The Republican National Committee and former President Donald Trump’s campaign announced a new initiative Friday to deploy thousands of people to monitor vote counting in battleground states during the presidential election.
The Republican Party aims to recruit 100,000 volunteers to observe the voting process and report irregularities, as well as lawyers to provide rapid response services if there are problems counting votes.
“The RNC is hiring hundreds of election integrity officers around the world – more than ever before as our party will recruit thousands of additional observers to protect the 2024 election,” Lara Trump, co-chair of the RNC, said in a press release. “These campaign officials in states are tasked with recruiting, training and, where possible, rotating poll workers and poll watchers day in and day out.”
The operation plans to set up an “Election Integrity Hotline” in each battleground state and create a command center where advocates can respond to reports from volunteers.
There will also be monthly training sessions on monitoring polling locations and ballot counting centers, according to the release.
The Trump campaign and RNC call it “the most comprehensive and monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history.”
In every jurisdiction in the country, people can observe but not interfere with the voting and counting process, said David Becker, a CBS News contributor and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
Becker doubts Republicans will be able to attract as many volunteers for the effort as billed. “Electoral transparency is a good thing,” Becker said. “But I can’t remember a single presidential election in recent history where there weren’t promises to recruit an army of thousands of poll workers, and those never materialized.”
The program was designed by the Trump campaign, along with newly installed RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, Lara Trump and RNC Chief Advisor Charlie Spies. Before Trump selected him as RNC chairman, Whatley worked on election integrity initiatives as chairman of the Republican Party of North Carolina.
His history with these efforts was a motivating factor for Trump when he selected him to succeed Ronna McDaniel as party chair.
The announcement underscores the former president’s attempt to refocus the RNC on election integrity, something Trump said previous party leaders failed to do during the 2020 election.
Despite Trump’s focus on the issue, there was no evidence of widespread fraud during the 2020 election. Trump is currently facing federal and state charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The Democratic National Committee accused Trump’s political operation of undermining the results of the 2024 presidential election.
“Donald Trump knows he is running a losing campaign, so he is working with his hand-picked team of election deniers at the RNC to once again lay the groundwork to undermine our democracy and spread baseless lies about a rigged election,” said Alex Floyd, director of DNC Rapid Response. in a press release.
