'It's going to be an army': Tapes reveal GOP plan to contest elections

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

Video recordings of Republican Party operatives meeting with grassroots activists provide an inside look at a multi-pronged strategy to target and potentially overturn votes in Democratic precincts: Install trained recruits as regular poll workers and put them in direct contact with party attorneys.

The plan, as outlined by a Republican National Committee staffer in Michigan, includes utilizing rules designed to provide political balance among poll workers to install party-trained volunteers prepared to challenge voters at Democratic-majority polling places, developing a website to connect those workers to local lawyers and establishing a network of party-friendly district attorneys who could intervene to block vote counts at certain precincts.

“Being a poll worker, you just have so many more rights and things you can do to stop something than [as] a poll challenger,” said Matthew Seifried, the RNC’s election integrity director for Michigan, stressing the importance of obtaining official designations as poll workers in a meeting with GOP activists in Wayne County last Nov. 6. It is one of a series of recordings of GOP meetings between summer of 2021 and May of this year obtained by POLITICO.

Backing up those front-line workers, “it’s going to be an army,” Seifried promised at an Oct. 5 training session. “We’re going to have more lawyers than we’ve ever recruited, because let’s be honest, that’s where it’s going to be fought, right?”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/01/gop-contest-elections-tapes-00035758

[Walleye]

1. Jesus H Christ. Just let the people vote and make the decision!

[doc03]

2. All it took was the Brooks Brothers Army to

have "W" elected. Trump gave them Tiki torches.

[Javaman]

16. next time they will have more than tiki torches. :( nt

[Tomconroy]

22. As a 40 year customer of Brooks Bros. I never cared for that label.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

31. Lol

[mahatmakanejeeves]

46. Don't make me take off my pants and burn them in protest. NT

[denbot]

63. If you've worn Brooks Brothers slacks for forty years you're at least as old as me..

Trust me no one wants to see that

[Laura PourMeADrink]

30. Exactly. And as long as I live I will never believe that w actually won Florida

[Laura PourMeADrink]

38. So I had to bring up this bad memory. W "won" Florida

In 2004!!!!

Florida was won by incumbent President George W. Bush by a 5.01% margin of victory.

BUT!!!! Last Gallup poll before Florida election! Huge swing.

[Grasswire2]

53. The Consortium of newspapers' investigation proved that Gore would have won.

After the fact.

And on the day that the Consortium were to make their statement, a passenger plane mysteriously crashed in NY, blowing the election matter off the news.

Karl Rove had a policy of seizing the daily news narrative.

On the earlier day when Senator Bob Kerrey called a press conference to publicly ask George W. to explain his absence from his post of duty in Air National Guard in wartime (proven by collaborative internet sleuthing, incidentally) .... a FOX affiliate broke the story of W's old DUI, blowing Kerrey's conference off the news. That was the Friday before the election.

"But the consortium, looking at a broader group of rejected ballots than those covered in the court decisions, 175,010 in all, found that Mr. Gore might have won if the courts had ordered a full statewide recount of all the rejected ballots. This also assumes that county canvassing boards would have reached the same conclusions about the disputed ballots that the consortium's independent observers did. The findings indicate that Mr. Gore might have eked out a victory if he had pursued in court a course like the one he publicly advocated when he called on the state to ''count all the votes.''

[Laura PourMeADrink]

57. Interesting and effed up !! - 2000. I just happened to think 2004 was worse

and more crooked. What is happening with us we have to have measurements for crookedness LOL

Since I am fixated on 2004. I have a distinct memory of the bushes in some hotel suite watching the returns. Kerry was winning and they had some blurb - Jeb told his brother not to worry about it that he would go out and find the votes on I-10 corridor. Then mysteriously w catches up. And compared to the last poll where he was down three he supposedly won by 5. That is an 8-point swing with no explanation. BTW I looked for that video clip one time and could never find it anywhere. That is really strange because it was on probably like CNN or something

Those were some heavy times I'm not sure if you were here by then. We had a lot of mathematician/statisticians trying to figure out the votes. And I'll never forget one tinfoilhat, who was extremely close to figuring out the algorithm where they took Gore's vote #s in 2000 and added a set factor to it in every precinct to give to w. Then tinfoilhat disappeared that night, never to be heard from again.

