MAGA Republicans are wreaking havoc against our freedoms in a blatant attempt to control the outcome of elections
Across the country, MAGA Republicans are undermining state and local election administration offices using a number of insidious tactics such as intimidating voters, threatening violence against election officials, and tampering with voting machines. By creating a dangerous and unworkable environment for those just trying to do their jobs and make sure our midterm elections are free and fair, they are targeting our ability to vote directly, threatening all our most fundamental rights.
Donald Trump knew he lost the 2020 election. He and the election deniers set to do his bidding have shown that they will stop at nothing to ensure they have the final say who wins in 2022, 2024 and beyond.
Poll Watchers
Election Officials Are Facing Insider Threats From MAGA Poll Watchers. Election officials across the country are bracing for a surge of MAGA poll watchers signing up to infiltrate election administration offices during the midterm elections this year. Poll watchers have always been an important part of the democratic process. This year, however, Trump ally and former tech CEO Patrick Byrne is recruiting MAGA veterans and former law enforcement officers as poll watchers, mirroring an effort mounted by Trump and former White House official Michael Flynn to mobilize conservative voters using false claims about the 2020 election in order to infiltrate local election offices and harass poll workers. Experts have expressed serious concerns that poll watchers who spread false conspiracy theories could erode trust in the electoral processes by spreading disinformation or violating local regulations.
MAGA Republicans in Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin Are Deploying Partisan Poll Workers To Disrupt the Midterm Elections. In Michigan, Wayne County GOP leaders are training poll workers and partisan observers to ignore local regulations and report any “bad stuff happening” to party officials. Similar efforts have been mounted by Election Integrity Network, True the Vote, Clean Elections USA, and others, along with the Republican National Committee (RNC) in the state. In North Carolina, local elections officials are preparing for a partisan poll watcher presence, including “some trained by a group with ties to 2020 election conspiracies.” In Wisconsin, the RNC has launched a multi-million dollar effort, “to recruit tens of thousands of poll watchers and poll workers and hire dozens of staff to monitor voting” as part of a response to false allegations of election fraud about the 2020 election.
Violence
Threats of Political Violence Against Election Workers Are On The Rise. Underscoring rising concerns among state and local election officials rising about violent confrontations with voters who have embraced widely-debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, election offices have started enrolling in de-escalation training. Having dealt with a steady stream of violent threats, harassment, and intimidation efforts over the past year, officials are integrating heightened security measures with some counties installing cameras, plexiglass barriers, fireproofing, even moving facilities. In Michigan, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said election officials nationwide are most worried about “violence and disruption” as the midterm elections approach, first and foremost. In some states like California, lawmakers have worked to adopt new laws protecting election workers in an attempt to confront the “wave of abuse against election workers.” In other states, inadequate protections have forced some polling precincts to find alternative venues. Some communities have seen an uptick in local schools and churches, which have served as polling centers for decades, declining to host polling precincts this election and opting-out of future election cycles.
Records Requests
MAGA Constituents Are Inundating Election Offices With Millions of Frivolous Records Requests. One of the most widespread concerns voiced by election officials involves the overwhelming wave of records requests that have been submitted in the past several months ahead of the midterm elections. In nearly every state, offices are receiving an extremely high volume of nearly-identical records requests, submitted by election deniers seeking obscure documents known as “cast vote records” in search of evidence that could validate disproven election fraud conspiracy theories. Trump-aligned far-right figures like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell are responsible for circulating these theories, having spent months claiming that cast vote records will reveal widespread election fraud. Consequently, election officials are scrambling to prepare absentee ballots, early voting protocols, and election day logistics – leading many to conclude that these requests are part of a coordinated effort to weaponize requests and deliberately overwhelm offices ahead of the midterm elections.
MAGA Records Requests Are Deliberately Slowing Preparations For The Midterms. The requests have forced some election offices, which often employ fewer than 10 staffers, to spend entire days fulfilling their legal responsibility to respond to each request. Several urban counties in Arizona (Maricopa County), Georgia (Fulton County), Pennsylvania (Allegheny County), and Wisconsin (Dane and Brown counties) have chosen to fully release their cast vote records instead. In spite of this, election offices continue to receive demands for documents, including poll books, spoiled ballots, remade ballots, and voter registration applications. In Pennsylvania, conservative activists led by a right-wing group known as ‘Audit the Vote PA’ have inundated at least 36 county election offices with the requests amid an ongoing effort by the group to limit voting options in several of these counties.
