Seventeen months after the US Capitol assault, Donald Trump’s crusade to overturn the 2020 election has morphed into a rallying cry for Republicans seeking an edge at the polls and to drive more of their supporters to vote.
Ahead of the midterm elections — in which the Democrats’ fragile hold on control of the Senate hangs in the balance, and with it the future of Joe Biden’s presidency — millions of Americans still support the crusade against what Trump and his supporters claim, against all evidence, was “massive fraud” in 2020.
That belief is helping Republicans to recruit poll workers, and to put forward candidates for elected positions with sway over how elections are carried out, experts say.
“Republicans are moving into a position in which they can exercise more influence over the conduct and the counting of votes,” says Christopher Arterton, a professor of political management at George Washington University.
“If you don’t think that the election was fairly conducted in 2020, then there’s a reason why you would get motivated to become a poll worker. And we see that going on in a number of states — under the radar, so to speak,” he says.
For his part, Trump fans the claims on social media — on the sites he’s allowed to post on, anyway — abundantly sharing content denouncing the 2020 contest won by Biden.
“The election was stolen, retruth if you agree” states one user’s post that was shared by Trump on Truth Social, the network that the former president created after...
Fenland residents have been warned not to risk incorrectly claiming Council Tax Support following two recent prosecutions for false claims. Support and benefits are there to help vulnerable and low...