Lately, sheriffs have normally taken a restricted position in investigations of election crimes, that are sometimes dealt with by state businesses with enter from native election officers. Republican-led state legislatures, on the identical time, have pushed to impose harsher prison penalties for voting infractions, passing 20 such legal guidelines in at the least 14 states for the reason that 2020 election.

“That is all half and parcel of returning to a world the place we’re utilizing the prison legislation in a strategy to make voting tougher,” mentioned Sophia Lin Lakin, the interim co-director of the Voting Rights Venture on the A.C.L.U. “All of the issues that used to really feel extra fringy not really feel so fringy, as we’re beginning to see this very a lot collective effort.”

The sheriff of Racine County in Wisconsin, the state’s fifth-most-populous county, is making an attempt to cost state election officers with felonies for measures they took to facilitate protected voting in nursing properties in the course of the pandemic.

In Barry County in Michigan, a rural space that voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Trump, the sheriff has been investigating the 2020 election after turning into concerned with efforts by folks engaged on Mr. Trump’s behalf to attempt to achieve entry to voting machines.

And the sheriff of Johnson County in Kansas, which incorporates suburbs of Kansas Metropolis and is essentially the most populous county within the state, has mentioned he’s broadly investigating the county’s 2020 election. At a current assembly with election officers, he questioned their procedures and integrity, in line with a written account from the county’s prime lawyer, who despatched him a letter expressing concern that he was interfering in election issues.

The Johnson County sheriff, Calvin Hayden, mentioned in an interview that sheriffs confronted a studying curve.

“We don’t know something about elections,” he mentioned. “We’re cops. We’ve to teach ourselves on the system, which takes an extended, very long time.”

Hatching election plans in Las Vegas

The three sheriffs gathered with just a few hundred others at a discussion board this month in Las Vegas hosted by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Affiliation.

Attendees included leaders of True the Vote, a bunch whose work spreading discredited theories of mass voter fraud impressed the conspiratorial movie “2000 Mules”; Mike Lindell, the Trump ally and MyPillow chief government; and different outstanding figures within the 2020 election-denial motion.

Audio system urged extra sheriffs to open investigations of the 2020 election, which they in comparison with a rigged sporting occasion, presenting proof that rehashed long-disproved theories. One speaker mentioned the way in which that betting odds had modified on election evening constituted proof of a stolen election.

Among the arguments centered on the premise of “2000 Mules”: that a military of left-wing operatives wrongfully flooded drop containers with absentee ballots in 2020. Many, together with William P. Barr, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer normal and Georgia state officers, have pointed to main flaws within the supposed findings and the flimsy proof offered.

Nonetheless, Richard Mack, the founding father of the constitutional sheriffs affiliation, mentioned the accusations made in “2000 Mules,” which was launched in Could, had been a “smoking gun” and had persuaded him to make election points his group’s prime precedence.

Mr. Lindell mentioned in an interview that he and his group had supplied the three sheriffs “all of our assets,” together with laptop consultants and information on voters, however that he had made no monetary commitments.

The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Affiliation, which was formally based a couple of decade in the past by Mr. Mack, is devoted to the speculation that sheriffs are beholden solely to the Structure and function the final word authority in a county — above native, state and federal officers and statutes. The group, whose leaders have promoted Christian ideology in authorities, has been lively in supporting fights towards gun management legal guidelines, immigration legal guidelines and federal land administration.

Shield America Now, based by Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County, Ariz., and Republican operatives, was introduced shortly after the 2020 election. Its rules intently align with lots of the constitutional sheriffs affiliation’s, nevertheless it has employed extra conventional political strategies resembling operating adverts.

Makes an attempt to interview Mr. Lamb, who has not introduced native investigations into election points, had been unsuccessful. Discussing his partnership with True the Vote at a Trump rally in Arizona on Friday, he mentioned sheriffs would do extra to carry folks accountable for violating election legal guidelines. “We won’t let occur what occurred in 2020,” he mentioned.

For conservative activists centered on voter fraud, an alliance with legislation enforcement appeared pure.

True the Vote initially approached state and federal legislation enforcement businesses with its election claims, however didn’t present adequate proof to warrant an investigation, officers mentioned.

In partnership with Shield America Now, the group has now raised $100,000 towards a objective of $1 million for grants to sheriffs for extra video surveillance and a hotline to distribute citizen suggestions.

True the Vote’s government director, Catherine Engelbrecht, mentioned in a speech on the Las Vegas occasion that in sheriffs, she had discovered a receptive viewers for her claims.

“It’s the sheriffs,” she mentioned. “That’s who we will belief.”

A troubled historical past of legislation enforcement on the polls

Some conservative activists have additionally floated the thought of accelerating the presence of sheriffs wherever ballots are solid, counted and transported, echoing a proposal by Mr. Trump in 2020 that didn’t achieve steam.

Deputizing volunteers may even be an choice, mentioned Sam Bushman, the nationwide operations director for the constitutional sheriffs affiliation.

