Shortly after Donald Trump declared that if he loses the presidential election, it will probably have been “rigged,” his campaign announced that it would be recruiting poll watchers to “stop crooked Hillary from rigging this election.”
True the Vote, a group that has led the way in promoting the myth that massive voter fraud by undocumented immigrants is shifting election results, is heeding the call.
In an email to supporters yesterday, True the Vote president Catherine Engelbrecht, a former Texas Tea Party activist, asked for donations to train poll workers and relaunch the organization’s poll-watching app. The email linked to a video appeal in which Engelbrecht warns that a “flood of illegal voters” could “turn over the Senate, the House and thousands of down-ballot elections, with the Supreme Court as the ultimate prize.”
She warns that people registering to vote when they get coverage through the Affordable Care Act and the movement to provide drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants are part of the “assault on freedom” that will result in undocumented immigrants stealing elections.
In-person voter fraud, which is what voter ID laws are supposedly meant to combat, is exceedingly rare, as are cases of noncitizen immigrants casting ballots. Even those rare cases often involve legal immigrants who are confused about the rules, rather than undocumented immigrants, who could risk even harsher penalties.
The chaos that has marked this election cycle will soon culminate in a perfect storm, a storm that will mask an underlying flood of illegal voters. Obamacare has registered millions since 2014. A year ago, illegals were given drivers’ licenses in states ranging from California to Maryland. A few months ago, leftists sued in federal court asking the judge to prevent states from stopping illegal aliens who are trying to vote. And the assault on freedom has continued into this summer, when Soros-funded leftists attacked voter ID laws in courts nationwide.
Now, while the American people are screaming to stop the madness, the Republican Party has chosen to cower and zero resources have been committed to election integrity. True the Vote is preparing to stand in that gap, stand against the storm that threatens to turn over the Senate, the House and thousands of down-ballot elections, with the Supreme Court as the ultimate prize. We plan to deploy thousands of people trained to keep watch for fraud, illegal voters and hackers bent on stealing the election, but we must raise $250,000 during August to ensure implementation.
As elections expert Rick Hasen has explained, while it’s common for campaigns to deploy observers to polling places, Trump’s “incendiary” rhetoric “seems to be an invitation to go and make trouble.”
True the Vote has a history of skirting this line. The group, which like Trump has suggested that Clinton could steal the upcoming election, sends volunteers to polling places, often in minority neighborhoods, leading to some charges of intimidating voters. When True the Vote launched its poll-watching app in 2014, it uncovered little evidence of even potential fraud but did unveil one case of an “African American woman” poll worker standing in a polling place in what one user thought was an intimidating manner.
In her email to supporters yesterday, Engelbrecht claimed that the Republican National Committee is powerless to “coordinate a ballot security program because of a consent decree they signed with the federal court.” She was referring to an agreement that the RNC signed after it was caught running a “voter caging” operation in minority neighborhoods in New Jersey in the 1980s. The agreement prevents the RNC from conducting such operations targeted at minority neighborhoods, but does allow the party to conduct “normal poll watching” activities.
