Trump campaign says it will deploy thousands of election workers to monitor poll sites [View all]

Source: Politico

04/19/2024 05:00 AM EDT


Former President Donald Trump’s political operation said Thursday that it plans to deploy more than 100,000 attorneys and volunteers across battleground states to monitor — and potentially challenge — vote counting in November. The initiative — which the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee described as “the most extensive and monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history” — will include training poll watchers and workers as well as lawyers.

The program underscores Trump’s ongoing fixation with election security, which he deployed in an attempt to undermine the results of the 2020 election despite the widespread conclusion, even among Republican officials, that there was no widespread fraud. Trump has warned supporters, without evidence, that Democrats could try to rig the 2024 election. Trump made the same false claims about the 2020 election, which he unsuccessfully tried to overturn.

Trump has privately complained that his political apparatus was not adequately prepared for the legal battles in the 2020 election. He has made clear to advisers that he would like a more robust effort to be able to challenge election results as needed. It’s also a sign that, should Trump once again attempt to overturn the election, he will already have in place tens of thousands of workers who could help with that effort.

In a statement, Trump said, “Having the right people to count the ballots is just as important as turning out voters on Election Day.” According to the announcement, the Trump operation plans to deploy lawyers to monitor voter machine testing, early voting, election day voting, mail ballot processing and post-election canvassing, auditing and recounts. The campaign also plans to station lawyers at mail-in voting processing centers and set up a hotline that poll watchers and voters can use to report problems.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/19/trump-campaign-election-monitoring-00153217