Leroy N. Soetoro
2020-04-16 03:23:09 UTC
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lawyer-threaten-to-sue-nevada-unless-
ballot-harvesting-is-permitted
A prominent Democratic lawyer who represented Hillary Clinton's
presidential campaign is threatening to sue the state of Nevada unless it
immediately suspends prosecutions for ballot harvesting before the June 9
primary, among a slew of other demands, according to a letter obtained by
Fox News on Tuesday.
Marc Elias, now representing the Nevada Democratic Party, also called for
a substantial expansion to in-person voting access in the upcoming primary
though just days ago, he said it was a "national disgrace" that
Wisconsin was moving ahead with in-person voting amid the coronavirus
pandemic. (In both cases, he cited health concerns.) Democrats had feared
that high turnout in Wisconsin would hurt their chances, while they have a
more optimistic outlook in Nevada.
READ ELIAS' FULL LETTER .... HOW BALLOT HARVESTING HELPED DEMS ROUT GOP IN
CALIFORNIA
Writing on April 10 to Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a
Republican, Elias first took aim at Nevada Revised Statutes section
293.330(4), which prohibits ballot harvesting and permits only certain
individuals, like family members, to return ballots. Ballot harvesting, or
the practice of allowing political operatives and others to collect
voters ballots and turn them in en masse to polling stations, has drawn
bipartisan concerns of fraud from election watchers.
In his letter, Elias argued that "many Nevada voters will not be able to
return their mail-in ballots themselves and do not have family members
or are separated from these family members because of social distancing
who can do so for them."
"We ask that your office and the office of the Nevada Attorney General
immediately announce a suspension of prosecutions under this statute for
all elections for which mail-in balloting will be the primary means of
voting in the state," Elias said.
At the same time, Elias called for Nevada to stop throwing out ballots
when signatures on voters' ballots appear different from those on voters'
registrations, saying "lay election officials have never had the necessary
expertise" to make an accurate determination.
"In an environment where the vast majority of Nevada voters will be
casting a mail-in ballot for the first time, there is the real possibility
that hundreds of thousands of Nevada voters could be disenfranchised due
to the arbitrary determinations of these untrained officials," Elias
wrote. In the alternative, Elias said that those found to have mismatched
or missing signatures should be given an additional two weeks, instead of
the normal one-week deadline, to clarify the matter.
Elias also demanded that Nevada "require mail-in ballots be sent to all
registered voters in Nevada, not just those in an active status." Elias
asserted that state election law doesn't distinguish between the two
categories of voters.
Republicans have argued that many states fail to adequately clean up their
voter rolls. Last year, California was forced to remove 1.5 million
ineligible voters after a court settlement last year when California's
rolls showed a registration of 112 percent.
Further, Elias urged that Nevada "require more than just one in-person
vote center per county in the States most populous counties as well as
those with geographically distant population centers."
"Nevada voters have a proud tradition of voting in person either during
the early voting period or on election day," Elias wrote. "Having only a
single in-person location in each county poses certain risks and hardships
to voters in various circumstancesvoters in dense urban communities, for
example, will be forced into dangerously overcrowded polling places, while
rural voters will have to travel unreasonable distances just to cast their
ballots."
Marc E. Elias
?
@marceelias
This is a national disgrace. This may well cost lives.
No one should have to chose between voting and their health.
https://twitter.com/MollyBeck/status/1247282595538391045
Molly Beck
?
@MollyBeck
BREAKING: Wisconsin Supreme Courts blocks @GovEvers' order to shut down
Tuesday's election.
2,899
3:16 PM - Apr 6, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
1,173 people are talking about this
On April 6, though, Elias called it a "national disgrace" that "may well
cost lives" when the Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked an order to shut down
in-person voting there. "No one should have to chose between voting and
their health," Elias wrote on Twitter.
Elias, among other things, is known for his role hiring private research
firm Fusion GPS to probe Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign efforts
which resulted in the discredited anti-Trump dossier.
Elias did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News, but
Republicans argued that the letter exposed Democratic partisanship.
Democrats hypocrisy knows no bounds," Republican National Committee
(RNC) Chief of Staff Richard Walters told Fox News. "The same people who
were fear mongering about in-person voting last week are suddenly
demanding more opportunities for in-person voting.
Donald J. Trump
?
