Election Deniers Use Telegram to Rally Poll Watchers in Swing States [View all]

Source: Bloomberg

October 29, 2024 at 2:37 PM EDT


Conspiracy theorists who believe Donald Trump won the 2020 US election are making plans online to monitor and film polling places in US swing states, an effort that civil rights groups say risks suppressing voter turnout.

Organizers in Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin and elsewhere have created communities on the messaging app Telegram to coordinate observation of voting locations and ballot boxes, according to a trove of documents released by the pro-transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets.

Tens of thousands of so-called election deniers are involved in conversations on Telegram about preventing what they say will be widespread fraud in the Nov. 5 election, according to the documents and social media conversations seen by Bloomberg News. Participants are asked to volunteer to watch polls during specific hours, take note of what they deem as suspicious activity and share video footage with local law enforcement agencies.

Demands for poll watchers in closely contested states trace their roots to the 2020 US election, when Trump and his allies falsely asserted that widespread fraud robbed him of victory and delivered the presidency to Joe Biden. Trump has sustained those bogus claims since then, fueling efforts by his followers to organize poll-observation this year in his contest against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-29/election-deniers-use-telegram-to-rally-poll-watchers-in-swing-states?srnd=homepage-americas