(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) In its Aug. 29, 2024, letter, the Republican National Committee stated that the Pennsylvania Democratic Party may be illegally recruiting out-of-state poll watchers.
On its website, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party stated that any recruited poll watchers must be physically present in the state to work but that they “do not necessarily have to be PA voters.”
In its letter, the RNC wrote that the state party’s guidance contradicts Pennsylvania state law, which requires poll watchers to be “a qualified registered elector of the county” where the polling occurs.
“That’s a completely inaccurate statement regarding Pennsylvania poll watchers. Our law is extremely strict on that. A candidate can’t even enter the polling place unless he’s actually there to vote. If you want to be a poll watcher, you have to be a resident of the county where that district is,” Linda A. Kerns, Pennsylvania election integrity counsel for the RNC, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow and manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation, also criticized Democrats in Pennsylvania.
“The Pennsylvania Democratic Party is soliciting individuals to violate state law,” Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow and manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF.
In addition to disputing the legality of these guidelines in the letter, the RNC also claimed that recruiting poll watchers based on their restrictions could interfere with the legitimacy of the election results.
“It’s incorrect, and the last thing voters need is to have incorrect information like that spread. And I think that the Democrats know that. People have the right to go to their polling place and have it be a smooth experience. That’s what our laws are designed for,” Kern said.
The RNC also wrote that the “misinformation on the PA Dems’ website threatens the integrity of November’s general election” and that the “Democratic Party cannot be permitted to recruit poll watchers in violation of the law and flood polling places with unqualified out-of-state poll watchers across the Commonwealth.”
In the letter, the RNC also expressed concern about the Pennsylvania Democrats’ statements on their website about “early vote monitors,” who are responsible for assisting “voters outside Boards of Election and satellite locations during voting.”
The RNC stated that recruiting these “early vote monitors” could “threaten chaos” at these election offices and risk the monitors’ ability to “engage in observation of voting activities.”
