Conservative push to recruit election deniers as poll workers causes alarm

Training sessions in battleground states led by activists who claim the 2020 election was stolen aim to influence conduct of elections

Republicans and other conservative groups are undertaking a huge effort to recruit election workers, a push that could install people with unfounded doubts about the 2020 election in key positions in voting precincts where they could exert considerable power over elections.

At the forefront of this push is Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who was on Donald Trump's legal team in 2020 and played a key role in his effort to overturn the election. Over the last few months, Mitchell has held election integrity summits" in several battleground states, convening groups and citizens who continue to believe the 2020 election was stolen. The summits offer in-depth training on how to monitor election offices and how to work elections. At a mid-June summit in North Carolina, Mitchell mocked the term election denier" and said whether the outcome was correct, that's all I deny". Voter fraud is extremely rare and there was no evidence of widespread fraud in 2020.