between 60% and 80% of today’s African Americans can trace an ancestor to the trade there.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman holds the Gadsden flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2015, a demonstrator held up the Gadsden flag to protest a visit by President Barack Obama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ObamaOregonShootingProtests/05f3206c46414ba9844b759c0e9ab325/photo">AP Photo/Ryan Kang</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A symbol awoken</h2>
<p>For most of U.S. history, this flag was all but forgotten, though it had some cachet in libertarian circles.</p>
<p>The First Navy Jack version <a href="https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/banners/usnavy-jack.html">resurfaced in 1976</a> on U.S. Navy ships to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial, and again after 9/11, though today that flag is reserved for the longest active-status warship. Its use remained largely apolitical.</p>
<p>In 2006 the slogan and the coiled snake saw some <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2010/05/dont-tread-on-tradition-the-us-national-teams-world-cup-jerseys-by-nike">commercial use by Nike</a> and the <a href="https://www.philadelphiaunion.com">Philadelphia Union</a>, a Major League Soccer team.</p>
<p>Around the same time, though, the flag <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.6/north-extremism-the-gadsden-flag-is-a-symbol-but-whose">took on a new political meaning</a>: The <a href="https://doi.org/10.7765/9781784992231.00009">tea party, a hard-line Republican anti-tax movement</a>, began using it. The implication was that the U.S. government had become the oppressor threatening the liberties of its own citizens. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A post-election protest display includes the Gadsden flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A post-election protest in Harrisburg, Pennslvania, on Nov. 5 includes a display of the Gadsden flag.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dozens-of-people-calling-for-stopping-the-vote-count-in-news-photo/1284096853">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps as a result of the tea party movement, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/08/25/states-where-you-can-get-a-dont-tread-on-me-license-plate/">several state governments</a> around the country offer a Gadsden flag <a href="https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/#splates/info.asp?idnm=DTOM">license plate</a> <a href="https://revenue.alabama.gov/motor-vehicle/license-plate-information/generic-specialty-plates/dont-tread-on-me/">design</a>. At least some of those plates charge additional fees for the special plate, sending <a href="https://revenue.alabama.gov/motor-vehicle/license-plate-information/generic-specialty-plates/dont-tread-on-me/">proceeds to nonprofit organizations</a>. </p>
<p>The Gadsden flag has appeared at other political protests, too, such as those opposing restrictions on gun ownership and objecting to rules imposed in 2020 to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Most recently the flag has been flown and displayed at some post-election protests, including events where demonstrators called for officials to stop counting votes – and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/01/06/dc-protests-trump-rally-live-updates/">both inside and outside the Capitol building</a> in Washington, D.C., during the counting of the electoral votes on Jan. 6.</p>
<p>Because of its creator’s history and because it is commonly flown alongside “Trump 2020” flags, the Confederate battle flag and other white-supremacist flags, some may now see the Gadsden flag <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/virginia/confederate-flag-along-i-95-in-stafford-to-be-removed/65-8a35b363-a562-4630-b653-159b83a80b6c">as a symbol of intolerance and hate</a> – or <a href="https://dailyfreepress.com/2020/10/28/canceled-the-gadsden-flag-and-our-campus/">even racism</a>. If so, its original meaning is then forever lost, but one theme remains.</p>
<p>At its core, the flag is a simple warning – but to whom, and from whom, has clearly changed. Gone is the original intent to unite the states to fight an outside oppressor. Instead, for those who fly it today, the government is the oppressor.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This article was updated Jan. 7, 2021, to include additional information about Christopher Gadsden, the flag’s original designer.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Bruski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We may think of flags as fixed symbols with a specific meaning, but there are few symbols whose significance is truly permanent.Paul Bruski, Associate Professor of Graphic Design, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1472382020-10-21T12:21:43Z2020-10-21T12:21:43Z19th-century political parties kidnapped reluctant voters and printed their own ballots – and that’s why we’ve got laws regulating behavior at polling places<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364016/original/file-20201016-21-19srsci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C28%2C3118%2C2055&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A sign keeping campaigners at a distance in the New Hampshire presidential primary election at the Town Hall in Chichester, New Hampshire, Feb. 9, 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/voters-walks-into-a-polling-station-past-the-poll-distance-news-photo/541820484?adppopup=true">Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Author <a href="https://www.poemuseum.org/who-was-edgar-allan-poe">Edgar Allan Poe</a>, the 19th-century master of American macabre, may have died of dirty politics. According to legend, a gang of party “poll hustlers” kidnapped and drugged him. They forced him to vote, then <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr/vol26/iss3/3/">abandoned him near death</a>. Details are murky, but we do know Poe died in Baltimore days after an election.</p>
