Axios, an internet media outlet, reported on the 2nd that former President Donald Trump is focusing more on increasing the number of lawyers and election observers who will raise issues about election fairness rather than on the manpower needed to contact voters.
According to reports, the Republican National Committee (RNC), controlled by former President Trump, is building a network of lawyers and volunteers to collect the information needed to challenge the results of the presidential election on November 5 in court. RNC officials told Axios that the RNC plans to hire more people for this function than any other department.
The RNC has a director in charge of ‘election fairness’ in 13 states, including swing states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Wisconsin, and is training local parties at the state and county level. Additionally, lawyers were hired in each of the 13 states to seize opportunities for litigation related to election fairness.
The Trump campaign and the RNC announced in April that they plan to hire 100,000 volunteers, law students, and lawyers to run a presidential election observation team. Regarding this move, Axios assessed that it is a sign that former President Trump will try to claim “election rigging” again as he did in the 2020 presidential election if he loses this year’s presidential election, and that the legal battle surrounding this year’s presidential election has already begun. The RNC, along with local parties and other advocacy groups, has already filed dozens of election-related lawsuits in 25 states. The RNC has filed several lawsuits calling for a ban on counting undated or mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day.
Other lawsuits have challenged the accuracy of states’ registered voter lists, whether non-citizens can vote, and strengthened voter identification rules. Republicans even won some lawsuits. Last February, New York State upheld a ruling that a New York City law allowing some non-citizens, including permanent residents with work permits, to vote in local elections was unconstitutional, and in March, the Pennsylvania Court of Appeals ruled that stamp ballots were not returned to elections offices on time.
It was ruled that votes should not be counted if there is no date on the envelope upon arrival. Axios reported that litigation is particularly active in Wisconsin, where President Biden won the 2020 presidential election by less than 1 percentage point.
The Republican Party filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin State Board of Elections and election officials in Milwaukee and Madison, strong Democratic cities, claiming that the state blocked Republicans from working as vote counting staff in the primary held in April. Accordingly, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Biden campaign are also responding to the Republican Party’s lawsuit by strengthening their legal teams.
The Democratic Party participated in a lawsuit filed by the Republican Party challenging Arizona’s election management manual and filed a lawsuit against a North Carolina law that makes voter registration on Election Day difficult.