The key to a Trump win in NC? Showing voters their ballots count, RNC leader says

After years of sowing doubt in election results, Republicans are on a tour to convince voters the 2024 presidential election will be secure in order to win key states, including North Carolina.

State and national Republicans gathered in Charlotte Thursday to encourage GOP voters to work as election monitors in the swing state. The event occurred as Republicans work to turn out their base to vote, and vote early, in November. That’s a shift from the 2020 presidential election, when then-President Donald Trump disparaged the process. Trump has also fanned distrust in elections by making false accusations of voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 election.

But after previously calling voting by mail “corrupt” and “crooked,” Trump has said this election cycle “absentee voting, early voting and Election Day voting are all good options.”

On Thursday, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said it will be vital for the party to assure North Carolina GOP voters the election will be secure to win “the single most important battleground state in the entire country.”

“People will not vote if they don’t think their vote is going to count. People will not vote if they don’t think that the elections are going to be secure. They’ll stay home,” he said. “We cannot afford to have people stay home.”

The event was part of the RNC’s “Protect the Vote Tour,” a nationwide effort to train supporters as “poll watchers,” poll workers and volunteer lawyers for the 2024 election. The tour features stops in other critical swing states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

It also comes the same day as Republicans in Raleigh rolled out proposed amendments to the state constitution they want on the ballot in November to clarify voter ID is required for mail-in voting and only citizens are allowed to vote in North Carolina elections. Both items are already law.

North Carolina election integrity

Whatley, who previously chaired the North Carolina Republican Party, said voter turnout and election integrity are his top priorities as RNC leader

He told supporters Thursday those efforts will be focused on turning out early voters and training them to work as “poll watchers,” poll workers and volunteer lawyers. The GOP wants to ensure voter ID and other election laws are followed, he said.

“These are things that are not conspiracy theories. This is not election denialism,” Whatley said.

The GOP training will focus on teaching prospective volunteers how polling places work and how to report any issues that are spotted to officials, according to Whatley.

“We want to make sure everybody understands that we’re going to respect the poll workers. We’re going to respect the process and we’re going to respect the voters …” he said. “We’re not here to be confrontational.”

U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, the Republican N.C. attorney general nominee, questioned state Democratic leaders’ ability to run a fair election.

“There is no substitute for vigilance,” he said.

Thursday’s event also featured former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who publicly questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“We have to fight to make this the fairest election in our lifetime,” she said.

The North Carolina Democratic Party criticized Thursday’s event as “nothing more than a thinly-veiled effort to train MAGA extremists to suppress the vote in North Carolina.”

“Trump and his MAGA allies tried to undermine our democratic process in 2020 and they are attempting to do it again this year. We are going to ensure that all voters are heard without intimidation or suppression in November as we re-elect President Biden and elect Democrats up and down the ballot,” Democratic spokesman Tommy Mattocks said in a statement.

Is voter fraud a problem?

Years of research by government agencies, academics and news outlets have shown voter fraud is uncommon in the U.S.

“Putting rhetoric aside to look at the facts makes clear that fraud by voters at the polls is vanishingly rare, and does not happen on a scale even close to that necessary to ‘rig’ an election,” the New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice says.

But the lack of evidence of widespread electoral fraud hasn’t stopped many Americans from doubting the integrity of the upcoming election.

A 2023 Associated Press poll found fewer than half of Americans – 44% — have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence that the votes in the 2024 presidential election will be counted accurately. Just 22% of Republicans have high confidence 2024 votes will be counted accurately, compared to 71% of Democrats, the same poll said.

Asked whether he’s concerned Trump’s past claims about election integrity could hurt Republican turnout, Whatley told The Charlotte Observer Trump “has been very clear” he’s now in favor of early voting.

“It really comes down to making sure we’re talking to (early voters), and we’re making sure that they’re informed voters before they go out to the polls,” he said of the election.

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