Pro-Trump poll watchers are poised for action on Election Day in a key state

Tim Reid

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Reuters) – As election workers in the Milwaukee area began counting mail-in ballots, activists who support Donald Trump’s claim that his 2020 defeat was a fraud began challenging every ballot.

Observers raised a number of complaints as poll workers read out the names and addresses of absentees, as required in Wisconsin, according to local election officials who said activists were trying to intimidate volunteers.

The issues included objections that workers spoke too quietly, that the envelopes did not contain a signed form from a voter certifying they were being asked to vote, and even an ink scratch, officials said, adding that the glitch caused long delays.

The scene at a Glendale school on July 2 in the Democratic primary for the state Senate seat played out similarly at two other polling places in the city and at Milwaukee’s central ballot counting site, with total votes tallied. at least nine observers acting in concert, according to election officials in the battleground state.

“Mail-in ballots are not secure,” said Harry Waite, one of three observers at Glendale City Hall, adding that he and his colleagues did not try to intimidate anyone and sat quietly as the votes were counted.

“The whole system is fraudulent.”

Many local officials fear that the activists’ action at the polling stations, however limited, was just a rehearsal for a much larger event on November 5, when Republican Trump will face Democrat Kamala Harris in the race for the White House.

“It was an absolutely no-win general election race,” Democratic Glendale Mayor Brian Kennedy told Reuters, adding that poll workers called police to two polling stations and ordered two observers to leave when ballot challenges were determined to be without merit. .

“They challenged every absentee vote for any reason they could come up with out of thin air,” Kennedy said.

In the days leading up to the presidential election, opinion polls show the election is on a knife’s edge, and there are few key seats like Wisconsin.

Kennedy and four other election commission officials interviewed by Reuters – three Democrats and one Republican – warned that a wider recount could cause disruptions and delays in the mailing of results in the key state, which was won by Democratic President Joe Biden. mustache in 2020.

Warren Dugan, the chief inspector of school elections in Glendale in July, said he had to suspend the counting of votes for 90 minutes while local officials advised how to respond to calls by observers to each ballot.

“If something like this happens next week during the general election, it’s going to be very difficult to get through.”

Wait — the former head of HOT (honest, open, transparent) government, the grassroots group that supports Trump’s baseless claims that mail-in ballots are rife with fraud, which U.S. Election Security officials say are untrue.

Waite and Jefferson Davis, who heads another grassroots organization questioning the 2020 results, the Wisconsin Select Committee for a Full Forensic Physical Cyber ​​Audit, told Reuters they were working with like-minded groups to jointly deploy up to 1,500 election observers. polling stations and count the votes. centers across the state on November 5, and to monitor and videotape the ballot boxes until then.

Reuters could not independently confirm the figures. Waite and Davis, 66, work independently of each other.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Wisconsin Republican Party said they had trained more than 5,000 election observers in the state, adding that their goal was to ensure the integrity and efficiency of the voting process.

Activists will particularly focus on mail-in ballots, watching for non-U.S. citizens registering to vote, college students who haven’t been in Wisconsin long enough to be eligible and people without ID, Davis said. with a photo. He said he was working within the law and observers associated with his group would not cause problems.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party officials told Reuters they were mobilizing tens of thousands of volunteers for “voter protection” roles in key states to combat “MAGA Republican attacks on our democracy.”

“We are committed to advocating for all eligible voters to get to the ballot box,” said Alex Floyd, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

Wisconsin election officials are taking the activists’ plans seriously. They told Reuters that there would be extra security at polling stations compared to the 2020 election. This includes the presence of undercover police at some polling stations, additional law enforcement on the ground, and street closures.

“THE CHARACTER OF THE ELECTIONS IS GENERAL”

Poll watchers, who monitor the casting and counting of votes at the polls, have been a feature of American elections for decades.

Andrew Garber, an adviser to the voting rights and elections group at New York University’s nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, said the big difference this time is that many pro-Republican observers belong to groups that suspect widespread election fraud. 2020, so may arrive ready to spot problems.

“These poll watchers can scare people, create bad voting experiences that discourage people from voting in the future, and can be a source of misinformation that ultimately undermines people’s confidence in our elections,” Garber said.

Jay Stone, the chairman of HOT, told Reuters his group was being unfairly shamed by Wisconsin Elections officials, who he said made false claims about disorderly conduct at polling stations because they did not want election observers to exercise their legal rights to appeal absentee coupons. .

“The very nature of elections is competitive,” he added in an interview at his home in Pleasant Prairie, about 40 miles from Milwaukee. “Why should ballot entry and counting be anything other than competitive?”

According to Waite and Davis, pro-Republican watchdog groups are focusing on polling places in five “hot spots,” including the cities of Milwaukee and Madison. These locations were at the center of Trump’s claims of fraud in Wisconsin in 2020.

Wait, Stone and others say mail-in ballots should be returned with a signed form from the voter certifying that they applied for their ballot, otherwise one voter could apply for multiple ballots or ask someone else to do so.

The Wisconsin Board of Elections has dismissed such scenarios, saying it has designed mail-in envelopes that require voters to sign along with a witness that they have filed to vote.

Wisconsin GOP Representative Matt Fisher said Davis helped “recruit and send volunteers,” adding that the party had not spoken to Waite.

Russ Otten, chairman of the Sheboygan County Republican Party in Wisconsin, called Waite a “phenomenal man,” adding, “Harry has been fighting for the truth for years.”

GUILLOTINE THE FIRE OF DIVINATION

Under Wisconsin law, unlike most of the seven battleground states, observers do not need to be affiliated with a party, have training or any certification.

George Christenson, a Democrat and Milwaukee County Clerk, the district’s top official, said police will be able to respond to problems at polling places in all 10 cities and 9 villages in the county.

“If it becomes egregious, disruptive, disrespectful or even violent, law enforcement will be ready,” he said. He added that the district attorney also has an “election integrity team” ready to respond to fraudulent ballot audits.

Ann Jacobs, a Democrat and chairman of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said poll workers have been told to be extra vigilant for signs of trouble.

“These observers can be at an arm’s length from the workers of the precincts. There’s a guy who literally stares at you while writing down your name. It’s scary,” she said. “Their goal is to convince people that the election is being stolen.”

“Continuous threats against election officials are a stain on our democracy,” Jacobs added. “This concerns Mr. Waite.”

Earlier this month, Waite posted a French Revolution photo of someone being guillotined on social media and suggested Jacobs would suffer the same fate. He defended the post as a legitimate expression of free speech.

Jacobs declined to say what action was taken against Waite, although she called him “very dangerous.”

“When people post pictures suggesting that I should be killed, the appropriate authorities are contacted and the threat is looked into,” she said.

(Reporting by Tim Reid Editing by Ross Colvin and Pravin Char)