Election Law, Justice, Politics

The Refusal To Accept Democracy Starts: Trump Files Lawsuit In Nevada

The Trump campaign is claiming that people who were not in line at 7:00 were allowed to vote.

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Nevada Voters Head To The Polls During State's Early VotingOn the last day of early voting in Nevada, Latino turnout surged. So many people showed up to vote that noted Nevada pollster John Ralston said Trump would need a miracle to win Nevada.

Of course, there were long lines. You are allowed to vote if you are in line when the polls close… which means the polls have to stay open long enough to allow everybody in line to finish voting. Reports suggested that one key polling place stayed open until 10:00 p.m., to accommodate all the people who were in line at 7:00 p.m. when the polls closed.

Donald Trump needs Nevada, and he can’t win Nevada if Latinos have their votes counted. Now comes word that the Trump campaign is suing. The campaign is claiming that people who were not in line at 7:00 were allowed to vote.

The Trump campaign is asking the early vote in 4 polling places to (wait for it) NOT BE COUNTED, until their lawsuit is sorted out.

There is a version, a likely version, of the electoral map where Nevada is the deciding state. If Trump sweeps FL, NC, OH, and NH… but can’t pick off PA, MI, or CO, then Nevada’s six electoral votes could decide the election.

This seems like a good time to mention that if the case goes all the way to the Supreme Court, the Senate Republicans have hobbled the body and a 4-4 tie would uphold any lower court decision.

This is probably just the beginning, folks. A close election will not end this evening.

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UPDATE: Popehat has also been thumbing through the 100 page document. He notes the Trump campaign is only claiming 150-300 violations. So they’re looking to quash the votes of hundreds of thousands of people over a few hundred ALLEGED irregularities.

UPDATE: A Nevada judge, Judge Gloria Sturman, just roundly rejected the Trump campaign’s request for a court order to preserve the contested ballots separate and apart from the other early votes. She said that the Trump campaign had not exhausted all administrative remedies. Also, if I may editorialize, she pretty much smacked the Trump lawyer around a livestream on Twitter for 20 minutes, in a display that was very satisfying (e.g., “That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works.”).

Trump Files Lawsuit in Nevada Over Poll Closing Time [NBC]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. It’s so frustrating that there’s one whole party committed to not letting people freaking vote.

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