‘Election integrity’ groups have built digital infrastructure to collect examples of supposed voter fraud

(CNN) — As some key battleground states celebrated record early voter turnout last week, a rash of misinformation began to spread through new digital tools launched by election conspiracy theorists.

In one case, a self-described relief worker in hurricane-battered North Carolina posted a dire warning on VoteAlert.org: Federal Emergency Management Agency employees responding to the storm damage were actually there as part of a “ballot stuffing” scheme intended to swing the election. The post alleged FEMA would use stockpiles of donations “as a cover to bring absentee ballots” in with tractor trailers.

The claim – which was readily dismissed by local authorities – is just one example of a new crop of falsehoods that have begun to proliferate on apps and webpages unveiled by various right-wing groups.

Their intention for the apps is to give citizens a way to document suspected wrongdoing in November’s election. But on one of the platforms where complaints are publicly viewable, many of the allegations are rife with misunderstandings of election processes or lack proof for their claims, according to officials who reviewed them at CNN’s request.

Some of the groups behind these new apps and websites have a history of pushing elaborate theories of election fraud. One has sued close to a dozen states to make it harder to certify elections, and counts among its attorneys one of the lawyers who defended Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election.

One social media app is founded by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Another is a tipline run by a group that has been repeatedly promoted by Steve Bannon’s “War Room” show. One of the platforms is an app that displays user-submitted claims of election improprieties across a map of the US, whose founder has said that the 2020 election prompted his group to “kick things into high-gear with development.”

America PAC, the pro-Trump super PAC funded by Elon Musk, launched an “Election Integrity Community” page on Musk’s platform X this week, encouraging users to “share potential incidents of voter fraud or irregularities you see while voting in the 2024 election.”

Election watchdogs fear this digital infrastructure could enable groups to collect, spread and potentially weaponize false information faster and more strategically than they did in 2020. Moreover, they say such tools could further embolden activists to act in a way that diverts local resources or even interferes with voting at polling sites.

“These apps, these websites are part of a broader trend of trying to undermine public trust, trying to cause chaos and ultimately trying to lay the groundwork to potentially question or try to overturn election results,” said Joanna Lydgate, the president and CEO of States United Democracy Center, a Washington, DC, based group founded to advance fair elections.

Armies of amateur election police, primed with years of false ideas about voting insecurities, now stand ready to file complaints in central repositories, which could become fodder for post-election lawsuits.

“What we witnessed in 2020 was more of an ad hoc approach to undermining elections,” Lydgate added. “The anti-democracy movement has become more sophisticated in the years since.”

‘Suspicious’ activity

One of the more prominent projects comes from the conservative Texas-based nonprofit True the Vote, which in September called on supporters to “join the frontline of election protection” by using a new app. Known as VoteAlert, the app enables users to report “suspicious” activity and review other allegations on a feed that resembles those of other popular social media platforms.

Already, the app displays dozens of crowdsourced allegations of election improprieties in precincts across the country, which have prompted hundreds of likes and comments between users.

A VoteAlert user suggested earlier this month, for example, that “ballot stealing” from mailboxes occurred in Jefferson County, Colorado, based on a Ring camera video that shows a man on a neighborhood street looking in a mailbox at around 2 a.m.

Amanda Gonzalez, Jefferson County clerk, stated that although county officials are aware of this incident, they are not aware of evidence of any ballot theft. She added that a hypothetically stolen ballot would not count if it were cast because the signature would not match the signature of the voter on file.

Another VoteAlert account posted that people in Haines, Alaska, had registered to vote and cast ballots in past elections using the address of a post office as their home address, which the user called a “common fraudulent registration practice.” An operations manager with Alaska’s elections division, Michaela Thompson, called the post inaccurate and said no registered voters have that address listed as their residence.

In Henrico County, Virginia, a VoteAlert user complained  of “electioneering” after their husband voted at a courthouse and saw “a very large Kamala Harris tent right by the door.” Anne Marie Middlesworth, the county’s deputy registrar, told CNN that the tent was more than the required 40 feet from the doors of the polling place and that Republicans have also setup a tent at the location.

‘Cut out the middleman’

True the Vote’s founder Catherine Engelbrecht, who has amplified various election conspiracy theories and helped organize mass challenges to voter registrations across the US earlier this year, has argued her group seeks to empower citizens to ensure fair elections. Engelbrecht did not respond to a request for comment.

