Former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party announced a new program to supposedly “safeguard the integrity of the electoral process” by recruiting 100,000 people to serve as election workers and therefore “ensure a big win” in November.
In a Friday news release, the Republican National Committee and Trump’s campaign said they will deploy volunteers and attorneys to battleground states to observe and report irregularities during voting and the ballot-counting process. The RNC will also launch litigation efforts “every time election officials are breaking the law,” it said.
“Having the right people to count the ballots is just as important as turning out voters on Election Day,” Trump said in the statement. “Republicans are now working together to protect the vote and ensure a big win on November 5th!”
Poll watchers are typically appointed by political parties to ensure that the process is carried out fairly. They can report concerns to authorities and party officials, but they are not allowed to interfere in the electoral process, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.
But one has to wonder what Trump, whose efforts to subvert the 2020 election results landed him and his allies in a mountain of legal trouble, means by having the “right people” to count ballots. After all, his lies about ballot tampering in 2020 led to election workers being doxxed and intimidated, and election workers have reported a barrage of violent threats against them in the years since.
Meanwhile, the former president has continued to fearmonger about the security of the November election, even using apocalyptic language to warn of another potential loss.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com