A GOP-led training on spotting potential voter fraud in the November election took place in Clarendon last night (Monday).
The event co-hosted by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee was part of a tour of the “Protect the Vote” campaign, which seeks to recruit a total of 100,000 volunteers in battleground states. RNC Chairman Michael Whatley tied this to efforts around the country to add voter ID requirements and strengthen other guardrails against illegal voting.
“Over the course of this election cycle, tell me this. Can we ever have what happened what happened in 2020, happen again?” he asked the crowd of volunteers. “No, we cannot have it happen again.”
In Virginia, organizers hope to round up 5,000 volunteers to “be in the room whenever a vote is cast” and preserve election integrity. Training focuses on educating people about what to expect at an election site and how to spot warning signs, Whatley said.
“When you know what’s normal, then you can say, ‘Hey, something doesn’t work. Something doesn’t look right. Sometime’s going wrong,'” he said. “And then if you do see something, what do you do? How do you flag it? How do you let people know?”
Organizers plan to post attorneys around polling places who “can immediately engage the right way” with alleged issues.
“My favorite analogy in election integrity is… I would rather have a police car parked in front of a storefront window than call them after a rock gets thrown through it,” Whatley said. “We want to be in the room. If you catch the honest mistakes, you will dissuade the dishonest mistakes.”
When asked about possible concerns around intimidation or interference at the polls, he said that ensuring proper conduct is “a critical part of the training.”
“What we want to make sure is that everybody understands that you’re there as an observer status,” the chairman said. “You’re not there to participate in terms of the process itself, and so respect the process, respect the people who are working in the election and respect the voters.”
If someone violates the rules, Whatley said, “I think that that person would probably be removed.”
Also speaking before the training, which was closed to the media, were RNC co-chair Lara Trump, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Virginia Republican Party Chairman Rich Anderson and Leadership Institute President Morton Blackwell.
The event was held at the Clarendon headquarters of the Leadership Institute, a conservative training center for campaigns, fundraising, political communication and organizing
Lara Trump, who dialed in from Florida to deliver brief remarks, said she is “ready to turn Virginia red.”
“Michael Whatley and I have been working since the day we were both elected into these positions as Chair and Co-Chair of the RNC to ensure a free, fair and transparent election, and we believe that if we have that, Donald Trump will win,” she said.
Arlington, of course, tends to heavily favor Democrats in presidential elections, helping to propel Democratic presidential candidates to victory statewide the past several election cycles.
President Joe Biden received 80.7% of Arlington votes in 2020, while Hillary Clinton carried 75.8% of the county’s votes in 2016. Among Virginia localities, Arlington was Biden’s fifth strongest supporter in 2020 and Clinton’s fourth biggest supporter in 2016.
On one signup clipboard passed around last night’s event, a minority of volunteers said they live in Arlington, while many live elsewhere in Northern Virginia.
Nevertheless, Whatley believes this portion of the state could play a key role this election cycle.
“I think [Northern Virginia] is absolutely critical,” he said. “I think that when we look at the overall state, obviously this is a center of gravity politically. It’s a center of gravity in terms of population, and this is an area that is going to be very determinative in terms of how we come out — which is why we’re doing the training up here.”
Earlier this month Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) issued an executive order to — among other things — better maintain the Commonwealth’s voter lists, noting the removal of over 6,000 noncitizens from the voter rolls since January 2022. That move earned praise from former president Trump.
Youngkin, however, told Fox 5 that he is “not suggesting there is widespread voter fraud.” That echoes state Attorney General Jason Miyares, also a Republican, who said there was no widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election in Virginia. Miyares created an “Election Integrity Unit” in 2022.
