“If they’re filibustering and slowing down the process, it’s going to be incredibly difficult,” she said. Ms Mitchell said election offi...
“If they’re filibustering and slowing down the process, it’s going to be incredibly difficult,” she said.
Ms Mitchell said election officials “should have no problem getting citizens to ask questions and help them do their jobs better”. She noted that activists are instructed to be courteous and respectful.
Indeed, during the Harrisburg training, Jenny Beth Martin, leader of the Tea Party Patriots, a conservative advocacy group, suggested activists use a three-word response whenever they are frustrated with public servants: “Bless your heart,” she said.
A trial in Virginia
Ms. Mitchell has repeatedly held up Virginia, and in particular Fairfax County, as a national role model. Before last year’s gubernatorial race between Glenn Youngkin, a Republican businessman, and Terry McAuliffe, a former Democratic governor, she helped a Virginia nonprofit organize dozens of groups into a coalition . The network eventually trained 4,500 poll watchers and poll workers and organized 18 local task forces, a number that has since doubled, organizers say.
In Fairfax, a Democratic stronghold outside Washington, about three dozen activists associated with the coalition and the local Republican Party scoured election offices, combing through voter registration applications, undeliverable mail and other documents. Christine Brim, the task force leader, appeared in person or emailed staff almost daily, according to Scott Konopasek, the registrar at the time. The operation took the time of county workers with dozens of requests for information, as well as informal interrogations, Konopasek said.
“Everything they saw that they didn’t understand was a fraud in their minds and that’s how they framed the questions,” he said. “It was always adversarial.”
Fairfax County GOP Chairman Steve Knotts said activists were just trying to get answers, especially because the state had launched new voting procedures. But election officials often dodged their questions or dodged them, he said.
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