Far-right groups are increasing their efforts to possibly interfere in the upcoming November's elections.
According to a recent report in Wired, several groups associated with former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee are already coordinating on a local level to encourage supporters to monitor polling places and ballot drop boxes, and potentially intimidate voters and election officials. More than one group is also using technology to challenge voter registrations and remove those considered ineligible.
Right-wing activist Catherine Engelbrecht has been spreading untrue information and conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud since at least 2010, when she founded her group True the Vote. The group has started hosting webinars on “election integrity” ahead of the 2024 presidential election, teaching supporters how to monitor polls and check voter rolls.
The group is also planning to launch a new version of its IV3 software tool, which is designed to allow users to question voter registrations anywhere in the country by comparing information on voter rolls to a U.S. Postal Service database. However, Wired reported in 2022 that the software used unreliable data to challenge hundreds of thousands of voter registrations.
Georgia-based firm EagleAI NETwork has also developed a database of voter information intended to “fast-track” the removal of “ineligible” voters, and at least one Georgia county has agreed to use it. According to Wired, voting rights groups caution that minor errors in the voter information collected by EagleAI can result in eligible voters being disenfranchised.
Election conspiracy theorist and former Trump advisor Cleta Mitchell is one of EagleAI’s main supporters, and her Election Integrity Network has also hosted election monitoring seminars both in-person and online. Its “Soles to the Rolls” initiative aims to increase challenges to voter registration, Wired reports.
Former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn’s group, America Project, also recently hosted a webinar apparently aimed at providing attendees with “the secrets to reclaiming our power and reshaping history” using “state-of-the-art election tools.” Christina Bobb, a former Trump lawyer, far-right TV personality, and prominent 2020 election denier who was recently appointed to run the RNC’s “election integrity unit,” was scheduled to appear at the America Project’s webinar, and the group has stated she will be involved in future sessions.
As Wired notes, Bobb’s involvement indicates how closely connected groups like America Project have become in the Republican National Committee (RNC). An internal memo obtained by NPR unveiled that under Bobb, the RNC’s election integrity priorities include “a broader effort over the coming months to [legally] challenge voter identification and signature verification rules which were put into place for the 2020 election.”
Andrew Garber of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Voting Rights and Elections Program stated that groups like America Project and True the Vote “are attempting to establish the groundwork to potentially make later claims about the election that very well may be false.”
Garber said that creating more chaos could give more material to disinformation spreaders. WiredChallenging a large number of voters could lead to eligible voters being removed from the rolls and give election conspiracy theorists something to support their claims of voter fraud, adding to misinformation and distrust of elections.
According to Garber, it's not only the presidential election that we should be concerned about.
Garber mentioned that these groups have a strategy that they use nationally and then implement at the local level, affecting local voters and election officials.
