Listen here:
This American Life: Watching the Watchers
Read here:
This American Life: Watching the Watchers
Ira Glass: Precinct committeemen do all kinds of political grunt work-- door knocking, phone banking, leafleting. They often work as official poll watchers on election day for the party. But in addition, and this might not sound like a big deal but it's key-- they often elect officials higher up in the Republican Party, who elect the officials even higher up than that, who elect the state parties and the national party and decide where GOP is going to spend money and what races to back, they decide the party platform. They determine what the party officially stands for.
These are the jobs at the bottom that Steve Bannon wants to fill with people who believe that the last election was stolen, people who are very excited at the chance to do something, anything to prevent an election from being stolen again. And Bannon has kept the drumbeat going for months and months to get MAGA Stop the Steal people to sign up for these jobs.
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Isaac Arnsdorf: One of the biggest things these Stop the Steal newbies are doing, now that they're part of the party organization at the bottom rung as precinct committee people, is that they're setting up an infrastructure to watch all the voting locations in the midterms, to catch the fraud they didn't catch in 2020.
They've signed up as official Republican Party poll watchers at voting locations. On primary day, outside one of those locations, a big suburban church in Mesa, we meet up with Peggy Dumas, someone who never paid attention to her precinct until she just became a committee member.
She's got her snacks, her knitting, a notebook, and a pen to take notes. It's her first time poll watching. She picked a quiet polling place. I thought Peggy would be excited to get a piece of the action, to catch the cheaters red handed. But actually she didn't want that.
They've already manufactured the excuse for why they won't see the fraud they claim is happening everywhere...and after it's all over and they can't document it, they'll still claim fraud is rampant when their candidate loses. You listen to this and these people are unhinged from reality and, at least in AZ, they are absolutely taking over the party from the bottom up.
This American Life: Watching the Watchers
Read here:
This American Life: Watching the Watchers
Ira Glass: Precinct committeemen do all kinds of political grunt work-- door knocking, phone banking, leafleting. They often work as official poll watchers on election day for the party. But in addition, and this might not sound like a big deal but it's key-- they often elect officials higher up in the Republican Party, who elect the officials even higher up than that, who elect the state parties and the national party and decide where GOP is going to spend money and what races to back, they decide the party platform. They determine what the party officially stands for.
These are the jobs at the bottom that Steve Bannon wants to fill with people who believe that the last election was stolen, people who are very excited at the chance to do something, anything to prevent an election from being stolen again. And Bannon has kept the drumbeat going for months and months to get MAGA Stop the Steal people to sign up for these jobs.
...
Isaac Arnsdorf: One of the biggest things these Stop the Steal newbies are doing, now that they're part of the party organization at the bottom rung as precinct committee people, is that they're setting up an infrastructure to watch all the voting locations in the midterms, to catch the fraud they didn't catch in 2020.
They've signed up as official Republican Party poll watchers at voting locations. On primary day, outside one of those locations, a big suburban church in Mesa, we meet up with Peggy Dumas, someone who never paid attention to her precinct until she just became a committee member.
She's got her snacks, her knitting, a notebook, and a pen to take notes. It's her first time poll watching. She picked a quiet polling place. I thought Peggy would be excited to get a piece of the action, to catch the cheaters red handed. But actually she didn't want that.
Peggy Dumas:
You know, I get worked up. You know me. And they'd probably throw me out.Isaac Arnsdorf:
Basically, she's scared she's going to hulk out.Peggy Dumas:
I have to confront somebody, it's not going to get pretty. So I have to watch my temper.Zoe Chace:
Like, what do you imagine happening?Peggy Dumas:
Not really nothing. I think-- I think it's because they know we're watching.They've already manufactured the excuse for why they won't see the fraud they claim is happening everywhere...and after it's all over and they can't document it, they'll still claim fraud is rampant when their candidate loses. You listen to this and these people are unhinged from reality and, at least in AZ, they are absolutely taking over the party from the bottom up.