@realDonaldTrump
GET RID OF BALLOT HARVESTING, IT IS RAMPANT WITH FRAUD. THE USA MUST HAVE
VOTER I.D., THE ONLY WAY TO GET AN HONEST COUNT!
193K
7:24 AM - Apr 14, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
80.3K people are talking about this
WHAT'S BALLOT HARVESTING?
Elias did appear to be citing health concerns in both cases, however --
first by criticizing Wisconsin for having in-person voting at all, and
later by arguing that limited polling locations In Nevada would force
voters into overcrowded spaces.
But Walters pointed to the ballot-harvesting request as part of a bigger
scheme.
Walters added: Democrats entire strategy is to legalize ballot
harvesting nationwide, and this letter proves it. Sending far-left
activists door-to-door to collect ballots not only jeopardizes peoples
health, it threatens the security of their ballot. The last thing our
country needs during a time of crisis is to weaken confidence in our
elections, but that is exactly what would happen if Democrats get their
way.
In 2018, despite holding substantial leads on Election Day, many
Republican candidates in California saw their advantage shrink, and then
disappear, as late-arriving Democratic votes were counted in the weeks
following the election. Many observers pointed to the Democrats' use of
ballot harvesting as a key to their success in the elections.
Anecdotally there was a lot of evidence that ballot harvesting was going
on, Neal Kelley, the registrar for voters in Southern Californias Orange
County, told Fox News.
In Orange County once seen as a Republican stronghold in the state
every House seat went to a Democrat after an unprecedented 250,000 vote-
by-mail drop-offs were counted, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
People were carrying in stacks of 100 and 200 of them. We had had
multiple people calling to ask if these people were allowed to do this,
Kelley said.
California had recently legalized ballot harvesting ahead of the election.
In 2019, a GOP operative in North Carolina was arrested related to alleged
ballot harvesting, which is prohibited in that state.
"GET RID OF BALLOT HARVESTING, IT IS RAMPANT WITH FRAUD," President Trump
wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning. "THE USA MUST HAVE VOTER I.D., THE
ONLY WAY TO GET AN HONEST COUNT!"
Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump has boosted the economy, reduced illegal immigration,
appointed dozens of judges and created jobs.
Senile loser and NAMBLA supporter Nancy Pelosi got "Trumped" on February
5, 2020. "President Trump, Not Guilty."
ballot-harvesting-is-permitted
A prominent Democratic lawyer who represented Hillary Clinton's
presidential campaign is threatening to sue the state of Nevada unless it
immediately suspends prosecutions for ballot harvesting before the June 9
primary, among a slew of other demands, according to a letter obtained by
Fox News on Tuesday.
Marc Elias, now representing the Nevada Democratic Party, also called for
a substantial expansion to in-person voting access in the upcoming primary
though just days ago, he said it was a "national disgrace" that
Wisconsin was moving ahead with in-person voting amid the coronavirus
pandemic. (In both cases, he cited health concerns.) Democrats had feared
that high turnout in Wisconsin would hurt their chances, while they have a
more optimistic outlook in Nevada.
READ ELIAS' FULL LETTER .... HOW BALLOT HARVESTING HELPED DEMS ROUT GOP IN
CALIFORNIA
Writing on April 10 to Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a
Republican, Elias first took aim at Nevada Revised Statutes section
293.330(4), which prohibits ballot harvesting and permits only certain
individuals, like family members, to return ballots. Ballot harvesting, or
the practice of allowing political operatives and others to collect
voters ballots and turn them in en masse to polling stations, has drawn
bipartisan concerns of fraud from election watchers.
In his letter, Elias argued that "many Nevada voters will not be able to
return their mail-in ballots themselves and do not have family members
or are separated from these family members because of social distancing
who can do so for them."
"We ask that your office and the office of the Nevada Attorney General
immediately announce a suspension of prosecutions under this statute for
all elections for which mail-in balloting will be the primary means of
voting in the state," Elias said.
At the same time, Elias called for Nevada to stop throwing out ballots
when signatures on voters' ballots appear different from those on voters'
registrations, saying "lay election officials have never had the necessary
expertise" to make an accurate determination.
"In an environment where the vast majority of Nevada voters will be
casting a mail-in ballot for the first time, there is the real possibility
that hundreds of thousands of Nevada voters could be disenfranchised due
to the arbitrary determinations of these untrained officials," Elias
wrote. In the alternative, Elias said that those found to have mismatched
or missing signatures should be given an additional two weeks, instead of
the normal one-week deadline, to clarify the matter.
