In North Carolina, Trump and his allies are following the Election Denier Playbook, rejecting the election results before Election Day. First, Trump Republicans are making it harder for people to vote and falsely discrediting election officials. These election deniers are calling on their MAGA constituents to harass election workers, spreading conspiracies about voting irregularities, and even committing violence to protect the election outcomes they want. North Carolina voters believe that for democracy to work for all of us, it must include all of us. We must come together to turn out as voters and ensure we choose who represents us.
Step 1: Undermine the Will of Voters By Amplifying False Allegations of Voting Irregularities, Fraud, and Wild Conspiracy Theories.
Trump and his allies are trying to convince North Carolina voters that any Republican losses are illegitimate or fraudulent by default. Local Republicans have continued to embrace blatant lies about elections well into the midterm election cycle, embracing dozens of election deniers in an effort to diminish public confidence in the system’s ability to reflect the will of voters. In response, the North Carolina State Elections Board has been forced to issue a warning to voters about receiving mailers claiming to show confidential voting records. North Carolina MAGA Republicans’ commitment to Trump’s election conspiracies demonstrates that they have no plans to stand in the way of his efforts to undermine the electoral process in North Carolina.
Step 2: Make False Claims About Election Security And Demand Changes That Limit Ballot Access.
Trump-aligned figures are relentlessly targeting North Carolina’s voting infrastructure, claiming without evidence that the process is ripe for fraud. The North Carolina GOP is working tirelessly to prevent easy access to voting, demanding changes to the rules of mail-in voting like erasing voters from the state’s voter rolls and seizing voting machines. If they win a supermajority of the state legislature, they have indicated that voting restrictions will reportedly be a top priority. Further, these MAGA Republicans have continued to defend court-suspended voter ID restrictions that were struck down for racial discrimination in an effort to limit unfavorable turnout. Trump and his allies are already working to delegitimize local election officials – including Rep. Ted Budd, who has released proposals to manipulate future elections by forcing local officials to provide fewer options for collecting ballots and requiring harsh ‘signature verification’ on all ballots.
These efforts are designed to damage the credibility of our democratic institutions and undermine trust in the electoral process. By making false claims about absentee ballots, election deniers are pushing changes to the election system that would make it much more difficult to vote in North Carolina.
Step 3: Discredit Election Officials, Especially in Areas of High Voter Turnout.
Trump Republicans are working to delegitimize election processes throughout North Carolina, particularly in areas with high turnout against their candidates. In November 2020, local GOP officials organized news conferences and protests outside of elections offices in Raleigh and Charlotte—even as tens of thousands of ballots had not been fully counted. This year, these election deniers continue to deceive voters by insisting that local election officials are not credible. The “America First P.A.C.T,” chaired by January 6th conspirator Kelli Ward, is calling for audits after every election in the state. These MAGA efforts are part of a larger movement of conspiracists working to discredit the state’s electoral processes as early voting surges in North Carolina.
Step 4: Train Supporters To Become Election Officials and Call on Supporters to Threaten Election Officials and Harass Voters.
MAGA Republicans are fueling a wave of harassment and threats of violence directed at poll workers and officials in the weeks ahead of the midterms. Following in Trump’s footsteps, MAGA groups are targeting state and local election administrators, pushing for an increased partisan poll watcher presence, and inundating election offices with waves of identical records requests. Trump ally Cleta Mitchell is leading an effort across North Carolina to recruit poll workers and observers from a network of grass-root groups that promote misinformation and espouse outlandish theories about the 2020 election. In response to threats of violence against poll workers, the North Carolina State Board of Elections attempted to adopt new rules with heightened security precautions for poll workers, but Mitchell successfully convinced the commission to block the proposed safety poll worker protections.
Trump and his allies have spent months organizing a well-coordinated network of election deniers to threaten voters and election officials who refuse to go along with their plans – and the threats have only intensified.
Step 5: Reject the Results, Spread Lies About Election Fraud, and Intimidate Voters During the Election.
For months, Trump and MAGA Republicans in North Carolina have been laying the groundwork to declare that unfavorable election results are supposedly rigged. Trump and his allies are already refusing to accept the results, spreading lies about election security, discrediting North Carolina election officials, and calling on their supporters to harass election administrators with threats of violence. As we draw closer to Election Day, they will only continue working to undermine the will of American voters.
