Leaders from state Democratic parties in four states have filed federal lawsuits against Donald Trump, Trump advisor Roger Stone, and state Republican parties for “conspiring to threaten, intimidate, and thereby prevent minority voters in urban neighborhoods from voting in the 2016 election.” The legal effort is lead by Marc Elias, the general counsel for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
The lawsuits filed in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Ohio are asking a judge to stop the defendants from monitoring polls, verbally harassing voters, and following them around to take pictures.
In one of the lawsuits, filed by the Nevada Democratic Party, against Stone, Trump, and the Nevada Republican Party, the plaintiffs point to a statement given by an unnamed Trump official that “[w]e have three major voter suppression operations under way” as evidence. The complaint further alleges:
Trump’s supporters have responded with pledges to descend upon polling places in “certain areas” where many minority voters live in order to interfere with their efforts to exercise the franchise…
Immediate relief is necessary. There are only 8 days left until Election Day, and early in-person voting in Nevada is well underway. Trump’s calls for unlawful intimidation have grown louder and louder, and the conspiracy to harass and threaten voters on Election Day has already resulted in numerous acts that threaten to interfere with the voting rights of registered Nevada voters.
The complaint also names Stop the Steal, which is a super PAC formed by Trump advisor Roger Stone. In the lawsuits, the Democrats claim “Stone has a history of engaging in voter intimidation, racist and misogynist hate speech, and incitement to violence.”
The lawsuit then goes through several instances in which Trump allegedly spread “misinformation” about the election being rigged. For example, at an October 20 rally in Delaware, Ohio, Trump told the crowd that Clinton is “truly capable of anything, including voter fraud.” The lawsuit alleges that Trump, Stone, and the local Republican parties have violated the Voting Rights Act, and the Klu Klux Klan Act. We are reaching out to the defendants for comment, and will update accordingly.
Last Wednesday, the DNC filed a motion in federal court which claimed that the RNC, through Donald Trump’s own statements, violated a longstanding consent decree that prohibits Republicans from engaging in “ballot security” measures which could intimidate minorities.
Update 2:20 pm October 31, 2016:
Statement from Roger Stone:
“I’m honored but the lawsuit is without merit and the lawyers who filed it could face sanctions. Stop the Steal in partnership with Vote Protectors is conducting a neutral, scientifically based EXIT POLL in order to compare the actual machine results with the exit poll results in 7000 key precincts. Precincts are chosen base on one party rule and past reports of irregularities- not racial make-up as falsely reported in the alt-left media. The US State Department (under Hillary Clinton) required not more than a 2 % deviance between actual reported results and exit poll results in judging the integrity of foreign elections. All we ask is the same standard apply to the 2016 Presidential election. Since it is our intention to interview voters voluntary after they vote it had to see how voters would find this intimidating. Our methodology is no different than that used in the network consortium exit polls. We are not coordinating with the Trump campaign , the Republican National Committee or the individual Republican State Committees. We seek only to determine if the election is honestly and fairly conducted and to provide a an evidentiary basis for a challenge to the election if that is not the case. I assume the purpose of this bogus lawsuit is to distract from the voter-fraud the Democrats have traditionally engaged in.
Racist? I was working and marching for reform of New York’s racist Rockefeller Drug laws before the DNC spokesperson was born.”
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