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1. Embed this notice
   Chuck Darwin (cdarwin@c.im)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 01:20:53 JST Chuck Darwin

   in reply to

   “I pray for an anointing.
   Angels will go with them,
   and they’ll expose the hidden works of darkness,”
   Wallnau said.

   “They’ll be led to discover whatever nefarious things are being done by the darkness.”

   Wallnau did similar recruiting in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,
   directing attendees to Lion of Judah.

   The organization, which features Trump prominently on its website, offers a free course titled “Fight the Fraud,”
   with modules detailing poll workers’ basic duties and helping people find their local elections offices so they can apply
   as well as email templates to streamline the process.

   It tells students that “election workers matter now more than ever”
   because the “threat of election fraud is a serious concern”
   and “what happened in 2020 can never happen again!”

   At a Wallnau event outside Pittsburgh last month, #Greg #Pontinen of Murrysville, Pennsylvania, said he decided to register as a poll worker after speaking with an activist soliciting support for administering elections by hand-counting paper ballots.

   “It just seems like there’s a lot of controversy, and there’s a lot of people that have been in a lot of anguish over the last election,
   of improprieties and rigged elections,” he said.

   “I think if you have oversight on that, you have less chance of that, and I think that’s a firsthand chance for me to actually watch for that.”

   • Embed this notice
     Chuck Darwin (cdarwin@c.im)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 01:20:54 JST Chuck Darwin

     in reply to

     “Stand Up. We’re Going to Induct You.”

     Historically, campaigns, parties and advocacy groups have enlisted volunteer #poll #watchers to observe the process and flag concerns.

     In 2020, hundreds swarmed ballot-counting centers in states where the vote was close.

     On social media and in unsuccessful lawsuits, Trump claimed Republican poll watchers had witnessed fraud or were denied the chance to observe, fueling conspiracy theories that the contest had been stolen from him.

     But poll watchers can only look and, in some states, raise challenges.

     #Poll #workers, on the other hand, are paid to help to physically administer the election.

     As temporary government employees, they may register voters, check identification, issue ballots and assist with equipment.

     In Georgia and Arizona this year, they’ll also help hand-count ballots or the envelopes for absentee ballots returned on Election Day.

     🆘That direct access to the voting is exactly what the activists are promising.

     In May, Wallnau brought his Courage Tour to a massive white tent an hour outside Detroit.

     He moved among the crowd, clasping his arms around believers as they swayed together to worship music.

     Later that day, he summoned them to their feet as he issued a holy assignment: to serve as poll workers.

     “Who here is bothered about the election integrity issue?”
     Wallnau asked.

     “Who is interested in obeying God, election integrity and getting paid to do it? All right, stand up. We’re going to induct you.”

     Dozens in the crowd stood, heads bowed and arms raised

     Bill repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Chuck Darwin (cdarwin@c.im)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 01:20:55 JST Chuck Darwin

     in reply to

     “You have a clear admission publicly of what the game is,
     that they fundamentally assume that our election systems are corrupt,
     ♦️and so they believe that it is their job to corrupt them in their own direction,”
     Matthew Taylor, a scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, said of Sparks’ remarks.

     Taylor, whose new book documents the role of Christian right leaders like Wallnau in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection,
     said
     the ⭐️“propaganda value” of having someone inside the voting system, who “presents quote unquote evidence of election fraud that does not stand up in court, that is completely debunked later on,” is still enormous and bad for democracy.

   • Embed this notice
     Chuck Darwin (cdarwin@c.im)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 01:20:56 JST Chuck Darwin

     The Republican and Democratic parties have historically recruited poll workers,
     and almost every state legally requires some amount of partisan balance.

     Ahead of 2024, Republicans have accused officials in five Michigan and Wisconsin cities of unfairly overlooking their nominees and overstaffing polling places with Democrats.

     The challenges in Flint, Michigan, and Madison, Wisconsin, were dismissed (one by a court, the other by the Wisconsin Elections Commission),
     and Republican applicants in some places have since filed the required paperwork and signed up; other challenges are ongoing.

     ⚠️What’s newer is groups outside the parties making concerted efforts to recruit poll workers themselves.

     The Election Integrity Network, founded by #Cleta #Mitchell, a former lawyer for ex-President Donald Trump, began enlisting poll workers during the 2022 midterms.

     Now, more groups have joined it.

     💥These include True the Vote, whose claims formed the basis of the widely debunked and eventually retracted film “2000 Mules,” which claimed to show election fraud,

     💥and The Lion of Judah, a group aspiring to be the “Christian version of the NRA” that is traveling to swing states with #Lance #Wallnau to recruit conservative Christian poll workers.

     Late last month, Trump’s vice presidential nominee, JD #Vance, lent Wallnau’s efforts credibility by appearing at a tour stop in Pennsylvania.

     It is unknown how many poll workers these groups have recruited, in part because they aren’t saying and in part because election offices don’t ask people about their motivation.

     https://www.propublica.org/article/poll-worker-recruitment-swing-states-true-the-vote-lion-of-judah

     Bill repeated this.