[Grasswire2]

59. Yes.

Election security expert Jennifer Cohn has the evidence on 2004. It was stolen from Kerry.

Karl Rove.

[PXR-5]

3. Please folks,

volunteer to work at the poles, I was a chief judge in 2020 with no experience. And I shouldn't say volunteer because you do get paid.

[liberalgunwilltravel]

4. Sue and arrest

Sue every single one of them for a civil rights violation and have anyone that threatens violence arrested. Keep suing until they don't have a red cent left.

[oldsoftie]

55. If thats possible it would be the best course of action.

[KarenS]

5. this just gave me the chills,,,,

I have a pro-trump, anti-mask, anti-vax, anti-Roe, pro-gun relative that just announced they'd be working at the polls for their state's primary this year,,,, it didn't feel right when I heard it but it makes more sense now,,,, geez.

[Traildogbob]

6. We need

Malcom Nance to command our counter Army, to put these Mother Fuckers out of OUR misery, and throw them the hell out of OUR country.

[SKKY]

7. Because when your message and platform is a loser...

...this is your only recourse.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

10. RNC purposely have no political platform! That's how fascists roll...and also rolling with

a national election integrity fellow…who’s main job is destroying election integrity!?

It’s 1984 novel, in real life.

In real life these fellows and gals going to jail, or going broke…wait for it plz, adherrqnce to the rule of law takes more than Twitter has the patience for.

[sop]

8. The GOP won't be happy till certain voters are required to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar,

or poll taxes and literacy tests are allowed again. Maybe they'll bring back police dogs and fire hoses. Republicans want a reset for America, a return to a time when whites ruled and minorities knew their place.

[dlk]

9. The fascists are here

And they have a plan.

[NCjack]

39. DOJ and the courts need to get tough.

[dlk]

43. Take no prisoners tough...

There’s no room for any hesitancy.

[hadEnuf]

49. What's our plan?

GOTV to simply get our votes erased?

There needs to be an intervention on this.

[dlk]

52. Good question

I don’t think there’s a silver bullet.

[hadEnuf]

54. Seems like we are just sitting and waiting, helpless, while watching the GOP rig the system

to openly steal another election. There is nothing that they will not stoop to either, including outright criminal action, violence and treason to make it stick.

When do we draw a line? And how do we combat this if & when we do draw a line?

In lieu of solid organization and operations on the ground, we seem to be waiting for the 1/6 committee, Merrick Garland and the DOJ to turn the tide. It better be real big too, but that still won't stop the outright cheating and suppression at the polls.

We got a temporary reprieve in 2020 but I hope we have not squandered it.


Don't mean to sound gloomy but it's hard not to when this RNC sabotage is going on right under our noses.

[dlk]

56. Yes, Democrats need to be proactive

Passive responses only make the situation worse. Unfortunately, our system of checks and balances has gaping holes that desperately need closing. We’ve been lulled into complacency and I fear it will be too late before Americans wake up to reality. The deep veins of racism and misogyny that run through our country are taking us down.

Republicans have devolved into a fascist and terrorist organization, who have become accustomed to cheating to win elections. They have no moral compass and they are our enemies. And the toxic bothsiderism of the mainstream media media only enables them further.

I’ve never been so uncertain about our future.

[Mr. Ected]

11. While we keep repeating the mantra, get out the vote

They are working on ways to sabotage that strategy.

Good versus evil, folks. If your neighbor doesn't see the difference, your neighbor is evil.

[Grasswire2]

60. GOTV isn't enough now.

Not when state legislatures are passing laws bypassing votes, to impose their own slate.

