Across the country, election workers prepare for possible clashes with aggressive, conspiracy-driven poll watchers

A Republican election challenger watches over 
election inspectors in Michigan in 2020.
(David Goldman/AP Photo)

Election workers across the country are preparing for potentially confrontational volunteer poll watchers as many Republican-supporting groups, still skeptical about the results of the 2020 election, are recruiting and training volunteers to search for irregularities at precincts in November, report Hannah Schoenbaum and Nicholas Riccardi for The Associated Press. In North Carolina, aggressive poll watchers in the spring's primary election brought a tense atmosphere to some precincts and election officials had to ask poll watchers to back off at times. 

"It becomes complete babysitting," Anne Risku, the election director in North Carolina's Wayne County told AP. "The back and forth for the precinct officials, having somebody constantly on you for every little thing that you do — not because you’re doing it wrong, but because they don’t agree with what you’re doing." During the primary, Risku said that in her county there were issues with poll workers from both parties, but the 13 incidents she reported back all involved Republicans. 

Laws governing poll watchers vary in every state; their role is to generally observe and question deviations from required procedure, Schoenbaum and Riccardi report. But officials "fear that a surge of conspiracy believers are signing up for those positions this year and are being trained by others who have propagated the lie spread by former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was riddled with fraud."

The Republican Party in Brown County, Wisconsin, has recruited over 100 poll watchers, reports Alexa Corse for The Wall Street Journal. Ken Glowacki, a 70-year-old retiree who signed up to be a poll watcher because he was unsure about the results of the 2020 election, told Corse that he thought Democrats used the pandemic as excuse to change election rules. Nationally, Democrats have accused Republicans of recruiting partisan poll watchers to intimidate at the precincts. Republicans have rejected the notion, saying they want to increase transparency and increase confidence in elections. Jim Fitzgerald, chairman of the Brown County Republican Party said they "wanted to be a partner in restoring the integrity of the ballot box."