The Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Trump campaign have announced their commitment to deploy an army of 100,000 volunteers and lawyers to oversee vote counting in key battleground states. This initiative is part of a heightened focus on “election integrity” by the national party, a move that officials are calling the “most comprehensive and significant election integrity program in the country’s history.”
The program, which was detailed in a press release on Friday and initially reported by Politico, highlights the influence of former President Donald Trump’s persistent emphasis on unfounded election fraud allegations from 2020 on the party’s strategy. As the party’s likely presidential nominee, Trump now holds sway over the RNC and has recently appointed a new chairman, Michael Whatley, and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as party co-chair.
“Ensuring the right people are counting the ballots is as crucial as getting voters to the polls on Election Day,” Trump stated. “Republicans are now uniting to safeguard the vote and secure a significant victory on November 5th!”
The RNC and the Trump campaign have plans to recruit and train poll watchers, poll workers, and attorneys to supervise not only voting sites but also ballot-tabulation centers. This includes locations where mail ballots are processed, to prevent what they term as “Democrat attempts to bypass rules.” The party intends to set up election integrity hotlines in each battleground state, enabling poll watchers and voters to report issues to the GOP’s legal team.
While it’s not uncommon for political parties and candidates to recruit and deploy lawyers and partisan poll watchers to protect their interests during voting and result tallying, some Republican officials have argued that the GOP was outmatched by Democrats on the legal front during the 2020 election. This was a time when communities across the country relaxed voting rules to allow people to vote safely amid the pandemic.
Charlie Spies, a seasoned Republican election lawyer now serving as the RNC’s general counsel, stated, “The Democrat tactics from 2020 won’t work this time.” He added, “In 2024, we’re going to outplay the Democrats at their own game, and the RNC legal team will be working relentlessly to ensure that election officials adhere to the rules in conducting elections.” Spies vowed for aggressive legal action if officials deviate from established election procedures or “attempt to alter them at the eleventh hour.”
The announcement of this new election monitoring program comes as the RNC is involved in numerous election-related lawsuits across the nation.