On a Friday night in a warehouse plastered with posters of MAGA figures like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, former tax law professor David Clements demonstrated to a group of 30 people how to take over a public meeting if their election concerns aren’t being taken seriously.
“You need to focus right now on who administers your elections here, who certifies your elections,” he told the crowd, who had gathered in a warehouse repurposed as an America First social club in a suburban Long Island town.
After the 2020 election, conspiracy theorists − with the support of former President Donald Trump − scrambled to prove the election had been stolen. They failed. But they have used the time since to create a nationwide “election integrity” infrastructure that can be activated moving forward.
For the last four years, a network of right-wing activists and Trump allies, like Clements, has crisscrossed the country and held thousands of organizing meetings in order to create an army of tens of thousands of community activists to collect proof of alleged fraud for lawsuits or to pressure local election officials to not certify the election. In many places, their efforts have already begun with lawsuits and a flood of information requests.
The training for local activists − held at churches, libraries and civic organizations − largely relies on baseless claims and conspiracy theories that have been debunked in the courts, by fact checkers and independent experts, or by nonpartisan audits.
With just over a month until Election Day, Clements urged his audience to talk with local election officials about how election machines work, so they’ll consider not certifying the election results.
Read more at AOL.com
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