QAnon conspiracy theorists around the country volunteered as poll watchers for today’s midterms to avoid a repeat of 2020, which they falsely believe was stolen. Many people questioned whether those convinced that baby-eating Satanists control the world have the requisite grasp on reality to serve effectively in this role.
A surprising critic of QAnon poll watchers is Jacob Wohl. On Tuesday evening, Wohl, who recently pled guilty to telecommunications fraud for his own effort to influence the 2020 election, took to Gab to express his displeasure with the idea of QAnon followers serving as election observers.
Wohl doesn’t think they’re credible enough and that, even if they do observe fraud, their testimony won’t hold up.
It comes in the wake of post going around multiple QAnon Telegram channels on Tuesday that claims, “We have poll watchers everywhere 100% coverage poll workers lawyers everywhere. We are going to make sure if we see anything wrong we going to protect everybody’s vote.”
“One Big Issue,” Wohl responded. “The GOP should not allow whacky sub-90 IQ crackpot boomers wearing QAnon t-shirts to serve as poll watchers. We’ve all seen these people. You know who I’m talking about,” Wohl posted from his verified account.
Over the last two years, multiple groups and individuals have encouraged QAnon followers to volunteer as election observers who watch voters and officials and report any potential violations of election law.
Although he is politically aligned with the overwhelmingly conservative QAnon followers, Wohl thinks it’s a terrible idea for them to be poll watchers. This may be because QAnon followers have proven willing to believe wild and bizarre conspiracies, such as that liberals are addicted to chemicals from children’s brains or that former Vice President Mike Pence is secretly a lizard man.
“If those people happened to observe fraud, the value of their testimony is less than zero,” Wohl wrote.
To Wohl, volunteer poll watchers should ideally be people with advanced degrees.
“Election observer groups should only be made up of credible local lawyers, doctors, architects, etc. who are between the ages of 35 and 50, and dressed in professional attire.” (There are QAnon followers in a wide variety of professions; though whether they are credible is a matter for some debate.)
One of Wohl’s Telegram subscribers agreed. “I haven’t seen any of that and if I did I’d be pretty alarmed by it,” they wrote.
Multiple people who subscribe to the conspiracy theory have claimed to be serving as poll watchers in the midterms.
