The Republican National Committee and former President Donald Trump's campaign launch new initiative
On Friday, the Republican National Committee and former President Donald Trump's campaign revealed a groundbreaking initiative to dispatch thousands of individuals to oversee vote counting in key battleground states during the upcoming presidential election.
"The RNC is in the process of recruiting hundreds of election integrity personnel across various states - a number that surpasses any previous efforts, as our Party aims to enlist thousands more observers to safeguard the integrity of the vote in 2024," stated Lara Trump, RNC co-chair, in an official statement. "These campaign officials in each state have the crucial responsibility of enlisting, training, and potentially reassigning poll watchers and poll workers on a daily basis."
As part of the initiative, monthly training sessions will be conducted to educate individuals on monitoring voting locations and ballot counting facilities, as per the press release.
The Trump campaign and RNC have dubbed this initiative as "the most comprehensive and monumental election integrity program in the history of the nation."
Every jurisdiction in the country allows individuals to observe, but not disrupt, the voting and counting process, according to David Becker, CBS News election law contributor and the founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
Becker is skeptical that Republicans will be successful in attracting as many volunteers for the initiative as claimed. "Transparency in elections is important," Becker stated. "However, I cannot recall a recent presidential election where there were not promises of recruiting a large number of poll watchers, which never came to fruition."
The initiative was developed by the Trump campaign, in collaboration with newly appointed RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, Lara Trump, and RNC chief counsel Charlie Spies. Prior to his role as RNC chair, Whatley was involved in election integrity efforts as the head of the North Carolina Republican Party.
Trump's decision to appoint Whatley as party chair was influenced by his involvement in these initiatives.
This announcement highlights Trump's push to realign the RNC's focus on election integrity, a task he believed previous party leaders did not achieve during the 2020 election.
Despite Trump's emphasis on the issue, there was no substantial evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Trump is currently facing federal and state charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The Democratic National Committee accused the Trump political operation of attempting to undermine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
"Donald Trump is aware that his campaign is not succeeding, and therefore, he is collaborating with his selected group of election deniers at the RNC to once again establish the foundation to subvert our democratic process and propagate unfounded claims of a rigged election," stated DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd in a media statement.
