'We all know what happened in Detroit'
This fall, another army of election observers will head to Detroit and other cities across the country.
The RNC has long refused to share what it teaches election observers behind closed doors, but NBC News obtained a recording of a training session in August, providing a window into the tools it offers hundreds of supporters.
“Having Republican operatives and adversaries in these positions presents a major obstacle,” Ray, the RNC's director of election integrity in Michigan, told volunteers at the training session. “Having our people in those locations is a huge deterrent.”
The slides briefly explained the election process and state election laws before describing how to challenge voters, their votes, and the counting process. “Their No. 1 job is to monitor elections to ensure proper voting procedures are followed,” Ray said.
Some of the advice was concrete and specific: Make sure tabulators are cleared at the start of the day and voter IDs are being checked, Ray suggested. Challenge voters who want to vote in person but are told in the poll book that have already voted absentee.
From there, the guidance became vague: Voters can challenge a voter if they have a “legitimate reason” to believe the voter is not a citizen or is 18 years old, registered, or does not live in the location where the voter is registered, Roy said. . He suggested using the word “CARN” to help voters remember the categories – citizenship, age, residence and unregistered.
But the ruling did not detail what those “legitimate” reasons might be, even as participants cited unsubstantiated allegations of fraud, such as that voting machines were programmed to steal votes in 2020 or that thousands of mail-in ballots appeared to be fraudulent. The only caveat in the training session was that election monitors follow the law, be courteous and not make defamatory allegations of fraud.
The RNC plans to target Ann Arbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Muskegon and Warren, Ray said, listing Michigan cities with significant Democratic populations.
“If you feel comfortable in those positions, we definitely want you there,” he said.
The RNC is using right-wing celebrities to recruit volunteers, such as Jack Posobik, known for spreading the false “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, and running for Arizona Senate. Curry LakeA prominent election denier.
“We have to keep an eye on the entire system and we know why,” Lake said during a practice in August.
The RNC is not the only organization in Michigan that trains election challengers and activists: the Election Integrity Fund and Force, which sent many volunteers to the TCF center in 2020, is also organizing training sessions, distributing combat scripts to interested participants.
In a video of a July Election Integrity Fund and Force training session obtained by NBC News, organizers offered a suggested roadmap for challengers who “mislead” election workers: “I believe you have not met your legal obligation to fix this problem. exposes you to criminal prosecution until corrected.”
Via text message, the organization's executive director, Sandy Kiesel, confirmed that it is training volunteers.
“The basis of a free and fair democracy is that citizens fulfill their civic duty to participate in election inspectors, election contesters and other supervisory roles,” he said.
Michigan conservatives have spent the last two years organizing on election issues, said Cleta Mitchell, a former Trump campaign lawyer. Activists have begun creating amateur voter list maintenance programs, including Mitchell-linked EagleAI that could be used to challenge voters' eligibility based on public records, even as experts warn that the data is insufficient to make such a judgment.
“If we want to save our elections and our country, we have to get involved. We can't just be angry about it. We have to get our hands dirty.” Mitchell said on “The Tudor Dixon Podcast” in June.
At the RNC training session in August, a participant asked what would happen if the events at the TCF center were repeated. Roy's response was cautious.
“There is a lot of misinformation about Detroit. We all know what happened in Detroit in 2020, right? It was total chaos. There has never been a truly effective state program. So people, you know, when they saw things, or they didn't necessarily understand the process, they didn't know who to report it to, it was a mess,” he said.
The party was organized and did not have the same problems during the 2022 midterm elections, he said, before returning to the mission.
“Am I here to say this will never happen again?” She said, “No, because, you know, it might be too much.”
