"Republican officials publicly signaled plans to step up their Election Day monitoring after a judge in 2018 lifted a consent decree in place since 1982 that barred the Republican National Committee from voter verification and other 'ballot security' efforts. Critics have argued the tactics amount to voter intimidation."
That consent decree was established after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) sued the Republican National Committee (RNC) over the allegation the latter helped intimidate black voters in New Jersey's gubernatorial election by positioning off-duty police officers at urban area polling stations wearing armbands reading "National Ballot Security Task Force".
Some of those officers displayed visible firearms.
Now that consent decree has been lifted, "The RNC can work more closely with state parties and campaigns to do what we do best, ensure that more people vote through our unmatched field program," as RNC communications director Michael Ahrens claimed.
This comes mere days after conservative group, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, filed a lawsuit demanding Wisconsin purged 234,000 citizens from its voter rolls.
The state sent voters believed to have moved letters informing them they would be removed from voting lists if they did not respond within 30 days.
But that purge was not to take effect until 2021.
Justin Clark is heard in the audio recording as telling attendees:
"We've all seen the tweets about voter fraud, blah, blah, blah. Every time we're in with him, he asks what are we doing about voter fraud? What are we doing about voter fraud?' The point is he's committed to this, he believes in it and he will do whatever it takes to make sure it's successful."
Trump narrowly won Wisconsin in 2016.
In recent years, Republicans drew electoral districts blatantly benefiting themselves, attempted unsuccessfully to curtail early voting, and implemented an austere voter-ID law that discouraged as many as 23,252 voters in 2016 from casting ballots.
One Wisconsin Now deputy director, Mike Browne, lashed out at Clark's remarks and the strategy to disenfranchise Wisconsin voters:
"The strategy to rig the rules in elections and give themselves an unfair partisan advantage goes to Donald Trump, the highest levels of his campaign and the top Republican leadership. It's clear there's no law Donald Trump and his right-wing machine won't bend, break, or ignore to try to win the presidency."
A study from the Brennan Center for Justice reported last year that, between 2016 and 2018, at least 17 million voters were purged from nationwide voting rolls.
Voting districts with voter discrimination histories have purged 40% beyond the national average.
This is due almost entirely to the 2013 Supreme Court Shelby County vs. Holder decision that rolled back section five of the 1965 Voting Rights Act requiring states to receive Justice Department "pre-clearance" before initiating changes to voting laws that may impact minority voters.
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