True the Vote is launching a six-figure ad campaign warning that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could emerge as commander-in-chief next year if citizens don’t vote in-person in November, The Washington Times has learned.
The group’s founder, Catherine Englebrecht, is urging people to vote in-person and become poll watchers or else risk election chaos that could send the country careening toward a constitutional crisis before the next inauguration.
The ads warn that Americans will not know on Nov. 3 who won the presidential election — and they need to begin preparing now for the bitter legal battles that could ensue.
The thrust of the argument is a doomsday scenario where the House of Representatives is charged with picking a president if no victor emerges from the Electoral College.
“Remember Bush v. Gore? Imagine that times 50. All of this could well extend to a point where we reach a constitutional crisis in around mid-January,” Ms. Englebrecht says in an ad previewed by The Times. “So while the courts fight it out, control of the government goes to the second-in-line: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Think about that. That is just one of the reasons that this election is the most important of our lifetime.”
The ads will begin running in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Texas on Thursday.
Ms. Englebrecht said True the Vote’s network of volunteers numbers in the tens of thousands who are looking to ensure that ballots are securely cast and counted.
“If they listen to the content and the first thing they do is just pick up their phone and call their county [to get involved], then that’s a win too,” she said. “Citizens are the front line of ballot security and free and fair elections.”
There are plenty of reasons for voters to fear the worst in November. The Public Interest Legal Foundation revealed Wednesday that it discovered nearly 350,000 potentially dead voter registrants on more than 40 states’ voter registration rolls. A majority of the dead remaining on voter rolls reside in California, Florida, Michigan, New York and Texas, according to PILF.
Democrats are anticipating election chaos too, and Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden has begun assembling a special litigation unit to win the election in the courts if necessary, according to reports.
Mr. Biden’s effort will be led by two former solicitors general Donald Verilli and Walter Dellinger, who served in the Obama and Clinton administrations respectively. The Democrats’ legal team will likely enlist hundreds of lawyers, according to the New York Times. One platoon of Mr. Biden’s legal army will operate under the direction of leading liberal election lawyer Marc Elias of the law firm Perkins Coie, and former Attorney General Eric Holder will have responsibility for being a liaison between Mr. Biden’s campaign and his private legal army, according to the New York Times.
Ms. Englebrecht said the Biden campaign’s push for universal mail-in voting will enable Mr. Biden’s legal army to better secure his electoral success unless Americans step up and get ahead of the efforts.
True the Vote will open a “command center” in early October where citizens can report election concerns or ask questions by phone and online.
Ms. Englebrecht said counties and states are unprepared for the mountain of mail-in ballots headed their way and the avalanche of problems that could ensue, but she hopes Americans respond by uniting to ensure free and fair elections.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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