Issues have been found with how Republican poll watching trainings have been conducted in Arizona. According to a report by Votebeat, during trainings, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has been telling potential Arizona polling place observers that there are “festering problems” in how elections are run. This includes questioning security associated with vote-counting machines.
The RNC training theme of “2020 election had serious problems” has worried experienced former election officials and lawyers who have trained observers in the past, Votebeat reported. Noting the point of the training is for observers to watch for violations and illegal activities at the polls, experts, including those who identify as Republicans, expressed concerns about the upcoming Arizona primaries.
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“It’s not about kind of ginning people up, which is what that sounds like,” Republican Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said. “That’s the narrative, though.” As an attorney, Gates led Republican observer training in the 2000s.
Of course, despite concerns from not only officials but attendees, RNC trainers claim the training only "emphasizes the need to comply with federal and state laws protecting voting rights.”
While reporters were not allowed to attend in-person trainings, Votebeat attended a Zoom training by invitation of an attendee and spoke to Ben Petersen, the RNC Arizona communications director, about concerns.
“Any individual participating in our election integrity program who does not follow the law will be promptly dismissed,” Petersen said.
The concerns for Arizona’s upcoming election not only follow issues found with the training of poll observers; a poll issued last year stressed the number of people who did not believe the 2020 election was fair. According to the poll, GOP voters lack trust and confidence in elections at much higher rates than others and are more likely to disrupt in-person voting as well.
The fear isn’t unwarranted. During California’s primary, election officials in Shasta County said observers tried to intimidate them during the vote count.
As a result, some counties in Arizona have begun requiring polling place observers to fill out forms detailing any problems before leaving the polls, in addition to restricting where observers can go within polling places.
Of course, while these requirements are in place, to avoid issues and keep things fair, the Arizona Republican Party has instead expressed concern that election officials may be attempting to unfairly limit Republican volunteers’ access to the polls.
Despite how they are conducting trainings, the RNC is questioning the practices of election officials and asking for specific details about how the hiring process for poll workers is conducted. Poll workers are hired and trained by counties. They are separate from poll observers selected by the political parties. The RNC has accused polling spaces of discriminating against those who may believe the 2020 election was stolen.
“If your goal is to convince people the election is fair then you want both parties, including people who believe they have been unfair in the past, to participate,” Republican attorney Kory Langhofer, who represented the Trump campaign in 2020 court challenges in Arizona, told Votebeat. “If you start to not hire those people, that’s a great way to make sure everyone is paranoid about the elections.”
But while the RNC is worried poll workers and observers will be more left-leaning, the truth is since the 2020 election, more Republicans than any other party members have expressed the urge to work as poll workers or volunteer as poll observers in the upcoming primary. According to the Arizona Agenda, some Republican Party officials have even gone out of their way to personally contact Arizona election officials in regards to requesting poll workers be Republican.
According to Votebeat, while Arizona law requires two officials in charge of each polling place not to be from the same political party, it does not have a requirement to evenly split polling place workers. As a result, many polling places have more representation of one party than another.
According to a party website promoting the poll watcher trainings, the RNC is trying to recruit 5,000 poll workers and observers for the primary and general elections in Arizona.
“Democrats have had a monopoly on poll watching for 40 years, and it speaks volumes that they’re terrified of an even playing field,” Tony Sanchez, leader of the RNC trainings, said during a training on Zoom, Votebeat reported. “Since the start of this cycle, the RNC has successfully executed our election integrity operation in states that have already held elections like Ohio, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, New Jersey, and others. In all instances, we had 100% coverage at all key polling locations, elections have run smoothly, and turnout has increased.”
Sanchez is one of the RNC officials who promoted the “2020 election has serious problems” theory to trainees.
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