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A voter places a mail-in ballot into a ballot box at the Clark County Elections Department on October 13, 2020 in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The station will serve as a ballot drop-off site for drive-up and walk-up elections.
CNN
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Democratic National Committee asks judges in Michigan and Nevada to dismiss “dangerous” and “flawed” lawsuits related to voter rolls and mail-in voting launched by the Republican National Committee earlier this year are doing. The DNC warns that the lawsuit represents former President Donald Trump’s attempt to undermine the American public’s confidence in the upcoming November election.
The DNC filed three court briefs on behalf of Biden’s reelection campaign in two battleground states on Monday. The brief, seen by CNN, attacks the RNC’s lawsuit as meritless and nothing more than political theater. These are early clues to how the Biden campaign plans to thwart the onslaught of Republican election integrity challenges that Democrats are expecting this year.
The RNC’s two lawsuits (one each in Michigan and Nevada) allege that the number of active voters in major counties in those states is “suspiciously high” and urge election officials to cancel voter registrations. I’m looking for it. The DNC is also asking the court to reject a Republican challenge to guidance given by Michigan’s Secretary of State to local election officials to verify signatures on ballots.
“Donald Trump and the Republican Party know they can’t win this election fair and square, so they’re doubling down on their 2020 losing strategy and targeting our right to vote and our democracy. We will fail again,” Biden campaign spokesman Charles Rutbach said in a statement to CNN. “Our team is ready and committed to continuing the fight for democracy, defending the right to free and fair elections from Republican junk lawsuits, and eliminating Donald Trump once and for all in November.” I’m going to beat him.”
In Michigan, the DNC’s court brief for its voter list lawsuit states that after losing the 2020 presidential election, Republicans filed dozens of lawsuits seeking to invalidate election results (including the Wolverine State lawsuit). He says he lost the case.
“This lawsuit fits into a dangerous pattern of baseless election-related claims that only serve to undermine public confidence in the election process,” the RNC’s legal filing states. “In fact, the greatest threat to public confidence in the integrity of our elections is not fraud or voter roll maintenance, but baseless attacks on our elections themselves.”
Similarly, in Nevada, the DNC’s brief states that the Republican lawsuit there is “rather than addressing real (and not-so-substantive) issues with Nevada’s voter registration lists,” the DNC brief said. The aim is to instill public distrust in the country.”
“This lawsuit is not intended to protect the integrity of future elections, but rather to provide the RNC with ammunition to undermine the outcome of the general election,” the brief states. “In fact, former President Trump is already advocating interference in the 2024 general election months before a single vote is cast or counted.”
Since last year, Biden’s reelection campaign has been building a legal team and infrastructure aimed at countering Republican efforts to challenge the integrity of the election.
Biden campaign officials told CNN they believe Republicans are trying to reuse their 2020 strategy of casting doubt on the election results and sowing distrust this year, even before the first votes are cast. He said he is doing well. And this time, the campaign argues, Republicans are acting even more forcefully and earlier in the election cycle.
The RNC is also pursuing an aggressive legal strategy, with officials saying it has filed more than 80 election-related lawsuits, including lawsuits in Nevada and Michigan seeking to cancel voter registration ahead of the November election. It is said that it is causing
Election officials in Nevada and Michigan, both Democrats, argued the lawsuits were without merit.
Critics say Republicans rely on flawed formulas to arrive at the argument that states’ voter rolls are bloated. Their lawsuit compares the current numbers on the voter rolls with population estimates from the Census’ periodic survey, a five-year survey that began several years ago. In a letter to RNC lawyers last year, an official from the Nevada attorney general’s office defended the state’s maintenance of voter registration records and called the party’s approach akin to “comparing apples to orangutans.” said.
In Michigan, a lawsuit filed by the RNC and other Republican groups alleges that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson uses a “presumption of validity” when matching voter signatures on returned absentee ballots to ballot signatures. He is accused of “secretly” issuing guidelines instructing election officials to apply the law. Submit it to your local election office.
The DNC argued in Monday’s filing that Benson’s guidance is consistent with Michigan law, which makes clear that clerks must vet every signature.
Some of the RNC’s recent lawsuits specifically target mail-in and absentee voting, which President Trump baselessly claims will corrupt the election.
For example, in addition to Michigan’s signature verification challenge, another lawsuit filed last week by the RNC and Trump campaign targets Nevada’s mail-in voting law, which prevents ballots received after Election Day from being counted. It is an object.
The lawsuit focuses on the state’s mail-in voting law, enacted in 2021. Nevada allows ballots received up to four days after the election to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day, and up to three days after the election if the postmark date cannot be determined. .
The Republican lawsuit argues that because Democrats are more likely than Republicans to vote by mail in the state, counting those ballots “dilutes” their claim that they are “honest votes” and that Republicans are It claims it would “unreasonably harm” candidates and voters.
The RNC is also suing to overturn a Mississippi law that allows ballots received after the election to be counted. A total of 19 states allow mail-in ballots received after Election Day to be counted, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
As the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Trump orchestrated a takeover of the RNC in March, installing new chairman Michael Whatley and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as party co-chairs. Last weekend, Charlie Spieth, also recently hired, resigned as the RNC’s top lawyer just two months into his role.
Spy and the RNC cited a possible time conflict with Spy’s commitments to law firm clients as the reason for Spy’s resignation.
Trump, a veteran Republican election lawyer, came forward after his allies pointed to a spy video criticizing his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, sources told CNN. He is said to have grown dissatisfied with Mr. Spy.
In an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Lara Trump called the recent lawsuit in Nevada over mail-in voting “one of the many lawsuits we are filing across this country to ensure we have free, fair and transparent elections.” “It is one of the
