The Republican National Committee (RNC) now has over 200,000 volunteers to “protect the vote” ahead of the presidential election, it announced this week.
The RNC made the announcement in a post celebrating poll watchers in honor of “National Poll Watcher Week.”
“When we launched our unprecedented election integrity program, we set a goal of 100,000 volunteers to make sure votes are cast and counted properly,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-Chair Lara Trump said in an emailed joint statement.
“The enthusiasm has been unmatched, and we have DOUBLED that goal – because America is ready to Protect the Vote and send President Trump back to the White House,” they added, as the press release described this as the “greatest effort for election integrity the country has ever seen.”
“We are fighting to protect every legal vote, stop election interference, and secure our country’s most important election,” the press release added.
Indeed, knowing these concerns over election integrity are on the forefront of GOP voters’ minds, the revamped RNC announced its election integrity program in April, describing it as the “most extensive and monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history.”
“Election integrity is the foundation of our democracy,” Whatley said at the time. “Through this unprecedented program, we are mobilizing lawyers and volunteers who are committed to preserving the sanctity of our elections.”
Not only does the program include efforts to recruit and train volunteers — far surpassing their original goal of 100,000 — it also laid out a clear and aggressive strategy for legal battles, noting that, at the time of the release, the RNC was engaged in 82 election integrity lawsuits in 25 states.
The press release read:
Under the leadership of Chairman Whatley and Co-Chair Trump, the RNC is executing an unprecedented legal strategy, fighting in courtrooms across the country. We will deliver a pro-active litigation effort every time election officials are breaking the law as well as intervene to defend commonsense election law safeguards under Democrat attack.
The RNC has unveiled other strategies as well, such as encouraging Republicans to vote early and engaging in legal ballot harvesting.
“We’re playing the game differently,” Lara Trump told Breitbart News Daily in April. “As we head into this election cycle, we’re doing things that have never been done at the RNC before — things like legal ballot harvesting, trained poll watchers, making sure people are getting out to vote early and trusting vote by mail.”
“We want you to vote however it is you can vote, as early as you can, and then encourage other people to go do the same thing. So from the messaging to the staffing to the use of funds, I think people are very quickly going to see it is a different RNC,” she added.
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