Two groups of right-wing sheriffs that echo some of Donald Trump’s false claims about widespread voting fraud in 2020 are mounting drives to monitor this year’s elections for potential voting and election fraud. The two Arizona-led groups together claim over 350 sheriffs as members nationwide and have forged ties with Texas-based True the Vote, which has a history of making unverified claims of voting fraud. The movement has prompted watchdogs and law enforcement veterans to voice alarms of looming threats to voting rights and election workers, reports The Guardian. The sheriffs’ drive to investigate voting fraud was evident at a secretive Arizona meeting last Saturday that drew a crowd of some 200 allies, including former sheriff Richard Mack and current sheriff Mark Lamb, who each lead sheriffs’ groups. The True the Vote chief, Catherine Engelbrecht, arranged the event.
The gathering lasted about seven and a half hours and featured talks by Engelbrecht and Lamb, the sheriff of Pinal County, Az. who teamed up in June to create ProtectAmerica.Vote. to promote a larger role for sheriffs in election monitoring, said Mack. “I totally support what they’re doing,” said Mack, who leads the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which has thousands of members, including hundreds of sheriffs. The event provided “more evidence of quite extensive election fraud”, said Mack. “There’s no way anyone in this country should be trusting computers to tabulate votes.” The gathering heard from Kari Lake, the Trump-backed GOP gubernatorial nominee in Arizona, and was attended by Mark Finchem, a state legislator and the Trump-endorsed nominee for secretary of state, which has authority over election supervision.