‘Army for Trump’: Connecticut Republicans ask for volunteers
Following White House lead, team tasked with monitoring the polls
As the Republican National Committee recruits a volunteer army to monitor voting machines, check voter IDs and possibly issue challenges in battleground states, the Connecticut GOP is actively growing its own Election Day operation.
“Our goal is to cover every polling place in our state with smart and trusted volunteers like you!” Connecticut Republican Party chairman J.R. Romano wrote in an email to party members. “JOIN the EDO [Election Day Operation] Army For Trump NOW to get started and one of our team members will contact you with more information.”
The goal of the GOP’s Election Day strategy, the email states, is to “ensure that everyone who is legally entitled to vote has the opportunity to vote, ONCE! ... Democrats will be up to their old tricks to stop President Trump from being re-elected! With your help, we can ensure they don’t succeed!”
As more voters turn to absentee ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic, the email reflects President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud and misgivings about the integrity of election results.
On Thursday, alluding to the discovery of nine potentially mishandled military ballots in rural Pennsylvania, Trump referenced “thousands and thousands of ballots being thrown into rivers” in an interview with Fox
Business Network reporter Maria Bartiromo.
Trump has also repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Nov. 3 election, including during his presidential debate with Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Last month, Trumptold a reporter last month who asked if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the election — one of the most basic principles of American democracy — ”we’ll have to see what happens.”
The Republican National Committee’s nationwide Election Day operation, meanwhile, has been massive, with more than 20 full-time staffers aggressively planning, recruiting volunteers and surveying polling locations in swing states, according to a Politico story.
The New York Times has reported that Justin Clark, a lawyer for the Trump campaign and a former Republican campaign operative in Connecticut, has said that they plan to “leverage about 50,000 volunteers all the way through, from early voting through Election Day, to be able to watch the polls.”
RomanosaidtheConnecticut RepublicanParty hassent similar volunteer recruiting emails in previous elections. But the surge in absentee voting this year demandsthat the party step up its efforts. “Fifty percent of ballots are going to be cast by absentee this year,” Romano said. “My father, who was a recovering alcoholic, used to say to me: I didn’t always get in trouble when I was drunk, but whenever I did get in trouble, I was drunk. The same could be said of absentee ballots: Fraud doesn’t always happen in every election, but when it does, it’s through the mail.”
Romano pointed out that U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy’s 2019 absentee ballot in the municipal election wasn’t counted because he was deemed an “inactive voter” by the registrar.
“If a United States senator from this state’s ballot can be thrown out because it was in the mail, anything can happen,” he said. “Every year we end up in court just because of howincompetent our secretary of state is.”
Joshua Foley, spokesperson and staff attorney with the State Elections Enforcement Commission, said there have been only 296 complaints of absentee ballot fraud (roughly half of those were dismissed) and 6 complaints of in-person voter fraud since 1976.
“There’s more opportunity for things to go wrong [with absentee ballots], and more opportunities for people to notice that things are going wrong, so it causes more complaints,” Foley said. “Absentee voter fraud is more common than in-person voter fraud, but still vanishingly rare.”
Connecticut’s election law allows unofficial checkers, runners and challengers to be present at polling locations. When you cast your vote, an official checker (either a Democrat or a Republican) crosses your name off the voter registry checklist, while an unofficial checker typically marks off your name on their copy. Runners then relay information — in person or by phone — about who has voted and whohasn’t to political parties or candidates.
Challengers are individuals whowatch polling places on Election Day and may take issue with an individual voter’s eligibility. State law requires that a challenger is approved in advance by a registrar of voters in the town they are covering.
Connecticut law allows for both Democrats and Republicans to observe every step of the process. For that reason, “we don’t have the problems that they have in other states with poll watchers, because we don’t want any voter to lose their right to vote out of being intimidated to go into the polling place,” said Gabe Rosenberg, communications director for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill.
As in previous elections, the secretary of the state’s office issued a stern warning aboutvoterintimidation, stating that anyone who issues a challenge at a polling station must do so under oath.
“You’re doing it under penalty of false statements,” said Rosenberg. “If you do challenge someone’s right to vote, you must know, suspect or reasonably believe that that person is not who they say they are or doesn’t live where they say they live. That’s a really weighty declaration to make.”
Facing a potential shortfall of poll workers and long hours of counting votes, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill recently partnered with the AmericanBar Association, the Connecticut Bar Association and the National Association of Secretaries of States to convince attorneys andlawstudentstovolunteer.
As usual, Connecticut Democrats are also recruiting volunteers to fill election day positions as allowed by state law, said spokesperson Patty McQueen. “We aren’t recruiting an ‘army’ to prevent Republicans from stealing the election,” she said. “They can split all the hairs they want. That militarized language is meant to be intimidating and to undermine legitimacy.”
Connecticut Democratic chair Nancy DiNardo said Romano “should be ashamed of himself for joining in Donald Trump’s campaign to undermine the constitutional rights Connecticut voters.”
“There is no evidence of systemic election fraud in this state or in any other, and J.R. knows it,” DiNardo said. “Connecticut hasrobust election laws that protect voting places from partisan electioneering and dictate how the process works, including provisions for approved poll watchers. The only reason to solicit volunteers to be an ‘Armyfor Trump’ is to intimidate voters, period.”