CHICAGO (AP) — As Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump ramp up campaigning in battleground states, a quiet battle is brewing in the shadow of a rematch for the White House.
Republican National Committee; Reorganized under the Trump administration, has filed election-related lawsuits in nearly half of the states.Recent lawsuits are over Michigan voter roll maintenance and nevada These are part of a larger strategy that covers various aspects of voting and election management.
It’s not a new strategy. but, Recent internal changes In addition to his remarks at the RNC, combined with pressure from the former president, this legal maneuvering is expected to play an increasingly important role for the party as the November election approaches. The lawsuit helps raise questions about campaign messages, fundraising and the legitimacy of elections.
Daniel Alvarez, a senior adviser to the RNC and Trump campaign, said litigation is one of the organization’s main priorities this year.
“This is very important to President Trump,” she said. “He said this is something the RNC should do year-round.”
Democrats and legal experts are warning of what the lawsuit will bring. overwhelm election officials and undermines voters’ confidence in voting results.
Democratic National Committee has its own legal strategy, investing “tens of millions of dollars to build a robust voter protection effort” to counter Republican efforts to restrict access to voting places Spokesman Alex Floyd said.
“The RNC is actively deploying an army of lawyers to make it difficult for Americans to have their ballots counted,” he said.
After the 2020 election, election lawsuits skyrocketed due to influence from Trump and his allies. Failed challenge his lost to biden In dozens of lawsuits.
Experts that year wondered if the onslaught of lawsuits was a cause-induced aberration. false claims Miriam Seifter, an attorney with the National Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin School of Law, spoke about stolen elections and changes to the voting process due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They soon realized that was not the case, as the 2022 midterm elections also saw a slew of election-related lawsuits. She said she expects something similar this year.
“Litigation now appears to be part of each political party’s political and electoral strategy,” Seifter said.
Voter ID rules, mail-in voting; Voter list maintenance is one of the targets of the RNC’s lawsuit.The latest one is Lawsuit this month They argued that Michigan has failed to keep its voter rolls up to date.
Updating voter status and maintaining accurate voter rolls is routine for election officials, who monitor death notices, motor vehicle record changes, or repeatedly returned election mail. Michigan also uses ERIC, an interstate data sharing agreement that helps states update their voter lists. targeted by conspiracy theories.
Opponents of the lawsuit say it relies on unsubstantiated and flawed data and risks purging legitimate voters.
“They’re arguing that there’s a problem because one piece of data doesn’t match another,” said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School. “But the pieces of data that they’re trying to match up aren’t measuring the same thing. It’s like saying, ‘I looked at my watch right now, and it doesn’t match the temperature on my thermometer.’ ”
Karen Short, legal research director for the League of Women Voters, which filed to intervene in the Michigan case, said this is not a new tactic. She said most of the lawsuits so far have come from “more extremist groups” rather than directly from the RNC.
“It’s very worrying to see prominent political parties trying to purge people from their lists right now,” she said.
In the past four years, michigan voter rolls It has been the target of three similar lawsuits, all of which have been unsuccessful. Just days after the Michigan lawsuit was filed, the RNC filed the following lawsuit: Nevada has something similar.
A federal appeals court previously sided with the RNC. Litigation in Pennsylvania It questions whether officials should count absentee ballots with incorrect dates. The Wisconsin lawsuit targets the absentee voting process and ballot drop boxes. R.N.C. Lawsuit in Arizona Aims to invalidate or adjust state’s 200-page document election manual meanwhile Another one in Mississippi The idea is to prevent mail-in ballots from being counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and received several days later.
Various other groups have recently filed similar lawsuits, including one against the Maryland State Board of Elections, alleging that the state’s voting system does not comply with federal and state laws. .
Marley Hornik, CEO of United Sovereign Americans, one of the groups behind the Maryland lawsuit, said more lawsuits are expected in other states this year. United Sovereign Americans, which Hornig said he formed last summer, announced on its website that it plans to sue in 23 states.
RNC officials say the Republican Party and its affiliates are involved in dozens of other cases, with more in progress. During this election cycle, the RNC’s legal team was involved in more than 80 lawsuits in 23 states, according to RNC spokesperson Alvarez.
She said part of the reason for the flurry of lawsuits is the lifting of federal regulations. consent decree In 2018, the RNC’s ability to challenge voter authentication and other “ballot security” issues was severely limited.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley emphasized the party’s plans to prioritize election-related litigation in an interview with Fox News this month. He said the RNC has hired and trained tens of thousands of poll watchers and is working with thousands of attorneys.
The RNC on Friday announced plans to train poll watchers, poll workers and lawyers and deploy more than 100,000 lawyers and volunteers to monitor vote counting across battleground states in November.
Prioritizing election litigation has been a challenge for the RNC since Whatley and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, took over and reorganized the organization with a new focus on “election integrity.” This is also reflected in recent changes within the country. The RNC currently has “election integrity officers” in 13 states.
christina bobwho got promoted false claims The stolen 2020 election was fraudulent and was part of a Trump-backed election. fake electoral planwas named head of the department.
“One of the biggest changes from last cycle to this cycle is making the Election Integrity Division its own department with its own budget and focus,” Alvarez said.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that while most lawsuits are unlikely to win in court, they “serve as a cornerstone of fundraising and make the issue a central part of a campaign.” I’m trying to do that,” he said. problem. “
Democracy groups and legal experts say the lawsuit threatens to waste time and staff at election offices across the country and pave the way for false reporting to challenge the legitimacy of the 2024 election. Ta. Post-election litigation could also delay or prevent certification of the results.
“We are concerned about these lawsuits, which are not aimed at clarifying the rules, but rather at laying the foundation for false claims that an election our side lost was stolen or rigged. ,” said David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation. Research that provides advice to local election administrators across the country. “We saw this in 2020. We saw this in 2022. And in 2024, seeds of doubt are starting to be planted in the minds of voters again.”
