While the "Protect the Vote Tour" may attract some poll watchers with more genuine intentions, it is structurally part of the GOP's overall strategy of stoking an unfounded panic about alleged voter fraud and intensifying barriers for any voters they deem suspect - particularly voters of color.
The last [election] was stolen, so I'm looking at this one to keep it safe," said Mike Semler, an attendee who stated his view that non-U.S. citizens pose a threat to the presidential election... "We've got a civil war ahead of us either way."
While it is standard for both parties to recruit poll watchers, former president Donald Trump and the Republicans Party's obsession with voter fraud conspiracies - which are often laced with racist assumptions - undergirds the recruitment drive.
The GOP volunteer recruitment effort... was easy to miss, but the small crowd of Republican activists who slowly trickled in for the training seminar there on September 13 were impassioned.
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