COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — The national Republican party, is making stops across the country to train volunteers ahead of this election as “poll-watchers.” On Friday afternoon, the Republican National Committee made one of those stops in Columbus.
Michael Whatley, chairman of the RNC, said their goal is to have 5,000 trained poll watchers throughout Ohio and in every other battleground state.
“I think what it’s going to do is we’re going to have a conversation on election integrity and how important it is,” Whatley said. “And we’re going to make sure that everybody understands that we have rules in place, that that we’re going to have observers in place so that they can feel very confident in the outcome of the election.”
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Poll watchers are separate from poll workers, who go through training by county boards of elections. The training by the RNC and Ohio Republican Party on Friday was not open to media, but Whatley said Ohioans, as well all others being trained as poll watchers, will learn what to look out for and how to report something.