bigrus

Pro-Trump group already plans to file lawsuit over election results

Harry October 27, 2024

A Trump-linked group has filed lawsuits in several swing states voter registration lists Already planning to sue this year’s election resultsOne of the group’s founders told USA TODAY:

“We feel compelled to file to defend this beautiful country,” said Marly Hornik, one of the founders of United Sovereign Americans in 2023. “We are already getting signs and figures of errors in the process.”

The organization, which defines itself as neutral, regularly Represented by Bruce Castora lawyer former President Donald Trump in it impeachment trial for Attack on the Capitol on January 6.

Lawsuits filed from both the group and Republican organizations suggests widespread voter fraud may occur – without provide evidence that.

Allegations are fed false narrative from the former president Donald Trump Noting that he did not lose the 2020 election, critics fear it could herald similar allegations of election theft if he loses again. Numerous counts and inspections showed: Minister Joe Biden He won the last presidential election. Almost all of the more than 60 cases Trump’s allies failed after this election.

“Those who are trying to overturn the election are trying to plant the fictional narrative that there is reason to be afraid of the process. There isn’t,” Loyola Marymount law professor Justin Levitt, who researches election issues, told USA TODAY.

Hornik said the group will seek to conduct external audits of the 2024 election. He said a lawsuit would need to be filed before the results are certified, but probably only after a state announces the results or the media announces the results. The group could file a lawsuit sooner, but is internally debating whether the court will call the preliminary outcome case premature.

“For some reason they continue to reveal that they did a great job,” he said, referring to past election audits. “But every other industry in creation needs to be audited by external auditors. That’s how you find out what’s really going on.”

Lawsuits have already been filed

United Sovereign Americans sued officials in nine different states this year, alleging widespread errors in voter registration data that it said could indicate fraud.

For example, in one case in Pennsylvania, the group allegations There are nearly 3.2 million violations out of almost 8.8 total records, “putting in doubt” the credibility and trustworthiness of the state’s 2022 interim results. Examples of the alleged errors include “implausible voter history” or “suspicious” registrant addresses, which the group says violate two federal laws: the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

Pennsylvania Secretary’s attorneys replied The group’s questions about the dates on the paperwork were “both factual and irrelevant” under the National Voter Registration Act, which he said was “‘intended to serve as a shield to protect the right to vote, not a sword to pierce it.”

Advocates also said the Help America Vote Act is about standards for operating voting machines, not voter registration.

“Every state told us they were clerical errors,” Hornik told USA TODAY. he said.

Sowing doubt about US elections?

The cases of United Sovereign Americans fit into a broader trend of legal challenges to state voter rolls; this includes several lawsuits from the Republican National Committee and state Republican parties.

lawsuits, a few of them to have happened dismissed, It came despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

A review by AP For every potential case of voter fraud in the six swing states that Trump contested in 2020 — Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — fewer than 475 cases were detected in the 25.5 million ballots cast for the presidency. The lawsuits had no impact on the results: Biden won every state by more than 10,000 votes and six states by a total of 311,257 votes.

Trump’s own attorney general, Bill Barr, said in December 2020: The Ministry of Justice did not reveal any evidence fraud that will change the results.

Brennan Center for Justice to work Results of the 2016 election revealed that only 30 of questionable non-citizen ballots were referred for further investigation or prosecution in 42 jurisdictions; this accounted for 23.5 million of the votes in that election.

For some, the failure of legal efforts and the lack of evidence of widespread fraud raise the question of why the lawsuits were filed, especially in many cases so close to the election.

“The natural consequence is to set the stage for the claim that the election was stolen,” David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonprofit that works with Republican and Democratic election officials to strengthen confidence in elections, told USA TODAY. .

“There is a great risk that the ongoing noise is falsely telling lies to a large portion of the American public and convincing them that they should not trust their elections,” Levitt said.

Hornik said if his organization’s lawsuits cast doubt on the election, it’s because of fundamental problems in the systems, even if the group has so far failed to win in court. Most cases were filed in August or September. A lawsuit filed against Maryland officials in March He was dismissed in May and is under appeal.

What will the post-election lawsuits be like?

Hornik said the group’s pre-election concerns influenced its willingness to sue for inspections that were not conducted by state officials.

“We know none of these systems have been repaired. We were terminated because of our concerns,” Hornik said. “So there is no obvious reason why we should trust the process any more than we did before.”

Still, some of the issues it raises may seem different from previous cases.

United Sovereign Americans filed a lawsuit against Texas state officials in late August. to dispute As in Pennsylvania, there are widespread errors in voter registration data.

But in a phone call with USA TODAY, Hornik brought up an entirely different alleged issue with the state, claiming that early votes in Texas were already being counted “for machines that failed the certification test.” He said Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson, appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, “wrote a waiver” allowing the use of the defective machines.

Nelson spokeswoman Alicia Phillips Pierce told USA TODAY that’s not true.

“All machines used in Texas meet certification requirements. No waivers have been made,” Pierce said in an email.

Cases may depend on outcome

Hornik said he would continue to file suit if Trump wins the state.

“This is not about one candidate. There are 435 seats in Congress up for re-election or new elections in a few weeks,” Hornik said.

But he refused to say whether a lawsuit would be filed regardless of the election outcome.

“It really depends on our resources, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure the election is as great for the American people as possible,” Hornik said.

In addition to Pennsylvania, Texas and Maryland, United Sovereign Americans filed suit this year to challenge voter rolls in Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio.

‘Nobody needs another Maricopa Mardi Gras’

After the 2020 election, Trump spread misinformation about election results in Phoenix’s Maricopa County. Falsely claiming that an election-related database has been deleted. Months of Republican-backed scrutiny President Joe Biden confirmed to have won the district.

Still, the post-election chaos in this county and elsewhere across the country has spurred unprecedented election security efforts in the state. bulletproof glass, security cameras, panic buttonand de-escalation training for election workers.

Hornik said United Sovereign Americans did not seek to create chaos in the wake of this year’s election.

“No one needs another Maricopa Mardi Gras, as I call it,” Hornik told USA TODAY.

However, voters may be asked to verify their identity or correct typos before their votes are counted.

“You mark everything that looks like garbage. And if these people want to vote, that’s fine. They vote provisionally. They walk in, show ID and say, ‘Yes, I’m really here, here’s my address,'” he said.