A dire warning was delivered by Catherine Engelbrecht in Phoenix in 2011.
She claimed that she saw voter fraud so rampant that she stopped volunteering at her local polls. She said that people voted without proof of eligibility or registration. She said corrupt election judges marked votes for their preferred candidates.
No evidence of election tampering was found by the local authorities. The suburban Texas mom turned election-fraud warrior told the audience that they couldn't forget about it once they saw it. You definitely can't abide by it.
The woman was ahead of the game. The 2020 presidential election is believed to be the beginning of a false belief that voter fraud exists. One of the earliest and most enthusiastic spreaders of ballot conspiracy theories was Ms. Engelbrecht, who began planting seeds of doubt over the electoral process more than a decade ago.
She created a nonprofit advocacy group called True the Vote to advance her contentions. She went on to build a large network of supporters, forge alliances with conservatives and position herself as the leader of the campaign to clean up the voting system.
Ms. Engelbrecht, who is riding a wave of electoral skepticism, has seized the moment. She was the star of the recent film "2,000 Mules", which claimed mass voter fraud in the 2020 election and has been discredited.
She was involved in the far-right's battle for November's midterm elections, as well as the investigation of the 2020 results.
Ms. Engelbrecht said in an interview with a conservative show that they needed to be prepared. In order to prevent it from happening in 2022, there have been no substantive changes made.
The idea of voter fraud has become embedded in the culture thanks to a highly partisan climate. Even though such fraud is rare, Mr. Trump and his allies have continued to amplify Ms. Engelbrecht's claims of "ballot mules" and "ballot traffickers" on various platforms.
Misleading information about ballot boxes has gone up. The term "ballot mules," which refers to individuals who are paid to transport Absentee Ballots to Ballot Boxes, has appeared on the social media site 326,000 times since January.
People have set up stakeout to prevent illegal stuffing of ballot boxes in some places. Security is being increased at polling places.
Voting rights groups said they were worried about her.
The acting director of voting rights at the Brennan Center says that she has taken the power of rhetoric to a new place. It is having an impact on the way lawmakers and states are governing elections and on the concerns we have about the upcoming elections.
Some of her former allies are no longer friends with her. Rick Wilson quit after a few months when he was hired to run public relations for her. She didn't turn over the data to back her claims.
Mr. Wilson said that she didn't have enough evidence. That doesn't mean anything now. She's having a good time.
Republican donors were told in August 2020 that they could no longer support Ms. According to a video of the donor meeting obtained by The New York Times, they were confused by her recent activities, despite her early questions on voting. They didn't say why.
Ms. Mitchell said thatCatherine started out well. She left on other things. I don't know what she's doing
Mr Fund said he wouldn't give her a penny.
The abuse of ballot drop boxes was raised in the book "2,000 Mules" by Ms. Engelbrecht. The founder of a national sheriff's organization appeared with her in Las Vegas to announce a partnership to scrutinize voting during the elections.
According to Mr. Mack, the most important right the American people have is to choose their own public officials. The person trying to steal the right needs to be arrested.
Ms. Engelbrecht said the only misinformation coming from the political left was that she carries a bible and a pocket Constitution. She told law enforcement that she had evidence of voting fraud in 2020.
She said in a phone interview that she can't say how many times she's been through this exercise.
The P.T.A. volunteer and small-business owner had no interest in politics until Barack Obama was elected president. She volunteered at the polls because she was concerned. Her critique of the voting system caught the attention of the tea party.
In 2009, Ms. Engelbrecht created the nonprofit King Street Patriots, named after the site of the 1770 Boston Massacre, which caused colonial tensions to erupt again three years later. She formed a new group called True the Vote. According to a tax filing, the nonprofits wanted to promote freedom, capitalism, and American exceptionalism.
Conservatives embraced Ms. Mr Fund helped her get grants. Steve and Andrew spoke at her conferences.
Volunteers from True the Vote looked at registration rolls and wrote speculative reports. In 2010, a volunteer in San Diego saw a bus unload people at a polling station who did not seem to be from this country.
The activities were described by civil rights groups. Houston Votes, a nonprofit that registered voters in diverse communities of Harris County, Texas, was connected to the New Black Panther Party. She showed a video of a member of the New Black Panther calling for the killing of white people. The office of Houston Votes was raided.
The head of Houston Votes sued True the Vote, saying it was a lie and racist. After reaching an understanding that True the Vote wouldn't make accusations, he dropped the suit. She didn't recall the agreement.
Her profile grew taller. One of the 50 political figures to watch was her. She became a right-wing hero after it was revealed that the IRS had been targeting conservative nonprofits.
Ms. Engelbrecht worked with a former Texas public official who was focused on voting fraud. They were largely out of the mainstream until the 2020 election.
They took to the streets after Mr. Trump was defeated. According to a lawsuit, Ms. Engelbrecht tried to raise $7 million to investigate the election results in dozens of counties.
The donor was Fred Eshelman, a North Carolina-based drug company founder. He sued in federal court after asking for a refund. His lawyer said that True the Vote hadn't provided evidence for its election fraud claims and that much of Mr. Eshelman's money went to businesses connected with Ms.
Mr. Eshelman did not reply to requests for comment after he withdrew the suit and then filed a new one. The woman denied his claims.
The idea for "2,000 Mules" was hatched in the summer of 2021. They told him that they were able to detect cases of ballot box stuffing with the help of two terabytes of cellphone data that they had bought.
Mr. D'Souza and Salem Media Group agreed to make a movie. The title, "2,000 Mules", was meant to evoke the image of drug traffickers paying people to carry drugs into the US.
The premiere of the film was held at Mar-a-Lago by Mr. Trump. Senator Mike Lee, a Republican of Utah, said after seeing the film that it raised significant questions about the 2020 election results, and 17 state legislators in Michigan also called for an investigation into election results there.
True the Vote was asked by the attorney general's office in Arizona to provide information about some of the claims in "2,000 Mules." People had submitted illegal ballots and used "stash houses" to store fraudulent ballots, according to the contentions.
According to emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, a True the Vote official said that Mr.Phillips had turned over a hard drive with the data. It wasn't received by the attorney general's office.
The invitation-only gathering of about 150 supporters was streamed online. They promised to reveal the addresses of ballot "stash houses" and footage of voter fraud before the election.
The data was not disclosed at the event. She warned that the next great threat to voter integrity was the upcoming mid-term elections.
She said that the past is not complete.
Berzon reported.
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