The voter fraud hotline and website set up by President Trump’s campaign is under siege from prank callers and denial of service attacks, individuals familiar with the project tell the Washington Examiner.
Shortly following Election Day, the Trump campaign opened up a sprawling anti-fraud initiative based out of offices in Virginia, including a 1-800 number and an online form for members of the public to report allegations of voter fraud.
But since the initiative’s inception, volunteers and employees have been the target of constant harassment, so much so that some who work there say it’s impossible to work on the project at all.
On Saturday, one volunteer said the website constantly crashed due to cyberattacks on the voter fraud allegation submission page. When that same individual was on phone line duty, he said that most of the calls he fielded were from Biden supporters making “demonic” threats.
“They were saying things like they hoped my family got raped and killed,” one volunteer told the Washington Examiner. “It was hard to keep volunteers in that environment.”
One individual said a number of tips from both the phone line and the website have resulted in follow-up investigations from Rudy Giuliani and his associates, although this source expressed concern that the campaign did not have enough resources to look into every claim that came forward to the campaign.
Trolling the Trump campaign’s fraud reporting service has become a running joke of sorts for teenagers on social media platforms such as TikTok and Twitter. Late-night comedian John Oliver instructed his viewers on Sunday to submit pictures of rats engaging in intercourse.
“It’s simply your patriotic duty to send them to the Trump campaign straight away,” Oliver said on his show Last Week Tonight.
The constant disruptions have been a source of anxiety for some working on the GOP effort, with many volunteers opting not to return back after their first day.
“Staffers didn’t want any of this mentioned. Seems like they’re trying to not project what a shitshow it is,” said one individual. “Just bizarre.”
Publicly, Trump officials say the effort to sniff out fraud has been a roaring success, with individuals such as Giuliani following up on the most serious allegations.
“Our voter fraud reporting hotline is still receiving thousands of calls every day, and we are averaging just over 15,000 reports per day since the call center’s creation,” said Trump campaign Deputy National Press Secretary Courtney Parella in a statement. “The majority of these calls are from concerned citizens reporting irregularities and voter intimidation within the electoral process. Campaign staff and volunteers will continue to staff the call center as we keep fighting for a free and fair election for all.”
