“We all know what happened in Detroit”
Another army of poll watchers will be heading to Detroit and other cities around the country this fall.
The RNC has long refused to share what it taught to pollsters behind closed doors, but NBC News obtained a recording from a training session in August, providing a window into the tools it provides to hundreds of supporters.
“Having Republican staffers and challengers in these places is a huge obstacle,” Ray, the RNC’s director of election integrity in Michigan, told volunteers at a training session. “Having our people in these places is a huge obstacle.”
The slides briefly explained the election process and state election laws before describing how to challenge voters, their ballots, and the counting process. “Your No. 1 function is to monitor elections to make sure proper voting procedures are followed,” Ray said.
Some of the advice was concrete and specific: Make sure the tabulators are at zero at the start of the day and voter IDs are checked, Ray advised. Challenge all voters who voted in person who want to vote in person but are no longer in the poll book.
From there, the guidance became more vague: Pollsters can challenge a voter if they have “reasonable cause” to believe the voter is not a citizen or under 18, registered, or does not live where the voter is registered. to vote, Ray said. He suggested using the acronym “CARN” to help voters remember the categories of citizenship, age, residence and unregistered.
While attendees cited baseless claims of fraud in 2020, such as voting machines being programmed to steal votes or thousands of mail-in ballots appearing fraudulent, Ray offered no details on what those “reasonable” reasons might be. The only caveat of the training session was that the survey observers obey the law, be courteous, and not make defamatory accusations of fraud.
The RNC plans to target Ann Arbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Muskegon and Warren, Ray said, listing Michigan cities with significant Democratic populations.
“If you’re comfortable in those places, of course you’re needed there,” he said.
The RNC uses right-wing celebrities to recruit volunteers, such as Arizona Senate candidate Jack Posobiec, known for spreading the false “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory. Lake Kariprominent election denier.
“We have to keep our eyeballs system-wide, and we know why,” Lake said at an August practice.
The RNC isn’t the only organization training pollsters and activists in Michigan: The Election Integrity Foundation and Power, which sent many volunteers to the TCF Center in 2020, also host training sessions that give battle scripts to eager participants.
In a video of an Election Integrity Foundation and Force training session obtained by NBC News in July, organizers offered a suggested scenario for opponents dealing with election workers who “deceived” them: “I believe you have not met your legal obligation to correct this problem. , which exposes you to criminal prosecution unless corrected.”
The organization’s executive director, Sandy Kiesel, confirmed in a text message that the volunteers are being trained.
“The foundation of a free and fair democracy is that citizens fulfill their civic duty to participate in poll inspectors, poll takers and other monitoring duties,” he said.
Michigan conservatives have spent the past two years organizing around election issues, said Cleta Mitchell, a former Trump campaign lawyer. Activists have started amateur voter registration programs, including voter lists Mitchell related EagleAIit can be used to challenge voter eligibility based on public records, even as experts warn the data is inadequate to make such judgments.
“If we want to save our elections and save our country, we have to get involved. We can’t just be angry about it. We have to get our hands dirty” Mitchell said On “The Tudor Dixon Podcast” in June.
At an August RNC training session, an attendee asked what would happen if the events at the TCF Center happened again. Ray’s response was cautious.
“There’s a lot of misinformation about Detroit. We all know what happened in Detroit in 2020, right? There was complete chaos. There really wasn’t a government program in place. So people, you know, when they saw the whole thing, they either didn’t understand the process, they didn’t know who to report to, it was kind of a hot mess,” he said.
The party organized during the 2022 midterm elections before returning to the mission and said it does not have the same problems.
“Am I here to say it won’t happen again?” he said. “No, because you know, it can do a lot.”