WASHINGTON — Republicans are waging a series of legal battles in battleground states ahead of the November election, raising suspicions among Kamala Harris and her Democratic allies that the main goal is to eliminate uncertainty about the outcome if Donald Trump loses.
in Georgia, Republican-controlled state board of elections seeks to give local officials the power to arbitrarily decide whether something untoward occurs during voting, potentially slowing down the process of determining a winner.
Republicans in Michigan filed suit City of Detroit The GOP has hired enough pollsters, and in North Carolina they claim it electoral rolls of the state It could potentially allow non-citizens to vote.
All these claims seem different on the surface. But the Harris campaign says there is a pattern that binds them together: Trump and his Republican allies want to create confusion about the outcome if he loses. Democrats have filed legal documents in at least one case that convey their doubts about what they claim is the real purpose of the GOP lawsuit.
Harris campaign officials say a defeated Trump could turn to the lawsuits to revive his baseless claim that election procedures were tainted in such a way as to overturn the result. Trump and his allies have filed dozens of failed cases following the 2020 election amid a flurry of false allegations of voter fraud, culminating in a mob storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden’s victory.
“We believe that every case they bring up is a brick in the foundation of their argument in November to say the election was rigged,” a Harris campaign official said on condition of anonymity. “This is our view of what their litigation is about. Therefore, we are ready, we are winning in court and we will ensure that this election is free and fair.”
The Trump campaign sent questions to the Republican National Committee.
RNC spokeswoman Claire Zunk said in a prepared statement: “President Trump’s election integrity efforts are dedicated to protecting every legitimate vote, mitigating threats to the voting process and securing the election. As the Democrats continue their election meddling against President Trump and the American people, our operation faces their schemes and prepares for November.”
With rare exceptions in American politics, the two-month interregnum between elections and Inauguration Day is quiet. That was not the case in 2020 when Trump overturned the result and tried to stay in office.
He still faces federal criminal charges stemming from this quixotic endeavor. He was indicted by special counsel Jack Smith on charges of defrauding the American public and attempting to disenfranchise voters in several states, but the trial has been delayed and is unlikely to take place before the election. Trump has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
Both sides are preparing for a contentious post-election period. Chris LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager, at The Politico incident suggested in the summer that if Trump wins, Democrats may try to overturn the results: “It’s not over until you put your hand on the Bible and take the oath. It’s not over until then. Election day is not over. “Inauguration day is over, because I wouldn’t put anything past anyone.”
A second Harris campaign official said Democrats began preparations years ago, with lawyers preparing briefs in anticipation that Republican officeholders might refuse to certify, say, election results.
“This is the most prepared any Democratic campaign has been at this point because we knew it was coming,” he said. He saw what happened there and learned from it.”
Among other legal challenges, Republicans opposed the state of Arizona election procedures manual and Nevada law allowing postal ballots to be counted after polling day as long as they are pre-stamped.
Ground zero could be Georgia, a state that Biden narrowly won in 2020 and that Harris has been aggressively campaigning for. catch. Trump faces criminal charges in Georgia for trying to overturn his loss in the state four years ago. He pleaded not guilty.
The issue this year is whether district election councils in Georgia are free to use their discretion when confirming election results. The Republican-controlled Georgia Board of Elections voted 3-2 last month to expand the powers of local officials, allowing them to confirm the results after conducting a “reasonable inquiry” into their accuracy. There was no definition of what constituted a “reasonable inquiry”.
Trump called the three Republicans who voted in favor of the rules “pit bulls” for integrity.
But Democrats warn that the new rules could disrupt Georgia’s hard-and-fast schedule for certifying elections. In addition, local election boards have never had such authority and, according to Democrats, should perform the simple task of simply tallying the votes. If anyone alleges election fraud, the courts are the best place to test the allegation, they added.
“If anyone thinks there’s a reason to throw out ballots, that’s a decision made by the courts,” Sara Tindall Ghazal, the lone Democrat on Georgia’s State Board of Elections, said in an interview. “This is not a decision made by a partisan body of civilians on election boards, many of whom have no experience other than partisanship.”
Justin Levitt, an election law professor at Loyola Law School and a former Biden White House official who specializes in democracy and voting rights, said the county election board’s role amounts to a simple addition.
“It’s the process of saying 1 + 1 equals 2. It’s the process of saying, ‘1 + 1 equals, I don’t know, does it?’ bamboo fibers in the bulletins.’ They are not that [local election boards] for,” he said, referring to a conspiracy theory circulating in 2020 about fraudulent ballots from Asia.
Democratic National Committee sued the board last week to prevent the new procedures from taking effect.
In its petition, the committee argued that the new rule would “create significant uncertainty in the post-election process” and “invite chaos by creating new processes that conflict with existing statutory duties.”
Both the Harris and Trump campaigns wield considerable legal power over the election and its aftermath. RNC memory Announced in February, the committee said it was involved in 78 lawsuits in 23 states.
“If Democrats choose to continue their attacks on election security until Election Day, we will stand ready to go to court and ensure that the election is fair, transparent, legal and accurate,” Zunk said.
The Harris campaign says it has retained hundreds of attorneys across the country to protect his legal interests. Leading the team’s efforts to protect legitimate elections is Biden’s former White House adviser, Dana Remus.
The campaign is also getting outside help. Jim Messina, who managed Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign political action committee It can raise an unlimited amount of money and will help with courtroom efforts. Norm Eisen, the House Judiciary Committee’s special counsel on Trump’s first impeachment trial, is outside counsel.
Election experts warn that one of the victims of the disputed election results is the public’s trust in the system. Voters feel that democracy has been undermined and may react by refusing to participate or by shouting in anger.
In both victory and defeat, Trump has fueled doubts about the credibility of US elections.
When he won in 2016 made an unfounded claim he said that he lost the popular vote only because millions of people voted illegally for his rival Hillary Clinton. And when he lost in 2020, he claimed the election was “rigged” in Biden’s favor.
Despite losing California by more than five million votes that year, Trump recently said he would have won the state if Jesus Christ, or alternatively, an honest person counted the votes.
“Trump said he would have won California if it weren’t for the fraud. It’s like I said, if it wasn’t for the fraud, I would be a supermodelMessina said.
The partisan divide over election integrity deepened after Trump made false allegations of voter fraud. Last year’s survey showed this Only 22% of Republicans They were very confident that the 2024 presidential election would be accurately counted, compared to 71% of Democrats.
“We already have public representatives who are 100% sure that there is no way to hold free and fair elections in Georgia,” Ghazal said.
Many of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 in the mistaken belief that he was stealing his 2020 victory. Michael Sparks, the first rioter to breach the building, told a judge at a hearing last week that he “believed” him. until today” was the election Stolen from Trump. Sparks was sentenced to more than four years in prison.
Some election experts fear that if Trump loses in November, his voters will turn to violence again.
“I worry about the potential for chaos,” Levitt said. “For people who say the election was stolen, it’s only natural to take to the streets when you believe you don’t have the power to influence the outcome peacefully.”