Nevada Democratic Party sues GOP, alleges voter intimidation
The state Democratic party filed a lawsuit Sunday accusing the Nevada Republican Party and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump campaign of intimidating voters.
The federal lawsuit, first reported by Election Law Blog’s Rick Hansen, claims that the Trump campaign, one of the candidate’s political advisers, Roger Stone, and the state GOP party have conspired to “threaten, intimidate, and thereby prevent minority voters in urban neighborhoods from voting” this year.
It claims those acts violate the Voting Rights act of 1965 and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. The former outlawed racial discrimination in voting practices. The latter was passed specifically to prevent threats of violence and harassment from white supremacist groups like those the act was named for.
The lawsuit points to comments Trump made on the campaign trail, where he regularly touted the idea that election is “rigged,” that it would be “stolen” from them and his encouragement for supporters to sign up to watch the polling locations for fraud.
The filing claims those comments “fan the flames of polling-place harassment targeting nonwhite voters.”
The complaint is one of four filed nationwide and lands amid early voting in Nevada. It cites three examples of alleged intimidation in Nevada, including one at an Albertsons supermarket on Lake Mead Boulevard, where it claims a Trump supporter yelled “belligerently” at voters who told him they would not be voting for Trump.
Poll workers tried to get the man to leave but said that he had “a right to say anything he wanted to voters.” Poll workers called police, but the man left before officers arrived, according to the lawsuit.
Similar complaints have been filed in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona.
Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald called the lawsuit a “partisan stunt,” in a emailed statement Monday afternoon.
“The Nevada Republican Party is committed to holding free, fair, and open elections throughout the state of Nevada,” McDonald said. “We have zero tolerance for any attempt to intimidate voters from exercising their constitutional rights.”
Trump’s Nevada campaign didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.
