Mastodawn

The #RNC Asked a #ConspiracyTheorist to Train #PollWatchers. Here’s What He Told Them.

#JackPosobiec of “Pizzagate” notoriety recently spoke to a group of #GOP *volunteers*. “It doesn’t matter who votes,” he told them. “It matters who counts the votes.”

##law #ElectionLaw #ElectionInterference #MAGA #republicans #Trump
#VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/26/us/politics/republican-national-committee-2024-posobiec.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

The R.N.C. Asked a Conspiracy Theorist to Train Poll Watchers. Here’s What He Told Them.

Jack Posobiec of “Pizzagate” notoriety recently spoke to a group of G.O.P. volunteers. “It doesn’t matter who votes,” he told them. “It matters who counts the votes.”

The New York Times

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Nonilex Sep 27, 2024

A few years ago, #JackPosobiec was a fringe figure & a #RightWing agitator best known for helping spread “Pizzagate,” a [#Qanon] #ConspiracyTheory about Democrats running a satanic child abuse ring underneath a Washington pizza parlor. [which led to a shooting]

This month, he was invited by the #Republican National Cmte to speak to a group of *volunteers* about how to monitor elections in #Michigan.

#law #ElectionLaw #ElectionInterference #MAGA #republicans #Trump
#VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024

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Nonilex Sep 27, 2024

The invitation was one sign of how the #GOP uses figures & fictions that were once considered out of bounds to energize its activists. The counsel that #Posobiec delivered was another.

…The key to elections, he said, is that “it doesn’t matter who votes. It matters who counts the votes.”

#law #ElectionLaw #ElectionInterference #MAGA #republicans #Trump
#VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024

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Nonilex Sep 27, 2024

Both Republican & Democratic groups have long dispatched monitors to polling places, typically w/instructions to report problems w/equipment, long lines or other issues. #Democrats generally emphasize issues related to restrictions on voting & #Republicans look out for *voter fraud*
In recent yrs, after #Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election, Republican monitor roles are increasingly being filled by activists who believe elections are fraudulent, & they have taken on a different mission.

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Nonilex Sep 27, 2024

#JackPosobiec told the group they were the “final line of defense against the encroaching Marxism.”

“We’ve already seen the Marxism start creeping in. It’s already begun. The question is, are we going to let them finish the job or not?”

…In addition to the #Michigan training, Posobiec was also scheduled to speak to a group in #Wisconsin a few days later.

#law #ElectionLaw #ElectionInterference #MAGA #republicans #Trump #disinformation
#VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024

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Nonilex Sep 27, 2024

Others who have participated in recent training sessions include #KariLake, the party’s Senate candidate in Arizona & fmr candidate for governor who never conceded her defeat. Also invited was Rogan O’Handley, a social media influencer who uses the handle DC Draino & often spreads #disinformation about “rigged” elections, & Colby Covington, an UFC star who calls himself “Donald #Trump’s favorite fighter.”

#law #ElectionLaw #ElectionInterference #republicans
#VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024

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Nonilex Sep 27, 2024

For decades, the #RNC was sharply limited in its ability to organize poll monitoring by a federal consent decree it signed to resolve accusations of #VoterIntimidation. The decree, which was put in place in 1982, was lifted in 2018.

In 2022, thousands of #election officials & *observers* were recruited from among a network of activists motivated by #Trump’s #lies about the 2020 election.

#law #ElectionLaw #ElectionInterference #MAGA #republicans #disinformation
#VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024

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Nonilex Sep 27, 2024

#Election officials have raised worries again this year now that #Trump is at the top of the #Republican ticket. He has repeatedly spread #lies about the election system, suggested that local election officials are breaking the #law & that individual citizens [#vigilantes] must guard the vote from forces out to steal it.

The #RNC leadership, which was replaced by #Trump this year, has also vowed to be far more aggressive in challenging #ElectionLaw & voter rolls.

#VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024

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Nonilex Sep 27, 2024

At the training in #Michigan, #JackPosobiec implored *volunteers* to look out for issues that could be publicized more widely or taken up by lawyers.

“You need to think of yourself as the ground forces, as the army that’s going be out there, the eyes & the ears of the #Trump campaign, of the #Republican Party, that are there on the front line to say, we are going to catch you & when we catch you we’re going to make a stink about it,” Posobiec said.

#law #ElectionLaw
#VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024