CNN —The Trump campaign and Republican National Committee are pledging to deploy 100,000 volunteers and lawyers to monitor vote counting across battleground states this year – part of what officials describe as a stepped-up focus on “election integrity” by the national party. As the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Trump now controls the RNC and recently installed a new chairman, Michael Whatley, and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as party co-chair. “Having the right people to count the ballots is just as important as turning out voters on Election Day,” Trump said in a statement. It’s not unusual for political parties and candidates to work to recruit and deploy lawyers and partisan poll watchers to protect their interests as voters cast their ballots and election officials tally the results. Spies promised aggressive legal action if officials deviate from established election procedures or “try to change them at the last minute.”The new election monitoring program comes as the RNC has engaged in dozens of election-related lawsuits around the country.

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