<p>The story, though likely untrue, is certainly possible. Election Day in 19th-century America was a loud, raucous, often dangerous event. Political parties would offer food, drink and inducements ranging from offers of bribes to threats of beatings to encourage voters to cast the party’s official ballot.</p>
<p>Reforms at the end of the century – particularly after an <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-vote-that-failed-159427766/">especially dirty 1888 presidential election</a> – aimed to stop the shenanigans, assure the safety of voters and elevate the act of voting. </p>
<p>This is why we now have secret, government-printed ballots rather than party-provided ballots. And all 50 states have laws <a href="https://www.nass.org/resources/2018-election-information/electioneering-boundaries">that ban potentially intimidating behavior</a> at polling places. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men fighting at the polls in 1857" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364020/original/file-20201016-21-1avfuu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elections in the 19th century were sometimes wild affairs; this cartoon is from 1857.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3c18012/">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Vestigial laws?</h2>
<p>The idea behind these laws is to prevent the kind of “poll hustling” to which Poe may have fallen victim. </p>
<p>Party tough guys cannot follow (or drag) helpless voters into the polling place, watching them to make sure they vote the correct ballot with the implicit threat that a “wrong” vote could result in a beating. </p>
<p>These laws generally prohibit campaign activities – wearing campaign paraphernalia, shouting slogans, even loitering inside polling places. Distance requirements for campaigners, ranging from <a href="https://www.pa.gov/guides/voting-and-elections/">10 feet from a polling place in Pennsylvania</a> to <a href="https://www.sos.la.gov/ElectionsAndVoting/Vote/Pages/default.aspx">600 feet away in Louisiana</a>, help to assure that secret ballots are actually cast in secret.</p>
<p>But these vestigial laws meant to purify 19th-century elections may be ill equipped for hyperpartisan 2020. </p>
<p>If voters come to the polls wearing symbols like the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-shifting-symbolism-of-the-gadsden-flag">Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flag</a> that has evolved into an anti-government symbol, a <a href="https://www.history.com/news/how-did-the-rainbow-flag-become-an-lgbt-symbol">rainbow pin</a> associated with gay pride, or even a <a href="https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2020/02/26/spicing-up-the-political-discourse/">sticker from a spice company</a> whose owner detests Trump, those symbols can take on a perceived political meaning. Under these laws, these people could be accused of illegally campaigning where people vote.</p>
<p>How can anti-electioneering laws keep politics out of the polling place when politics already suffuses so much of life? And this year, polling places for many may be the kitchen table or a ballot drop-off box. In that context, do these laws still have relevance?</p>
<h2>‘Purifying’ elections</h2>
<p>Political reformers in the late 1880s <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-vote-that-failed-159427766/">saw elections as too closely tied to party machines and their Election Day carousing</a>. Much of the reform around this time was focused on “cleaning up” politics and destroying the nefarious influence of party machines. </p>
<p>In fact, our current popular understanding of party machines as being universally corrupt and lowbrow might be because “good government” activists won, so <a href="https://www-jstor-org.pitt.idm.oclc.org/stable/2151546?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents">they got to write the history</a> </p>
<p>Yet in 2020, these reforms meant to purify 19th-century elections may not have the effect the authors intended. </p>
<p>For example, a New Hampshire woman <a href="https://www.nbcboston.com/news/politics/decision-2020/nh-woman-votes-topless-over-anti-trump-shirt-dispute-report/2192282/">opted to vote topless</a> in that state’s primary in September after election officials told her that her anti-Trump T-shirt ran afoul of New Hampshire laws forbidding campaigning within a polling place. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364024/original/file-20201016-19-tgjw4b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot of a Penzey's spice company order page for a sticker that says 'I will vote 11.3.20'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364024/original/file-20201016-19-tgjw4b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364024/original/file-20201016-19-tgjw4b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364024/original/file-20201016-19-tgjw4b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364024/original/file-20201016-19-tgjw4b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364024/original/file-20201016-19-tgjw4b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364024/original/file-20201016-19-tgjw4b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364024/original/file-20201016-19-tgjw4b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The owner of the spice company offering this sticker is known for being anti-Trump; will wearing the sticker to the polls count as campaigning?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/i-will-vote-2020-sticker/c-24/p-3182/pd-s">Penzeys</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/electioneering.aspx">10 states</a> currently have laws on the books regulating the kinds of clothing voters can wear to the polling place. </p>
