GOP to step up poll watching, election litigation efforts, official says

The Republican Party is planning to increase its poll watching and election litigation efforts for the 2022 midterm elections and beyond after a majority of the GOP’s post-2020 election litigation failed, according to comments made at a conference.

Josh Findlay, the election integrity director for the Republican National Committee (RNC), said on Friday at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference that the RNC has already brought on election integrity directors in nine states and plans to appoint several more ahead of the 2022 election, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Findlay said the committee will be putting more staff to work earlier and will have a larger number of deputies and regional field directors as part of the efforts.

In Michigan, for example, the RNC has already brought on a full-time director, and volunteers are being recruited and trained, the Detroit Free Press reported, citing Meshawn Maddock, the co-chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. The state is still 13 months out from the 2022 midterm elections, when Michigan voters will head to the polls to weigh in on governor, attorney general, secretary of state and the Michigan Supreme Court, in addition to other positions.

The bulking up of staff comes after the Republican Party suffered a number of losses in the months following the 2020 presidential election, when efforts to overturn the presidential election vote in favor of former President Trump were fruitless.

Most recently, the GOP-backed Arizona election audit last week confirmed President Biden’s win, showing that the Democrat beat the former president by a wider margin than the final certified result showed.

Findlay, during the conference on Mackinac Island that is held every other year, said one of the GOP’s problems in 2020 was that attorneys for Trump and other conservative organizations filed legal action in courts too late.

He said going to court on Election Day is “not going to be effective,” according to the Detroit Free Press.

Findlay also noted that many of the volunteers who were recruited by the GOP at the last minute to observe the counting of absentee ballots in Detroit were blocked from entering or forced to leave, in some cases because of COVID-19 protocols.

That led to chaotic scenes where crowds of people were banging on the windows of the room where election workers were counting ballots.