Lara Trump says RNC will have people ‘who can physically handle’ ballots on Election Day

Republican National Committee (RNC) co-Chair Lara Trump said the national committee will have both poll watchers and people “who can physically handle ballots” on Election Day. 

“We now have the ability at the RNC not just to have poll watchers — people standing in polling locations — but people who can physically handle the ballots,” Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of former President Trump, told Eric Bolling in a Newsmax appearance Tuesday. 

The RNC and former President Trump’s campaign last week announced an “election integrity program” of more than 100,000 volunteers and attorneys “deployed across every battleground state.” 

“Whenever a ballot is being cast or counted, Republican poll watchers will be observing the process and reporting any irregularity,” the RNC said in a release. 

Poll watchers, who typically observe the ballot-counting process and report any issues to authorities or officials, can’t touch ballots or machinery. 

“So, there was a moratorium for about 40 years on the RNC actually training people to work in these polling locations and the tabulation centers where the mail-in ballots come in. And last year, the judge who implemented that passed away. So, that was lifted, and that gives us a great ability as we head into what I assume everyone understands is the most important election of our lifetime,” Lara Trump said.

Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee for 2024, has long touted false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent and rigged against him. Lara Trump, who was endorsed for the top RNC role by the former president, has said 2020 is “in the past” — but stressed earlier this month that the RNC is “leaving nothing to chance” this fall.

“This election cycle, Republicans will beat Democrats at their own game by leveraging every legal tactic at our disposal based on the rules of each state,” RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. “That includes ballot harvesting in states like California and Nevada and nominating Republican poll workers in states like Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”

— Updated at 5:19 p.m.