One opponent of the grant, Allyson Cowin, invited Scott Walter of the Capital Research Center to provide an "information session" to Greenwich RTM members about the grant. The Capital Research Center, a D.C.-based organization is funded by the Koch Brothers, ExxonMobil and other conservative donors, and focuses on monitoring the activities of "unions, environmentalist groups, and a wide variety of nonprofit and activist organizations" according to its website. Walter, who lives in Virginia, also published a letter to the editor in the Greenwich Free Press repeating debunked conspiracy theories about voter fraud and urging our RTM to reject this grant.
During Walter's information session, opponent Betsy McCaughey worried that the grant might be used to increase voter participation in Greenwich.
“It seems to me when they talk about training…what they’re really talking about is getting local people to go into parts of Greenwich where maybe underrepresented voters seem to live, how to appeal to them ahead of time, drive them to the polls, get them to fill out mail in ballots, expand the use of mail in ballots,” Mcaughey said. “You are correct,” the presenter, Scott Walter replied.
And therein lies the rub: Although these grants are directed
not toward increasing voter turnout, but to upgrading basic equipment of a physical, technological, or human resource-based need, the GOP continues to fear that any improvement will increase voter access.
Republican National Committee talking points
At the RTM meeting, Republican opponents leaned on talking points provided by RNC lawyers and the Capital Research Center, arguing that the grant should be rejected to dispel even the "appearance" of impropriety, so that voters could have full confidence in the election process.
Yet it is the Republican party that has determinedly undermined confidence in the electoral process for years by arguing that any election that Donald Trump loses is rigged. By that logic, it follows that losing a local RTM vote such as this one would also somehow be questionable.
Another inconvenient fact is that in 2020 the RTM approved a grant from the same organization, which passed without any controversy.
The only difference between the request in 2020 and the furor over the grant this week is the changed composition of the Republican Town Committee, which, in its current form, has openly embraced the Big Lie and conspiracies about voter fraud.
What you can do.
This story is a great example of the type of important decisions the RTM makes for our Town. If you are interested in bringing balance to our Town government, please consider running for the RTM this November. Find more information about the RTM here: https://www.greenwichct.gov/1447/About-the-RTM
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