Elon Musk is spending $75 million to get out the vote for Trump but the operation is plagued with doorknockers not knocking on enough doors and lying about the number of voter contacts.
The difficulties, in pivotal battleground states including Wisconsin and Nevada, come as the group, America PAC, races to enlist voters behind the Republican candidate in the final two weeks before the Nov. 5 election. Four people involved in the group’s outreach told Reuters that managers warned canvassers they are missing targets and needed to raise the number of would-be voters they contact.
…
One canvassing manager in Arizona said leaders there had issued similar warnings. Three other people familiar with the outreach told Reuters that Chris Young, a Musk aide and longtime Republican operative, had recently traveled to Nevada to audit whether doorknocking tallies there had been inflated by some of the workers hired by contractors. Another person briefed on the matter said America PAC was struggling to find sufficient people to conduct audits in other states.
These problems may sound familiar because they just happened to Ron DeSantis when he outsourced his get out the vote effort during the Republican presidential primary.
Super PACs running get out the vote operations is a bad idea, because unlike a campaign, they have to hire doorknockers, retain them, and hope that they aren’t lying about the number of voters that they are contacting.
Door to door canvassing is very hard and time consuming work that can involving walking miles a day to knock on doors and talk to voters. Musk’s door knockers are complaining that the pay is too low at $20/hour.
Donald Trump dismantled the Republican Party’s get out the vote operation, and there have been warnings that the Trump campaign and RNC are struggling to contact voters. In contrast, Kamala Harris has an army of motivated volunteers and staff in swing states carry out voter contacts every single day.
In a close election, getting out the vote could be the difference between victory and defeat, and Trump decision to rely on Elon Musk and outside groups could be a fatal mistake for his campaign,
To comment on this story, join us on Reddit.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
