LAT: Conservative activists push voter fraud claims to recruit an army to police California recall

Conservative activists who have long promoted unproven and often false claims of voter fraud in California are spearheading a major new effort to capitalize on the upcoming gubernatorial recall, attempting to recruit tens of thousands of volunteers to police the polls on election day.

The effort is the outgrowth of a campaign waged for nearly three decades to challenge ballots and voter registrations in California — one often aimed at immigrants, a Times investigation has found.

In November, volunteers from one of the fraud watch groups, Election Integrity Project, caused disruptions at the polls, sometimes intimidating voters, according to election logs, emails and records filed in federal court.

An observer in Nevada County raised concerns about the race of a woman seen removing ballots from a drop box outside the county building, according to county records. The woman, who was Black, was the county registrar’s wife.

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In San Diego County, a volunteer poll watcher upset voters by telling them they should surrender their hand-delivered mail-in ballots so they could be canceled and instead vote in person. And in Orange County, an observer attempted to interrupt a couple voting together, and another caused a disturbance for three hours by trying to interview voters as they left. “Inspector wants her gone but is unsure of how,” the call log noted, under the heading “Voter Intimidation.”