Intensive training for Republican election observers sparks debate over voter safety and intimidation

WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Republican Party has trained thousands of observers to ensure “safe” voting on Election Day. However, Democrats are increasingly concerned that it could lead to intimidation of voters and poll workers.

Jim Womack, chairman of the local Republican Party in North Carolina, urged volunteers to be aggressive and persistent to ensure a quality presidential election.

He told Reuters he teaches volunteers how to recognize nefarious activities.

“You are the eyes and ears, you are the people who can make sure that all the rules are followed,” he told the volunteers.

There is no doubt that exploiting legal loopholes and rigging elections come from the left.

It is only part of a large-scale operation by the Republican National Committee.

“We have trained 230,000 people in this country to do this job. That means in every battleground state, Sean, 5,000 people are working or watching at the polls. This means that 500 lawyers will be on the ground every time the votes are counted. We want to be looked at,” explained Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Convention. “We don’t want any American to feel like their vote doesn’t matter and their vote doesn’t count.”

The Nevada Independent Republican poll watchers are asking to fill out checklist including ensuring that polling stations close on time and that voting machines are sufficiently secure and not connected to the Internet, even though observers are legally barred from receiving much of this information.

Democrats say the tactic is intimidating.

“It’s a deliberate strategy by the RNC to sow chaos in this election,” Stacey Abrams, founder of the New Georgia Project & Fair Fight Action, said in an interview with CNN. “We have seen the criminalization of election workers by Republicans. And so we cannot treat this year in the same way as 2020, because strategies have been deliberately adopted to weaken not only the credibility but also the electoral infrastructure.”

AND a new Pew Research survey found that most voters are confident in their local polling stations and that the elections will go well. However, only 57% of Trump supporters are confident the election will go well, compared to 90% of Harris supporters.