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From: Screwed <screwed@scotus.com>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections,alt.politics.trump,talk.politics.guns,talk.politics.misc,alt.society.liberalism
Subject: The RNC is launching a massive effort to monitor voting. Cheaters say it threatens to undermine trust
Followup-To: talk.politics.guns,talk.politics.misc
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2024 07:07:49 -0000 (UTC)
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BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (AP) — The Republican National Committee on Friday 
launched a swing state initiative to mobilize thousands of polling place 
monitors, poll workers and attorneys to serve as “election integrity” 
watchdogs in November — an effort that immediately drew concerns that it 
could lead to harassment of election workers and undermine trust in the 
vote.

The RNC says its plan will help voters have faith in the electoral process 
and ensure their votes matter. Yet, as former President Donald Trump and 
his allies continue to spread false claims that the 2020 election was 
marred by widespread fraud, the effort also sets the stage for a repeat of 
Trump’s efforts to undermine the results — a gambit that ultimately led to 
the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump allies already have signaled that they might not accept the results 
if he loses to President Joe Biden.

The RNC has said its new effort will focus on stopping “Democrat attempts 
to circumvent the rules.” The party will deploy monitors to observe every 
step of the election process, create hotlines for poll watchers to report 
perceived problems and escalate those issues by taking legal action.

The national party says it hopes to recruit 100,000 volunteers — a number 
some election experts have said would be difficult to achieve even in a 
high-profile presidential election year.

RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said Friday that the committee will place 
election integrity directors in 15 states, including the most hotly 
contested battlegrounds, and work with state parties to set up similar 
programs in the other states.

“What we need to ensure is integrity in our electoral process,” RNC Co-
chair Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, said during the 
kickoff event in Bloomfield Hills, in a suburban county that is crucial 
for winning Michigan. “We can never go back and repeat 2020, but we can 
learn the lessons from 2020.”

She said most of the RNC is currently focused on the committee’s election 
integrity program, which she called “one of its kind.”

Both parties have a long history of organizing supporters to serve as poll 
monitors, and the Democratic National Committee said it plans its own 
volunteer recruitment effort. Several election officials in presidential 
swing states said they feel this kind of transparency and engagement is 
one of the best ways to help skeptics feel confident in the many 
safeguards baked into the election process.

Yet the language surrounding the RNC’s effort and how it’s being 
implemented could present broader concerns should it evolve beyond normal 
political party organizing, said David Becker, a former U.S. Justice 
Department lawyer who serves as executive director of the Center for 
Election Innovation and Research.

“To do it in a way that feeds your voters with the idea that the election 
is going to be stolen, that prepares them to be angry if their candidate 
loses — that can be very dangerous,” Becker said.

Trump pushed false claims of election fraud in 2016 and 2020 and has 
continued to predict a rigged election if he loses this year. During a 
rally in Las Vegas on Sunday, he said of Democrats, “The only way they can 
beat us is to cheat.”

“Don’t let them cheat,” he said. “Don’t let them do anything.”

RNC leadership — which Trump handpicked in a major overhaul of the 
committee earlier this year — has followed his lead in forecasting the 
potential for foul play in this year’s election. Lara Trump qualified her 
answer on CNN earlier this month when asked if she’d accept the results.

“I can tell you, yes, we will accept the results of this election if we 
feel that it is free, fair and transparent,” she said. “And we are working 
overtime to ensure that indeed that happens.”

Asked Friday whether the committee planned to challenge the election 
certification process in any swing states Trump might narrowly lose, 
Whatley said, “We’re not going to cross any of those bridges right now.”

For decades, the RNC was limited in its ability to coordinate poll 
watching and other election integrity activities by a federal court 
consent decree established to stop Republican-backed voter intimidation 
efforts. The decree was lifted in 2018.

The launch of the RNC initiative comes as the GOP faces a significant 
disadvantage compared to Democrats in traditional political infrastructure 
on the ground in key states, such as campaign offices, community centers 
and canvassers. Biden’s campaign and his allies on the Democratic National 
Committee have opened hundreds of campaign offices nationwide, while 
Republican officials in many cases are still waiting for the Trump 
campaign and the RNC to engage.

DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd said the DNC, “alongside our partners at the 
state and local level, won’t let MAGA Republicans get away with these 
baseless attacks on our democracy, and we will continue to use every tool 
at our disposal to ensure that all Americans can make their voice heard at 
the ballot box.”

The RNC’s kickoff event took place at the headquarters of the Oakland 
County GOP, one of Michigan’s most influential local parties. Oakland 
County is an affluent Detroit suburb that for decades was one of 
Michigan’s premier bellwether counties.

While the county holds the largest number of Republican voters in the 
state, it has shifted increasingly Democratic in recent years, and Donald 
Trump has lost the county in both of his previous campaigns.

The RNC has focused many of its challenges ahead of the election in 
Michigan, a state Trump narrowly won in 2016 but lost to Biden in 2020. A 
review by Republican lawmakers found there was no widespread fraud in that 
year’s election and that Biden legitimately won the state. That aligns 
with reviews, recounts and audits in the other battleground states where 
Trump disputed his loss, all of which affirmed Biden’s victory.

Despite those facts, conspiracy theories about voting and election fraud 
erupted in Detroit, the state’s most populous city, when poll watchers and 
challengers grew confrontational at the city’s downtown convention center 
where ballots were brought and counted.

On Friday, Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey called that behavior 
unacceptable four years ago and said there won’t be a repeat this year.

“You weren’t successful when we didn’t expect you in 2020. Now that we 
expect you, well, I’m not concerned at all,” she told the AP on Friday. 
“Detroiters don’t play. We’re tired of being picked on.”

She said the state’s new law allowing one poll watcher per eight poll 
workers will be enforced by federal agents and state and local law 
enforcement.

After Friday’s kickoff in Michigan, the RNC’s “Protect Your Vote” tour 
will hold events in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, with more 
battleground state visits to follow.

Democrats and their allies in those states questioned Republicans’ 
motives, pointing out that their repeated lies about elections have been a 
driving force in undermining public trust.

North Carolina state Rep. Allison Dahle, the ranking Democrat on the House 
election law committee, said Republicans in her state should have focused 
on giving more resources to the State Board of Elections, including hiring 
staff, if they were so concerned about discouraging fraud.

“Voters would have more confidence in elections if Republicans stopped 
lying about them,” said Adam Bonin, a Philadelphia-based lawyer who has 
represented the Democratic Party and its candidates in high-profile 
election cases.

https://apnews.com/article/rnc-election-monitoring-trump-republicans-
voter-fraud-997947656e0b5d5d16cc4353bd726452