RNC Seeks to Deploy 100,000 Election Integrity Workers Ahead of 2024 Elections

Michael Whatley speaks before former President Donald Trump's arrival for a rally in Greensboro, N.C., on March 2, 2024. Jonathan Drake/Reuters

The Republican National Committee wants more than 100,000 volunteers and attorneys to monitor the fairness and transparency of the 2024 election.

In an April 19 announcement, the RNC said it is launching “the most extensive and monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history.”

“The Democrat tricks from 2020 won’t work this time,” RNC Chief Counsel Charlie Spies said in a release. “In 2024, we’re going to beat the Democrats at their own game, and the RNC legal team will be working tirelessly to ensure that elections officials follow the rules in administering elections.”

Mr. Spies, the Republican National Lawyer Association’s Republican Lawyer of the Year 2023 and a former election law counsel for the RNC, said the committee would aggressively sue Democrats if they don’t follow election laws or attempt to change the rules at the last minute.

The election integrity effort continues a Republican Party program launched under the administration of former RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. Ms. McDaniel left the committee in March and was replaced by current co-Chairman Michael Whatley and co-Chairwoman Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump.

Election Lawsuits

According to the April 19 release, the RNC has filed 82 election integrity lawsuits in 25 states so far.

Most recently, the committee filed a suit against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, alleging Ms. Benson was giving incorrect instructions to election officials about verifying absentee voter ballots. The committee is also backing formal complaints against the Wisconsin Elections Commission over election integrity concerns in Madison and Milwaukee.

“The RNC is hiring hundreds of election integrity staff across the map,” Ms. Trump said in a statement. “More than ever before because our party will be recruiting thousands of more observers to protect the vote in 2024.”

Both Mr. Whatley and Ms. Trump previously made statements about election integrity becoming the focus of the new-look RNC ahead of the general election. The RNC has also promised to work closely with the Trump campaign this year.

On its Protect The Vote website, the RNC is soliciting volunteers in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.

The RNC release said the committee will train its volunteers to watch for potential problems in the electoral process with a focus on both polling sites and ballot tabulation centers.

Going forward, the RNC’s election integrity program will focus on testing the logic and accuracy of voting machines, early voting, Election Day voting, adjudication and duplication of mail-in ballots, and post-election auditing, recounts, and canvassing.

The release said RNC-affiliated attorneys will be “stationed at every single target processing center where mail ballots are tabulated.” Every so-called battleground state will also have an “election integrity hotline” where RNC lawyers can answer questions and immediately respond to issues raised by volunteers.

“Having the right people to count the ballots is just as important as turning out voters on Election Day,” President Trump said in a release. “Republicans are now working together to protect the vote and ensure a big win on November 5th!”

The Epoch Times contacted the RNC for comment, but it did not respond before press time.

The RNC made at least one key hire to bolster its election integrity efforts, too.

In March, the RNC enlisted Christina Bobb, formerly a lawyer working with President Trump’s Save America political action committee, as a senior counsel for election integrity.

Save America is a qualified leadership political action committee affiliated with President Trump. The PAC, founded in November 2020, paid a large portion of President Trump’s legal bills in 2023, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.

Ms. Bobb is the author of “Stealing Your Vote: The Inside Story of the 2020 Election and What It Means for 2024.” According to its description published on Amazon.com, the book alleges that “the 2020 election was riddled with lying, cheating, stealing, and vote dumping, which disenfranchised millions of Americans and probably swayed the outcome of the election.”

RNC, Trump Fundraising

With the RNC working more closely with the Trump campaign, both bodies hope to improve the committee’s fundraising efforts.

In the final days of Ms. McDaniel’s leadership, the RNC’s monthly fundraising totals slumped to notably low levels.

The RNC and the Trump campaign jointly announced that the pair had collected more than $65 million in donations in March. That was the first month with the new co-chairs at the helm. However, that announcement didn’t specify how the money was split.

The RNC and the Trump campaign’s financial picture will become clearer when their various entities submit their monthly reports to the FEC on April 20.

To beat the Democratic National Committee, which did file its disclosure ahead of the monthly deadline, the RNC will need to show it had more than $45.2 million in cash on hand at the end of March.

As of April 19, the RNC and its party allies, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, have yet to file their monthly disclosures.

However, the RNC will be getting a serious boost from a newly formed joint fundraising committee. FEC filings from the joint fundraising committee Trump 47 Committee Inc. show the newly formed committee sent about $10.4 million to the RNC between February and March.