But local officials say that rather than posting on apps, concerned voters should go straight to authorities.

“Cut out the middleman and report it straight to our office so that we can investigate it,” said Frank Phillips, the election administrator for Denton County, Texas.

Phillips was the focus of a VoteAlert post that suggested he said that poll workers must allow people with “non citizen” IDs to vote. Phillips said the post misconstrued a prior policy he had articulated related to limited-term driver’s licenses, and he added that Texas has a verification process to ensure noncitizens are not registered to vote. “I never said illegals could vote,” he said.

The state issued an advisory earlier this month clarifying that Texans should not use limited-term driver’s licenses to vote.

The dubious nature of claims on such platforms may not stop them from being leveraged by groups in post-election lawsuits or for political strategies, said Alice Clapman, senior counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Voting Rights Program.

“Election deniers are using technology to generate details that are not actually evidence, but that could look like evidence potentially to the courts, to the public,” Clapman said. “I think the strategy is to just generate such high volumes of misinformation that it’s harder for journalists, for courts, for the public to parse through all of that.”

Despite the fact that about 60 lawsuits filed by Trump’s lawyers and allies that challenged aspects of the 2020 race were dropped or dismissed, Trump has insisted he won that election.

‘Forensic heavy lifting’

Last month, in an appearance on Bannon’s “War Room” program, activist Marly Hornik introduced her organization’s new tool to report any suspicious activity at the polls.

Hornik, co-founder of the Missouri-based United Sovereign Americans, steered listeners to a new “election complaint” webpage on the group’s site, where people could submit purported violations they witnessed to authorities.

In just a few clicks, Hornik explained, users could file reports and receive back copies that they would need to send to their state election officials – providing a trail of “evidence” that could be used in future litigation. The webpage also allows users to upload videos, photographs and relevant documents, she said.

Guest host Ben Harnwell, one of a regular cast of fill-ins since Bannon went to federal prison in July to serve a four-month sentence on a contempt of Congress conviction, called the plan “genius.”

“We have to do this if we really love this country,” said Hornik. “If we really want to win, we have to do this forensic heavy lifting.”

The bare-bones webpage would not appear out of place on a local government website, if not for the Uncle Sam icon and the phrase, “We need you!” at the start of an instructional video. The form provides users with multiple options to list what they claim to have seen at their polling place, ranging from potentially serious issues like a site closing without notice to more benign concerns like long lines.

The video’s narrator states clearly that any complaints will become part of the public record and may be used in any future legal action.

“They’re actually more blatant than some of the other groups about how they are collecting these incidents in an attempt to file post-election litigation, to block certification or dispute the results,” said Emma Steiner, a researcher at the progressive watchdog group Documented who has tracked the rise of self-identified election integrity groups, like United Sovereign Americans, since the 2020 election.

‘Palpably baseless legal claims’

United Sovereign Americans has already been aggressive in its legal strategy this election season. The group has filed lawsuits in nine states to prevent the certification of elections until authorities comply with various demands, such as the overhaul of state voter rolls, which it argues are plagued with errors. Among the group’s attorneys is Bruce Castor, who in 2021 represented former President Trump in his second impeachment trial before the US Senate.

Authorities in some states have balked at some of the suits’ arguments. Ohio’s Republican attorney general, for example, argued one of the pending suits seeks to “halt the 2024 election” based on “palpably baseless legal claims.”

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for United Sovereign Americans said the organization simply acts as “a conduit to assist citizens in following a legally valid process,” and that the group hopes people also send their complaints to officials responsible for investigating. The spokesperson added that the group may file more lawsuits.

On its website, United Sovereign Americans says it depends on donations to fund its legal strategy. The group reported just under $14,000 in cash on hand at the end of 2023, according to filings. A recent fundraising campaign on the group’s site aimed to gather 100,000 small dollar donors.

Regardless of the merits of the claims from such groups, voting experts say the strategy of using misinformation for political gain in this election has already begun.

“It’s not a matter of speculation about whether people will be sowing doubts,” said Clapman of the Brennan Center. “They are already sowing them, so it is an all-hands-on-deck effort to put out accurate information … and ensure we have a peaceful transfer of power.”

CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report

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