Trump threatens legal action over Nevada bill on mail-in ballots
President Trump threatened legal action after Nevada legislature passed a bill which calls for sending mail-in ballots to all voters ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. In a tweet, Trump called the move 'outrageous' and said it should 'be met with immediate litigation.'
The Trump campaign and the Republican National state and national committees late Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Nevada over expanded mail-in voting for the November election.
The lawsuit claims Assembly Bill 4, which would allow ballots to be mailed to all registered voters in the state, will undermine the election’s “integrity,” FOX 5 in Las Vegas reported.
“Republicans have always supported efforts to make it easier for voters to cast their ballot,” the lawsuit, filed in a district court against Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, said. “At the same time, however, the electoral process cannot function properly if it lacks integrity and results in chaos. Put simply, the American people must be able to trust that the result is the product of a free and fair election.”
Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, signed the bill on Monday after it passed the state legislature along party lines, the Nevada Independent reported.
Sisolak tweeted the bill “ensures protections for Nevadans to vote safely at the November election during the pandemic.”
Voters would still have the option to vote in person.
Before filing the suit, Trump called the bill an “illegal late night coup” that made it “impossible for Republicans to win the state.” He tweeted that the post office wouldn’t able to handle all of the mail-in votes without preparation.
“Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!” he wrote.
Sisolak dismissed Trump’s claims about the post office this week. “The Postal Service delivers a lot of mail, we're talking about a minimal amount of mail in the overall scheme of things that the Postal Service delivers," he told CNN. "They deliver sample ballots. I'm sure they'll do a fine job, delivering these ballots."
The lawsuit claims automatically sending mail-in ballots would make voter fraud “inevitable” and accuses the state of unconstitutionally extending Election Day by accepting ballots with unclear postmarks for up to three days afterward, according to the Independent.
It says there is a lack of “uniform standards” in vote counting and it, “invites coercion, theft, or otherwise illegitimate voting [which] dilutes the votes of honest citizens," according to the Wall Street Journal.
“The RNC has a vital interest in protecting the ability of Republican voters to cast, and Republican candidates to receive, effective votes in Nevada elections and elsewhere,” the suit says. “Major or hasty changes confuse voters, undermine confidence in the electoral process, and create incentive to remain away from the polls.”
The lawsuit says that the bill discriminates against rural areas by mandating more polling places in urban areas, according to the Journal.
The Trump campaign in the suit alleges several problems that occurred in Nevada's primary, which used the same system, according to FOX 5, including ballots mailed to deceased voters.
Trump has railed against mail-in voting over fraud concerns as more states seek to increase it during the pandemic.
On Tuesday, however, Trump encouraged voters in Florida to request mail-in ballots where he said the system was “Safe and Secure, Tried and True.” Trump has voted absentee in Florida.
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Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington already mail voters ballots and California and Vermont plan to do so in response to the virus, according to the Journal.
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