[czarjak]

61. Any means necessary. They mean it.

[madaboutharry]

12. They should just start wearing red arm bands

and remove any doubt about who they are.

[Emile]

13. The GOP plan to steal elections is the only way they can win.

[Tennessee Hillbilly]

14. There's no limit to the degree of lying and cheating ...

that the repugs will go to

[Celerity]

37. Indeed, there is NO bottom.

[edhopper]

15. This will happen

as well as other tactics the GOP will use to steal this election. There will be much hand ringing and voices of concern, and in the end, they will stay in power and keep all the offices they steal.

[RedSpartan]

27. I really think you're overstating things.

I mean, I'm sure the Democrats will write a strongly worded letter of protest.

[edhopper]

42. And Susan Collins

we be concerned about it.

[mac56]

17. They can't win a fair fight.

[CTyankee]

36. Absolutely! They know that they can't win so they want to fix it so they can't lose.

And this was thought out a while back. They knew they needed to figure out which states were key in the next election, then put people in charge of counting the votes in place so despite our democratic majority they can still win.

They fucking well know what they are doing. Many of us have been asleep at the switch. We should all listen to Democrats on the ground in those states and ask them how we can thwart the GOP's machinations.

[ancianita]

18. It's going to be systematic voter suppression.

[UpInArms]

19. the RNC must be disbanded as a legitimate political party

they are nothing but cheaters and sore losers

I am sick to death of their nefarious actions

[Joinfortmill]

20. I'm so disheartened and worn out.

So many people unwilling to do the right thing.

[Wednesdays]

21. So, we just throw up our hands and say, "We surrender"?

[Joinfortmill]

48. Be kind. I didn't say that.

[NoMoreRepugs]

23. Their strategy is almost impossible to contain because there is NOTHING they will not do to WIN.

An infinite number of holes in the dam requires replacing the whole dam.

[Cosmocat]

29. Yep

they are so sick, and depraved ... you just can't keep up with all the ways they are working to blow up American democracy.

[twodogsbarking]

24. Can't we at least get voting right in 'merica?

Apparently it is more difficult than it should be.

[Firestorm49]

25. Here again, the sorry bastards know they can't win on merit, policy or anything else.

So then what? Break down the election with bullshit lawsuits. After all, we all know how much fraud has been uncovered! (Sarcasm)

It still baffles me that they created a “problem” where there was none, and their stupid base, incapable of doing actual fact checking, continues go along with it. That’s what makes it so difficult to have a meaningful conversation with them.

Someone on Facebook posted a derogatory article about Biden’s accomplishments. I found an article which completely refuted their claim. Those who chastised me could only come up with “ It lacks substance”. I repeatedly asked them to refute any one of the many accomplishments I listed and they couldn’t. Rather they criticized me for not coming up with my own thoughts. And folks, that was the best they could do. They couldn’t come up with one arguable point, but still think they walked away the victor. Good, I hate stupid Republicans - not all Republicans, just the ones too ignorant to retain common sense.

[Raven123]

26. If possible, vote early

[CrispyQ]

28. But only the elections that republicans lose, right?

There won't be any "election fraud" claims for GOP candidates that won, even if they're on the same ballot as another GOP candidate who lost & claims the election was stolen.

They can never answer the question—If we could steal the presidential election, why didn't we give ourselves a solid majority in the senate? Why did we let it get down to a nail-biter run-off? Crickets from the GOP hypocrites.

[tiredtoo]

32. There is a petition being signed right now

To control this type of activity. It is "Promote the Vote". If you haven't signed it yet, do so now! https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=5418995254818679&set=a.131581693560088

[Ford_Prefect]

33. This is a R.I.C.O. class conspiracy and deserves the immediate attention of the FBI and DOJ.

No hype.

This is the same thing the KKK got done for in North Carolina. A coordinated plan to deny a group of citizens their constitutional rights.

Those trained volunteers will not be experts but they will have a set of guidelines to use in challenging voters of color and class. They will have rehearsed speeches to give for each challenge and the lawyers will inflate every charge.

