Precinct Strategy was created and popularized by Dan Schultz, an attorney and Republican precinct and state committeeman in 2017. It depends on Precinct Committeemen (PC) or officers who are the worker bees of political parties, typically responsible for routine tasks like making phone calls or knocking on doors. But collectively, they can influence how elections are run. In some states, they have a say in choosing poll workers, and in others, they help pick members of boards that oversee elections.
This new precinct strategy movement is built entirely around the insistence of election fraud. According to the Washington Post, “the enduring myth that the 2020 election was rigged was not one claim by one person. It was many claims stacked one atop the other, repeated by a phalanx of people. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2021/trump-election-fraud-texas-businessman-ramsland-asog/
The result is a nationwide groundswell of party activists. And their goal is not merely to win elections, but to reshape their machinery. ProPublica has reported that this uncompromising focus on elections instigated 41 out of 65 key counties to report an unusual increase in PC signups in the Republican Party with no similar surge in the Democratic Party.
It is important to protect the integrity of our elections. But we must be careful not to undermine free and fair access to the ballot in the name of preventing phantom voter fraud. Numerous studies, including one commissioned by the White House, have reached the conclusion that there was no voter fraud in the 2020 election.
In conclusion, as engaged citizens and voters, we must --
- Be aware of Precinct Strategy action by any party or organization locally, statewide, and nationally
- Promote the truth about any possible voter fraud,
- Protect voting rights and
- Ensure that the integrity of our elections and election machinery does not become undermined by partisan use of movements like Precinct Strategy