Jim Marchant, the Republican nominee for secretary of state of Nevada and an attendee in Las Vegas, mentioned that if elected, he would attempt to “convey sheriffs again in” to the election course of.

“The deputies are going to be there on the areas to look at for any anomaly,” he mentioned in an interview.

For voting rights teams, the potential presence of legislation enforcement officers at polling areas evokes a darker interval in American democracy, when the police had been weaponized to suppress turnout by folks of shade.

Due to this historical past, state and federal protections restrict what legislation enforcement can do. In California and Pennsylvania, for instance, it’s a crime for officers to point out up on the polls in the event that they haven’t been known as by an election official. In different states, together with Flor­ida, North Caro­lina, Ohio and Wiscon­sin, officers should obey native elec­tion offi­cials on the polls, in line with the Brennan Middle for Justice.

Sheriffs interviewed on the Las Vegas occasion mentioned they had been conscious of such restrictions and didn’t need to impede voting. The Barry County, Mich., sheriff, Dar Leaf, mentioned he was extra centered on 2020 moderately than trying forward. Others, like Mr. Hayden, mentioned they had been contemplating elevated video surveillance of drop containers.

Mr. Mack mentioned, “I don’t assume any sheriff is making an attempt to intimidate folks to not vote.”

Some sheriffs from rural Trump-voting counties mentioned they hadn’t noticed main issues to repair in their very own counties however supported extra sheriff involvement general. Richard Vaughn, a sheriff in rural Grayson County in Virginia, mentioned he needed officers to be concerned in observing vote counts, and would assist election investigations “in areas the place there are allegations.” “Lots of people are dropping confidence,” he added.

Large-ranging investigative scrutiny

Election consultants say the actions of the three sheriffs already increase considerations.

Sheriff Hayden of Johnson County, Kan., mentioned he had began investigating elections after receiving 200 citizen complaints.

He’s scrutinizing “poll stuffing,” “machines” and “the entire points you hear of nationally,” he mentioned in an interview. Requested what he meant by poll stuffing, he described the apply of delivering absentee ballots on behalf of different voters. (In the course of the 2020 election, Kansas didn’t have a legislation concerning that apply; final 12 months, it handed laws permitting folks to return not more than 10 ballots from different voters.)

Mr. Hayden mentioned in an announcement that he disagreed with the county lawyer’s depiction of his assembly with election officers and that he was treating the elections work like another investigation.

“Our residents need to have, and need to have, confidence of their native elections,” he mentioned.

Mr. Leaf has led an effort to attempt to examine voting machines.

Emails obtained final 12 months from his division by the information web site Bridge Michigan confirmed {that a} lawyer figuring out Mr. Leaf as his consumer had communicated about seizing machines with Trump allies who had been making an attempt to show 2020 election conspiracy theories.

In December 2020, Mr. Leaf met with a cybersecurity specialist — who was a part of the Trump allies’ community — to debate voting machine considerations, Mr. Leaf mentioned in an interview.

Mr. Leaf mentioned he had additionally been supplied with a personal investigator for election issues by one other lawyer of his, who beforehand helped Sidney Powell, a former lawyer for Mr. Trump, convey a conspiratorial lawsuit looking for to overturn Michigan’s 2020 outcomes.

At one level, somebody linked to Mr. Leaf’s investigation gained entry to a voting tabulator, in line with state police information. State authorities intervened and started investigating Mr. Leaf’s workplace.

Over 18 months, Mr. Leaf’s investigative efforts have modified focus a number of instances, and he has had three search warrant requests rejected for lack of proof, Julie A. Nakfoor Pratt, the county’s prime prosecutor, mentioned in an interview.

Mr. Leaf mentioned in an announcement, “I took an oath and obligation as sheriff to research all potential crimes reported to my workplace, together with election legislation violations.”

In Wisconsin, Mr. Schmaling has tried to cost statewide election officers with violating the legislation by quickly suspending election oversight work in nursing properties.

These officers, who serve on the Wisconsin Elections Fee, the state’s bipartisan arbiter of election issues, voted for the suspension in March 2020, because the pandemic was first raging. After investigating a grievance in November 2021, Mr. Schmaling mentioned he had discovered eight situations of potential fraud.

No fraud prices had been filed in any of the circumstances.

However in November, Mr. Schmaling issued prison referrals for 5 of the six members of the Wisconsin Elections Fee, recommending that the district attorneys within the counties the place they dwell cost them with crimes together with felonies.

Three of the district attorneys have dismissed the referrals; two haven’t but decided.

Mr. Schmaling, who mentioned his nursing dwelling inquiry took up a whole bunch of hours, described his choices as routine. “The larger image for me is we uncovered one thing that was incorrect, one thing unlawful,” he mentioned. “My objective is to make sure that the legislation is adopted.”

However others concerned mentioned the actions had been an overreach of energy.

“The concept the answer for an election whose outcomes you didn’t like is, after the very fact, to threaten prison prices for that public work of a authorities official is surprising,” mentioned Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of the Wisconsin Elections Fee, who confronted a prison referral. “It’s chilling. It’s the antithesis of how democracy works.”