A top party official said at the opening of former President Donald Trump’s campaign office in Casa Grande on Tuesday that the Republican National Committee is planning a huge effort to keep an eye on poll workers and people counting ballots this fall. The committee wants to have 100,000 observers across the country and 5,000 in Arizona.
Michael Whatley, the chair, said, “There is nothing more important than making sure that we will shield the vote.” “We need to be there.”
During his speech at the opening of the “Trump Force 47” campaign office, the RNC chair laid out a plan to get thousands of volunteers to watch over votes across the country.
There were a lot of people in the room to hear Trump supporters like GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani, Gina Swodoba, former Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, and former Florida state Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The push to keep an eye on the election comes just a few days after Trump said in a debate that he wouldn’t accept the results of the 2024 election. Trump has been spreading false claims for years that the 2020 election was rigged, even though there is no proof of mass voter fraud.
“We want an election cycle that is fair, accurate, safe, and open to everyone.” Whatley told reporters after the event, “And when we get that, we’ll be very happy with the results.” “We want to be in the room with observers, volunteers, and lawyers every time a vote is cast and counted,”
Some people at the meeting in Casa Grande said they were worried that Arizonans are losing faith in the way elections are run.
“I think there’s a chill in Arizona where people don’t trust that their vote is being counted correctly.” “If only people felt better about that, I think I would be helping them,” said Brad DeSandro, a patent attorney from Phoenix who voted alone and went to the volunteer training. “It’s over if people stop believing in the system.” That worries me a lot.
In Arizona, poll observers have been around for a while. These are regular people who are hired by political parties to watch over voting places and other parts of the election process. The state has always let one observer from each registered political party watch over the polls, as long as they don’t get in the way of poll workers, talk to voters, or do anything else that could affect the voting process. They are one of many checks and balances that make sure elections are fair and correct.
But the Republican Party’s call for more observers is similar to the rise in voting fraud claims after Trump lost Maricopa County, which is the biggest county in the state, in 2020. He lost the state and, in the end, the presidential run because of it.
Since then, Trump and many other Republican candidates have repeated lies about how Arizona’s elections are run. Because of these rumors, some people watched ballot drop boxes in the Phoenix area during the 2022 election, which led to reports of voter intimidation. In the end, a federal judge limited what the watchers could do.
A lot of people are talking about the border and the business.
The chair of the state party, Swoboda, said that her job is to “empower people to vote,” no matter what method they use. There were signs in the Trump campaign office pushing people to vote in a variety of ways, such as in person on Election Day, early in person, or even by asking for an early ballot.
Before he lost in 2020, Trump didn’t trust mail-in votes, but he changed his mind.
At the opening of the office, Trump’s supporters heard from his supporters about important campaign topics like immigration, the economy, and his legal battles.
“You can vote for the American Dream.” As things stand, inflation is high and borders are not safe. Trump said, “I mean, there are so many people who want to come to the United States of America.” “The message is that we need to act like the future of our country depends on it and do more than we’ve ever done before.”
Speakers mostly avoided talking about the first presidential debate in 2024, even though President Joe Biden’s performance was criticized by many. While Trump fans gathered in Casa Grande, Democrats in Washington, D.C., on the other side of the country, were calling for Biden to step down.
„It doesn’t matter if Joe Biden runs or someone else does. “They are all going to run on the same platforms, and they are all going to support the same failed policies that the Biden administration did,” Whatley said.
Whitaker agreed, saying, “We all have eyes” and that Biden did badly in the debate, but he’d rather “let Democrats pick their candidates.”
At the office opening, Lori Martinez, a licensed mortgage loan originator and real estate property owner from Yavapai County, said that the Biden-Trump fight “boils down to elder abuse.” “Keep him home where he can rest and be with his grandchildren,” she told First Lady Jill Biden.
For Martinez, the election is about “protecting our country.””Our country has so much bad stuff going on right now.” Take a look at all the cases against Trump. Take a look at how they want to avoid voting for him. They said, “But it won’t work because there are too many people.” “It’s not just Republicans.” There are also Democrats and independents.
Arizona is still a very important fighting state.
Whatley seemed sure about the election this fall, even though Trump lost Arizona by a small margin in 2020.
He made a big plan to run for office in the key swing states and also to try to win back votes in states that Trump lost in 2016 and 2020. Whatley said that public and private polls had pushed him to make the Trump campaign map bigger.
We have now started to work with people in Virginia, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Virginia. That’s why we’re on defense all over the country. He told Whatley. “The Biden campaign is putting up walls.”
