Associated Press: Experts raise alarms over fundraising for GOP ballot reviews

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The first donation came in early May, for $50, and with a message: “GOD BLESS THE USA!!”

In just over a month, the crowdfunding page dedicated to bringing an Arizona-style review of the 2020 presidential election to Pennsylvania had collected $15,339 from 332 donors. Today, the effort has morphed into a full-fledged campaign to “Audit the Vote PA.” The website offers a six-week course on the Constitution and encourages supporters to become a “walking billboard for a forensic audit” by purchasing various hats and T-shirts.

Still prominent is the “donate” button. But unlike the initial crowdfunding page, it’s hard to tell how much money the group is bringing in or how the money is being spent. Multiple requests for information sent to an email listed on the site received no replies.

Efforts to expand Arizona’s controversial, Republican-led review of the 2020 election to other states are growing, fueled by former President Donald Trump’s false claims of victory and funded by a network of groups operating with little oversight. Election officials and experts have raised the alarm about these private fundraising efforts and what they see as a broader push by candidates to raise money off conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. …

The fundraising appeals are not just limited to the GOP reviews. In Pennsylvania and Arizona, GOP officials and candidates have been asking for donations while promoting the reviews. Trump’s political action committee recently sent an email to supporters under the headline “new evidence” with unsubstantiated claims of problems with the 2020 election in Georgia, which Trump lost.

Meanwhile, Trump’s political action committee has not helped finance the Arizona ballot review or to advocate for similar reviews in other states, leaving those efforts to other groups.

In Michigan, a Republican-led state legislative panel conducted its own review of the 2020 election and issued a report that said it found no evidence of significant fraud. …

Election experts said the public instead should focus on researching and understanding the bipartisan, post-election audits that were conducted by election officials after the November election using verified, fact-based methods.

“You are not giving them a real audit at the end of the day,” Susannah Goodman, an election security expert with Common Cause, said of the GOP reviews in Arizona and elsewhere. “It’s like going to a snake oil medicine doctor and paying him a lot of money and he gives you a bottle of green goop saying this will cure your cancer.”