Voter Challenges
Election Deniers Are Challenging Voter Registrations. Election deniers are working in several states to toss-out tens of thousands of voter registrations and ballots as part of a “loosely coordinated campaign” to incite chaos within election offices. Elections officials have warned that the challenges are irrelevant or redundant and create “potentially hundreds of hours of extra work” for short-staffed county offices. In Georgia, MAGA groups (including one led by Michael Flynn and Patrick Byrne) have taken advantage of a new law allowing anyone to submit an unlimited number of challenges to voters’ eligibility, submitting more than 64,000 voter registration challenges in at least nine counties statewide, including Atlanta-based Fulton, Gwinnett, and DeKalb counties as well as Savannah-based Chatham County. In Gwinnett, more than two-thirds of the requests have been rejected or withdrawn. The voter challenges have swamped local election officials, many of whom are concerned that the challenges are part of an intentional ploy to destabilize urban election offices. The new Georgia election law also allows the state to take over local elections boards, sparking fears among clerks that lengthy response times or longer lines on Election Day could trigger a state takeover.
Voter Intimidation Canvassing And Dropbox Monitoring
MAGA Organizers Are Perpetrating Voter Intimidation Through Canvassing and Dropbox Monitoring Programs. Election deniers have taken it upon themselves to verify voter registration, launching an active canvassing effort in at least 11 states. Conspiratorial groups are going door-to-door in search of so-called “anomalies” on state voter rolls, asking voters to divulge intrusive personal information and spreading misinformation by suggesting that there could be ballot issues. The Department of Justice has joined voting rights experts in expressing concern that the efforts amount to illegal voter intimidation. Other groups have been motivated by falsehoods about voter fraud to organize vigilante “stakeouts” at ballot drop boxes. In Michigan, election administrators are similarly sounding the alarm that far-right organizers are preparing round-the-clock “drop box monitors” to be stationed around the state in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections.
Lawsuits
MAGA Lawsuits Are Working To Interfere With Local Voting Systems. MAGA Republicans are working to slow down the electoral process through a slate of anti-democratic lawsuits aiming to interfere with local voting systems ahead of the midterm elections. In Pennsylvania, lawsuits in numerous counties have prevented election workers from preparing for Election Day, which could lead to delayed results and open the door to widespread misinformation and distrust in election results. In Lehigh County, the America First Legal Foundation (founded by Trump White House officials Steven Miller and Mark Meadows) spearheaded a lawsuit asking to prohibit the county from using ballot drop boxes unless the boxes are physically monitored. Less than two weeks later, the group filed a similarly-worded lawsuit in Chester County. In Michigan, a local clerk who allowed a MAGA cybersecurity firm to remove a ballot tabulator after the 2020 election is leading a lawsuit against the state, seeking to overturn the election results nearly two years after-the-fact. In next-door Wisconsin, election deniers are suing to challenge the use of a federal voter registration form in the state.
Voting Machines and Data Breaches
MAGA Voting Machine Tampering Incidents and Data Breaches Have Compromised Election Security. Illegal voting machine breaches have raised concerns about the security of local election systems. Election deniers in several states are under investigation for tampering with election equipment, and data breaches have led to the public release of sensitive voting system passwords, confidential voting software, and even precinct server data. There is growing concern among cybersecurity experts that rogue election workers could use knowledge gained from the breaches to take advantage of proximity to secure election equipment and launch attacks from within election offices. In Michigan, local far-right figures are encouraging partisan poll workers to unplug election equipment and frustrate processing, which could lead to lengthy wait times and extended counting periods. A poll worker has been charged with breaching an election computer, highlighting the very real possibility of insider cybersecurity threats to election administration. To make matters worse, a national MAGA coalition has launched a campaign pressuring local election directors to commit to hand recounts after Election Day in November. In Nevada, Nye County has committed to hand-counting all future elections, citing debunked election fraud claims about voting machines. Voting rights experts have said that hand-counts are “incredibly expensive, burdensome, and time-consuming.” In Pennsylvania, election-denying MAGA groups are trying to stop the use of electronic voting machines in at least 16 counties across the states.
