Gifford is not a newcomer to election integrity work, having spent a decade in California in the space, before moving to Las Vegas in 2019. It was while in California that she met Engelbrecht, the cofounder of True the Vote, which has been at the forefront of pushing false narratives around the 2020 and 2024 elections.
Engelbrecht and True the Vote have effectively tried to disenfranchise voters by claiming that voter rolls are filled with phony voter registrations. Engelbrecht’s rhetoric was given an unprecedented boost in the wake of 2020, when Trump and other elected officials mainstreamed conspiracies that the elections had been rigged in favor of Democrats. Hundreds of national and local election denial groups were formed, and many of them amassed huge followings on social media platforms like Telegram.
Gifford is still in contact with Engelbrecht and has also taken part in some of the online meetings held by the Election Integrity Network, the group run by Mitchell which has been pushing the baseless narrative that a flood of illegal immigrants will vote in this week’s election.
Engelbrecht, Mitchell, True the Vote, and the Election Integrity Network did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
On Thursday, Mitchell held the group’s final online meeting before the election, to hammer home the conspiracy that huge numbers of illegal immigrants will be voting illegally on Tuesday.
The group has spent months promoting its “Only Citizens Vote” campaign, and during the call on Thursday, a recording of which WIRED reviewed, Mitchell once again urged her followers to be on the lookout for non-English speakers.
“It’s math, it’s not racism,” Mitchell said in response to criticism of her group targeting minority voters with signs being placed at polling stations warning voters that casting a ballot illegally could result in long prison sentences.
The constant drumbeat of election denial conspiracy theories for the past four years has resulted in a heightened risk of violence, which is happening even before the election begins. The election denial movement has merged with the far-right Constitutional Sheriffs group as leaders have said they are working with militias and sheriffs to be prepared to respond to reports of election fraud. In Arizona, the leader of one militia group who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity said he was convinced that the only way Trump was going to lose was if the election was rigged, something he believes is already happening.
When asked if his group was planning to take any action around the election he said they were not, but added that if Harris was declared the winner, then “someone, somewhere will take kinetic action and when that happens, things get very bad, very quickly.”
But, if violence broke out, he says his group would be “ready to defend themselves, and the Republic.”
Gifford says her work is more focused on transparency rather than partisanship. But when asked whether she believes the 2020 election was stolen, she quietly admits she does. When asked why, Gifford doesn’t really have an answer: “I have no idea. It’s just, I don’t know. It’s just a gut feeling. I’m sorry. I have no evidence.”
You can follow all of WIRED’s 2024 presidential election coverage here.
