AP Photo/Matt Slocum
- President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Nevada Republican Party filed a lawsuit asking the state court to temporarily stop the counting of early voting ballots.
- The judge denied the request for an immediate restraining order and scheduled a hearing for next week, according to The Nevada Independent.
- Though mail-in voting has been proven to be secure and safe, Trump has repeatedly attacked the method with false and unfounded claims.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The Trump campaign and Nevada Republicans filed a lawsuit on Friday requesting the state court to block the counting of early voting ballots “until the proper procedures are in place.”
According to the lawsuit reported by CBS News, the Trump campaign, the Nevada Republican Party, and a registered voter asked the state’s Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, and a Clark County, Nevada voting official to temporarily block the counting of ballots to “protect the integrity of the 2020 election.”
The lawsuit claims the Clark County registrar did not have a “written plan” for how the public could observe the processing of ballots at polling locations and that the county “intentionally lowered the tolerance number” of a sorting matching that matches signatures for mail-in-ballots with those on file so that it would decrease the number rejected.
Carson City Judge James Wilson denied the request for a temporary restraining order to stop ballot counting, but scheduled an evidentiary hearing for Wednesday, according to The Nevada Independent.
“Transparency is paramount to ensure Nevadans the right to a free and fair election,” Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael J. McDonald said in a statement on the suit.“Clark County’s refusal to allow people to observe the handling of ballots and their low standards for matching signatures should disturb all voters.”
Mail-in voting is secure and safe. President Donald Trump has on numerous occasions attacked mail-in voting as prone to fraud, even as some of the top lawmakers from his own party have expressed concerns over the president’s claims and doubled down the integrity of the process. After months of airing misleading claims, Trump in August asked voters in Florida to vote by mail in a tweet that called the system “safe and secure, tried and true.”
The lawsuit comes days after the Trump campaign and the Nevada Republican Party wrote a letter to Cegavske addressing similar concerns written in the lawsuit. Cegavske did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford, a Democrat, supported the judge’s decision to reject the request.
—Aaron D. Ford (@AaronDFordNV) October 23, 2020
In Nevada, all registered voters may vote by mail due to concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. Early voting in Nevada started on October 17 and will end on the 30th.
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