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Violence in the "state's monopoly on violence" sense of the word. If the state is physically preventing you from doing something you are otherwise physically capable of doing, that is the state exercising said monopoly. Were the state to do that, we would likely see real violence afterwards.
If the state is merely making it harder to get to polling stations, well, they already do that. Here's a sensationalized news story about how the right is making it harder for minorities to vote by selectively closing polling stations. In actuality, I'm quite sure that both sides do this when they have control over where to place polling stations. That's the nature of politics. Anything that hasn't specifically been banned is in play.
This seems like an exception that swallows the rule. Suppose that instead of the police blocking the streets, it was conservative protestors riled up over reports of voting irregarities. The police arrest people getting violent but otherwise do nothing. Is this still just the nature of politics?
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If that was the case, these tactics would be announced loudly and proudly, not done under the veil of plausible deniability.
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