Trump fans urging for rise in poll watchers ahead of midterms

Senior Research Manager Katherine Keneally spoke with The Daily Beast about a recent ISD report that outlined a surge in calls for poll watchers by Trump fans who are already accusing Democrats of voter fraud, and the vulnerabilities being experienced in major swing states.

Katherine explained how “some of those conspiracy theories target individual election workers whose identities are shared online.”

“Unfortunately as a result of the increase in this trend of doxxing and general threats to election workers, offices are having a very difficult time maintaining election workers and hiring because people are fearful that they’ll be threatened or their families will be threatened and that their lives are at risk,” Katherine said.

When it comes to swing states, Katherine said that their primed for the rapid spread of conspiracies.

“Often other conspiracy theories will be predominantly limited to fringe platforms” like Gab and Telegram. “But in some of our key states or swing states, like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona those conspiracies are transitioning from fringe to mainstream. And so that’s where they’re able to garner increased attention.”