<p>These laws may violate the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition on limits to free speech, but not all have been tested in court. In the 2018 opinion <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/minnesota-voters-alliance-v-mansky/">Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky</a>, the Supreme Court ruled that the state’s laws to create an “orderly and controlled environment” around the polling place were overly vague. A similar lawsuit is underway <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/468593-free-speech-rights-dont-stop-at-the-voting-booth">in Texas</a>.</p>
<p>According to the Minnesota opinion, “a rule whose fair enforcement requires an election judge to maintain a mental index of the platforms and positions of every candidate and party on the ballot is not reasonable.”</p>
<p>Poll workers, then, do not need to keep abreast of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/28/business/fred-perry-proud-boys-intl-scli-gbr/index.html">what a black and yellow polo shirt means</a> or which spice company has engaged in political advocacy.</p>
<p>As early voting continues across the United States, though, more disputes should be expected. <a href="https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-dade-early-voting-black-lives-matter-shirt-causes-stir-11680906">Elections officials in Florida</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/20/memphis-blm-shirt-voters/">and Tennessee</a> have already confirmed that clothing bearing the phrases “Black Lives Matter” and “I can’t breathe” do not constitute illegal electioneering. But an armed and uniformed police officer in a Trump 2020 mask patrolling a Miami polling place <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/21/miami-cop-trump-mask/">likely violated department policy</a>, if not electioneering laws.</p>
<h2>‘Bad things happen in Philadelphia’</h2>
<p>Even so, teasing out what constitutes a “political message” in 2020 seems easy compared with teasing out what constitutes a “polling place” when so many voters will cast their ballots before Election Day.</p>
<p>In the Sept. 29 presidential debate, President Donald Trump warned that <a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/president-donald-trump-bad-things-happen-philadelphia-presidential-debate/">“bad things happen in Philadelphia</a>.” Earlier that week, a paid Republican poll watcher was denied entry into a building that was handling, among other things, voter registration and pickup and drop-off of mail-in ballots. Poll watchers are allowed in Pennsylvania but must follow <a href="https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/whats-a-poll-watcher-everything-you-need-to-know-after-trumps-debate-comments/2549054/">a strict set of rules</a> aimed at distinguishing between watchers protecting the integrity of the election and party toughs intimidating voters as they fill out their ballots.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/trump-campaign-says-it-plans-to-sue-over-poll-watchers-in-philly-satellite-offices/">Trump campaign is suing</a> to be allowed access to the Philadelphia site. But the county Board of Elections argues that ballot pickup and drop-off sites are not polling places, and COVID-19 restrictions preclude people from loitering in public buildings all day. </p>
<p>The state court <a href="https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/decision-2020/judge-rejects-trumps-suit-over-philly-satellite-elections-offices/2559325/">rejected the Trump campaign’s argument</a>, explaining that watchers are allowed only at polling places on Election Day, not Board of Elections offices at other times. The campaign has promised to appeal.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An election worker puts mail-in ballots collected from vehicles in a ballot box" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364555/original/file-20201020-15-fbdhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An election worker puts mail-in ballots collected from vehicles in a ballot box at the Clark County Election Department on Oct. 13 in North Las Vegas, Nevada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/clark-county-election-department-worker-kelley-george-puts-news-photo/1280091056?adppopup=true">Ethan Miller/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How clean is too clean?</h2>
<p>In her 2004 book <a href="https://www.oupress.com/books/9779895/diminished-democracy">“Diminished Democracy</a>,” political scientist <a href="https://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/people/theda-skocpol">Theda Skocpol</a> describes 19th-century reformers as working “for measures that would emphasize an unemotional, educational style of politics.” </p>
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<p>Demanding the protection of the purity of the polling place and politics, Skocpol argues, “treats politics as if it were something dirty and implicitly holds up the ideal of an educated elite safely above and outside of politics.” </p>
<p>Certainly, few Americans would advocate allowing the country’s literary greats – or anyone else – to fall prey to roving political gangs. But determining how to protect the integrity of elections is difficult when elections are everywhere. </p>
<p>And if 2020 is any indication, it may not be as easy as relying on rules meant for a different time, a different means of voting and a different electorate.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect recent incidents regarding the clothing worn at polling places.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147238/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristin Kanthak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Laws that have long kept campaigners away from voters at polling places may not work in a world where a T-shirt symbol can be interpreted as campaigning.Kristin Kanthak, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.