Election Deniers Use Telegram to Rally Poll Watchers in Swing States

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Bloomberg

October 29, 2024 at 2:37 PM EDT


Conspiracy theorists who believe Donald Trump won the 2020 US election are making plans online to monitor and film polling places in US swing states, an effort that civil rights groups say risks suppressing voter turnout.

Organizers in Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin and elsewhere have created communities on the messaging app Telegram to coordinate observation of voting locations and ballot boxes, according to a trove of documents released by the pro-transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets.

Tens of thousands of so-called election deniers are involved in conversations on Telegram about preventing what they say will be widespread fraud in the Nov. 5 election, according to the documents and social media conversations seen by Bloomberg News. Participants are asked to volunteer to watch polls during specific hours, take note of what they deem as suspicious activity and share video footage with local law enforcement agencies.

Demands for poll watchers in closely contested states trace their roots to the 2020 US election, when Trump and his allies falsely asserted that widespread fraud robbed him of victory and delivered the presidency to Joe Biden. Trump has sustained those bogus claims since then, fueling efforts by his followers to organize poll-observation this year in his contest against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-29/election-deniers-use-telegram-to-rally-poll-watchers-in-swing-states?srnd=homepage-americas

---

No paywall (gift)

[Ford_Prefect]

1. You can not film or record activity inside a polling station. You may not intimidate voters approaching or leaving it.

You can be arrested immediately for doing either one.

I would like to see what happens when someone videos these clowns in the act. I think they won't like being watched.

[moreland01]

2. As a former election judge

I can just imagine what's going to happen AGAIN all over the country. First, you have to register to be a poll watcher. Second, you have to stay in a designated area and can NOT look over the shoulders of election workers. In 2020, these fake watchers screamed holy hell when they were told what they could and couldn't do. Calling the cops because they were told to stay behing a red line. Calling lawyers because they couldn't take pictures or film. Calling lawyers when they witnessed boxes being shuffled around. They have No Idea how elections work, refuse to be trained election judges, and then bitch that it's being done wrong. F them!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

3. And in some states

like here in PA, the only ones eligible to be "poll watchers" are those who actually LIVE IN and are registered to vote IN the county where they plan to "watch" (although they can be assigned to any polling location WITHIN that county). And then there are other restrictions and stipulations.

https://www.pa.gov/en/agencies/vote/voter-support/your-rights-and-the-law/poll-watchers.html

Meaning you are not going to have RW loons from some of the red rural counties, invading Philly (which is its own county) trying to muck up the process.

It was bad enough back in 2020 when some were "observing" the mail ballot operations at the PA Convention Center. The whole thing was live-streamed 24/7 for a week and there were arguments from "watchers" (and media) about how far from the ballot processors they could stand, with tape measures being whipped out and whatnot (and they were whining through the whole thing).

[slightlv]

4. I fear we're going to have Brooks Brothers riots

over every tiny little thing, thanks to the R's. And I hope that if anyone catches someone filming them, they turn their camera right around on them, as well, to document the intimidation.