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Republicans launch an effort to recruit and train thousands to watch voting in Ohio and other states

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Voter fraud is extremely rare, and Ohio is often mentioned as having the gold standard of election and voting laws, with bipartisan elections workers in every county. But Republicans say they plan to bring in thousands of volunteers to watch for issues on election day in Ohio and more than a dozen other states.

Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley speaks to a room of volunteers at the Ohio Republican Party's headquarters in Columbus
Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley speaks to a room of volunteers at the Ohio Republican Party’s headquarters in Columbus on Aug. 23, 2024. [Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau]
This comes as former president Donald Trump has said his focus is not on voter turnout among Republicans but instead to watch Democrats voting “to make sure they don’t cheat, because we have all the votes we’ll need.” Since 2016, Trump has been making unfounded claims that elections in the U.S. are riddled with fraud, and in 2020 said, “the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.” He continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

With what it’s calling the Protect the Vote tour, the Republican National Committee is recruiting and training thousands of volunteers as poll workers and observers for early voting and election day, hoping to have 5,000 in 18 states, including Ohio.

The effort kicked off in Ohio on Friday with a training session at the state Republican Party headquarters in Columbus. Before that session began, a few dozen volunteers heard comments from Attorney General Dave Yost, former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi and RNC chair Michael Whatley.

“What we’re going to talk about is things like on election day, when you’re working as a volunteer, what are you supposed to see? What’s it going to look like? What is a normal day at a polling location?” Whatley told the volunteers. “That way, if you see something out of the ordinary, you can say, ‘hey, maybe that’s not right.'”

Whatley told reporters later these volunteers in Ohio and the other states will work with county officials to ensure elections system work correctly.

“When they do, people are going to have more confidence and they’re going to be more inclined to come out there,” Whatley said. “If we have even 1% of voters stay home because they don’t think their vote is going to be protected, that’s a huge problem.”

Several federal and Ohio laws were enacted to ensure voters aren’t intimidated, and there are specific guidelines to challenge whether a voter is qualified to cast a ballot. And Whatley said he’s not concerned about voter intimidation.

“No. I think one of the things that we focus on, in the training sessions is making sure that we respect the process, we respect the poll workers, and we respect, most importantly, the voters,” Whatley said.

Whatley, who has previously claimed without evidence there was massive fraud in the 2020 election, also says the RNC will hire thousands of attorneys to observe on election day.

Ohio isn’t considered a battleground state for the presidential vote, but both parties have targeted the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown and Northeast Ohio businessman Bernie Moreno as a must-win contest.