Elias also demanded that Nevada "require mail-in ballots be sent to all
registered voters in Nevada, not just those in an active status." Elias
asserted that state election law doesn't distinguish between the two
categories of voters.
Republicans have argued that many states fail to adequately clean up their
voter rolls. Last year, California was forced to remove 1.5 million
ineligible voters after a court settlement last year when California's
rolls showed a registration of 112 percent.
Further, Elias urged that Nevada "require more than just one in-person
vote center per county in the States most populous counties as well as
those with geographically distant population centers."
"Nevada voters have a proud tradition of voting in person either during
the early voting period or on election day," Elias wrote. "Having only a
single in-person location in each county poses certain risks and hardships
to voters in various circumstancesvoters in dense urban communities, for
example, will be forced into dangerously overcrowded polling places, while
rural voters will have to travel unreasonable distances just to cast their
ballots."
Marc E. Elias
?
@marceelias
This is a national disgrace. This may well cost lives.
No one should have to chose between voting and their health.
https://twitter.com/MollyBeck/status/1247282595538391045
Molly Beck
?
@MollyBeck
BREAKING: Wisconsin Supreme Courts blocks @GovEvers' order to shut down
Tuesday's election.
2,899
3:16 PM - Apr 6, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
1,173 people are talking about this
On April 6, though, Elias called it a "national disgrace" that "may well
cost lives" when the Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked an order to shut down
in-person voting there. "No one should have to chose between voting and
their health," Elias wrote on Twitter.
Elias, among other things, is known for his role hiring private research
firm Fusion GPS to probe Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign efforts
which resulted in the discredited anti-Trump dossier.
Elias did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News, but
Republicans argued that the letter exposed Democratic partisanship.
Democrats hypocrisy knows no bounds," Republican National Committee
(RNC) Chief of Staff Richard Walters told Fox News. "The same people who
were fear mongering about in-person voting last week are suddenly
demanding more opportunities for in-person voting.
Donald J. Trump
?
@realDonaldTrump
GET RID OF BALLOT HARVESTING, IT IS RAMPANT WITH FRAUD. THE USA MUST HAVE
VOTER I.D., THE ONLY WAY TO GET AN HONEST COUNT!
193K
7:24 AM - Apr 14, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
80.3K people are talking about this
WHAT'S BALLOT HARVESTING?
Elias did appear to be citing health concerns in both cases, however --
first by criticizing Wisconsin for having in-person voting at all, and
later by arguing that limited polling locations In Nevada would force
voters into overcrowded spaces.
But Walters pointed to the ballot-harvesting request as part of a bigger
scheme.
Walters added: Democrats entire strategy is to legalize ballot
harvesting nationwide, and this letter proves it. Sending far-left
activists door-to-door to collect ballots not only jeopardizes peoples
health, it threatens the security of their ballot. The last thing our
country needs during a time of crisis is to weaken confidence in our
elections, but that is exactly what would happen if Democrats get their
way.
In 2018, despite holding substantial leads on Election Day, many
Republican candidates in California saw their advantage shrink, and then
disappear, as late-arriving Democratic votes were counted in the weeks
following the election. Many observers pointed to the Democrats' use of
ballot harvesting as a key to their success in the elections.
Anecdotally there was a lot of evidence that ballot harvesting was going
on, Neal Kelley, the registrar for voters in Southern Californias Orange
County, told Fox News.
In Orange County once seen as a Republican stronghold in the state
every House seat went to a Democrat after an unprecedented 250,000 vote-
by-mail drop-offs were counted, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
People were carrying in stacks of 100 and 200 of them. We had had
multiple people calling to ask if these people were allowed to do this,
Kelley said.
California had recently legalized ballot harvesting ahead of the election.
In 2019, a GOP operative in North Carolina was arrested related to alleged
ballot harvesting, which is prohibited in that state.
"GET RID OF BALLOT HARVESTING, IT IS RAMPANT WITH FRAUD," President Trump
wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning. "THE USA MUST HAVE VOTER I.D., THE
ONLY WAY TO GET AN HONEST COUNT!"
Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump has boosted the economy, reduced illegal immigration,
appointed dozens of judges and created jobs.
Senile loser and NAMBLA supporter Nancy Pelosi got "Trumped" on February
5, 2020. "President Trump, Not Guilty."