As Republican candidates and their supporters increasingly focus on specious claims of rampant voter fraud, a federal trial starting in Georgia on Thursday will examine whether a key campaign to unmask illegal voters in 2020 actually aimed to intimidate legal ones.
The outcome could have implications for conservative election integrity organizations that are widely expected to ramp up antifraud efforts during next year’s general election.
That question is serious enough that the Department of Justice has filed a brief in the case and will defend the government’s view of the act’s scope at the trial.
The campaign, mounted in December 2020 by a right-wing group called True the Vote, filed challenges with local election officials to the eligibility of some 250,000 registered Georgia voters.
The group also offered bounties from a $1 million reward fund for evidence of “election malfeasance” and sought to recruit citizen monitors to patrol polls and ballot drop-off locations.
Persons:
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Organizations:
Republican, Department of Justice, Georgia voters
Locations:
Georgia