LANSING — In case you missed it, Politico has uncovered a deeply troubling effort by the Michigan GOP to contest the upcoming midterm elections by building an “army” of poll workers targeting Democratic precincts starting this summer.
Reporting for Politico, Heidi Przybyla obtained dozens of leaked video tapes of GOP party operatives in Michigan laying out their plans to recruit grassroots activists – many of whom are election deniers – and closely connect them with party-friendly district attorneys and local lawyers who could intervene to block vote counts in hopes of holding more GOP influence in specific precincts.
Audio in the piece from Matthew Seifried, the RNC’s election integrity director for Michigan, reveals just how disturbing and undemocratic the Michigan GOP is willing to go:
[…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?”
Seifried also said the RNC will hold “workshops” and equip poll workers with a hotline and website developed by Zendesk, a software support company used by online retailers, which will allow them to live-chat with party attorneys on Election Day. In a May 2022 training session, he said he’d achieved a goal set last winter: More than 5,600 individuals had signed up to be poll workers and, several days ago, he submitted an initial list of more than 850 names to the Detroit clerk…]
Watch Heidi Przybyla talk to CNN’s New Day about what her investigation uncovered:
These tapes are concrete proof that Trump’s Big Lie and baseless claims continue to infiltrate a state party that is now seeking to undermine all upcoming elections starting at the local level – even after Michigan’s GOP-led Senate committee investigated the 2020 election and found no proof of election fraud.
###