What I wonder and worry about is how they will apply this in states like mine where voting is done by mail. A challenge of a mail-in ballot is harder for the voter to defend since they aren't signed documents. Once separated from the cover envelope there is no way to know who sent them nor for the voter to know if their vote was challenged or counted.

[Bayard]

34. The War Against Democracy

They will have an army. We need an army.

Plan. Organize. Fight. At this point, its all or nothing.

[intheflow]

35. This would be "nothing soup" except for the part

where they specify they’ll be targeting Democratic-leaning districts. That’s the tell, that’s what makes this poll worker drive illegal.

[EndlessWire]

40. Sigh...

The part that alarms me was, "challenge the voter." But, this means that they anticipate LOSING. We HAVE to win the House and Senate in November. Biden is doing a good job, and we have to support him.

Despite any gloom and doom, we have to GOTV. Every last Dem voter has to GOTV. Make sure you are registered properly, have IDs ready, get out in time to complete the mission, take water and snacks with you, take the day off if you have to, don't argue with anyone, be patient, SMILE. Take a chair with you if you think you will need to sit down while in line.

It is plain: They plan to cheat! All we can do is fire off our votes. VOTE in November. Vote them all. out. of. office. Do you want to live under fascism, or do you want to be free? They do not have anything cheerful planned for anyone who is not in the categories they favor: white, male, Christian. You can bet they already have something planned beyond the election.

VOTE!

[sakabatou]

41. I anticipate vast voter intimidation and lawsuits.

[Wild blueberry]

44. One small bright spot: it's too much work for most Qtips

I'm a poll worker, and election days are l-o-n-g. Also, I have to learn stuff, boring but important stuff.
Not sure most of the assholes can do the work.

[Martin68]

45. So 2020 was just a preview of how the GOP will tie up the entire court system and delay the

election process with frivolous lawsuits.

[Maeve]

47. It isn't as easy as they think it is

Been a poll worker for more than a decade and the opportunities they seem to think are there just are NOT. You really can't pull the "I challenge" card without reason and there are real actual rules that your fellow workers know and follow.
That said, we need good logic-based poll workers, too, so if you can possibly do so, please volunteer. (Lousy pay but we don't do it for the money)

[Deminpenn]

51. Agree, don't think this guy has any idea how the polls actually work

If a voter in the poll book, they get to vote. If they're a first time or previously inactive voter, they have to show ID. Then there is the usual situation that poll workers live in the precinct for which they're working and know the voters.

[toesonthenose]

50. I hope it is the same clowns they had last time. Rudy, The Kraken, etc...

[Marthe48]

58. This is mob mentality insanity

I read this post earlier today and listened to MSNBC just now. The r's aren't concerned about election fraud or election integrity. The insanity from top down is about destroying more of American laws and governance. r's are recruiting bully boys to become poll workers and more bully boys to harrass voters as they try to vote. I'll bet a million dollars the bully boys won't stop an r from voting twice, but will stop a Dem from voting once, if they can.

[summer_in_TX]

62. An alliance of organizations including Common Cause

are involved actively in Election Protection. They train online and in-person poll monitors and have other projects too. The Texas Civil Rights Project, League of Women Voters, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, and a number of other groups are part of it.

In 2020 I was part of those monitoring online situations in Texas whee I am that were talked about on Twitter during early voting and Election Day: long lines, polling places not opening in time, voters being turned away. We provide the number to call for help. If urgent, we kicked it up to Civil rights attorneys to handle. Well organized, social. Signed up for shifts that worked with my schedule.

I’m in a rural county so online poll monitoring worked best for me.

Others monitored polls in person, checking on line lengths, signs of problems. I encourage you to volunteer with them (no membership required), or donate. Some of their partner organizations train as well.

Plus they have other initiatives to fight for democracy. I haven’t checked into it yet, but one is monitoring and countering disinformation online.