Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign filed a lawsuit in Nevada Tuesday, alleging that election officials allowed individuals to vote after early-voting locations closed.
The campaign is asking a judge to set aside the ballots from polling locations in question, until the court can determine which ballots to invalidate. People claimed they were at these polling locations, and saw election irregularities, according to NBC’s Pete Williams.
Here’s what Trump campaign in NV is asking for in early voting suit filed today pic.twitter.com/pswpfiA1TY
— Riley Snyder (@RileySnyder) November 8, 2016
Nevada’s Republican party chairman, Michael McDonald, alleged that Clark County election officials kept polling locations open for at least three hours past their scheduled closing time. McDonald referred to polling locations that remained open in Clark County, which made up close to 70 percent of the vote statewide in 2012. The county is home to Las Vegas and is 30 percent Hispanic. Higher turnout likely benefits Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in a state that has turned into a battleground.
“Last night in Clark County, they kept a poll open until 10 o’clock at night so a certain group can vote,” McDonald said Saturday during a Trump rally in Reno. “It was in an area that normally has high transition. The polls are supposed to close at seven. This was kept open until 10. You feel free right now? You think this is a free and easy election?,” McDonald argued to a raucous crowd.
At a polling location in a Clark County shopping center, the last early ballot was cast at 10:10 p.m., which is over three hours after polls were scheduled to close (7:00 p.m.), CBS Las Vegas reported. Election officials at a polling location in the heavily Hispanic section of East Las Vegas were still “processing voters” two hours after closing time, according to a local CBS report.
The Daily Caller News Foundation spoke with Clark County Registrar, Joe Gloria, who confirmed that his office allowed individuals to vote at polling locations during in-person early voting, even if they didn’t get in line until after the polls had already closed.
“We keep the polls open until there is no longer a line,” Gloria confirmed to TheDCNF late Monday. When asked to clarify if he allowed folks to vote who didn’t get in line until after the polls were set to close, Gloria confirmed that yes, they did allow folks to vote who showed up after.
TheDCNF spoke with Clark County spokesman, Dan Kulin, who also admitted that election officials would allow late voters, even ones who weren’t standing in line at the time of closing, asserting that “we would not turn away a voter who joined an existing line shortly after closing time.”
While the wide-spread media narrative is that polls were remaining open to allow voters who were in line to vote, Clark County election officials explicitly stated otherwise, admitting that they allowed anyone and everyone to vote late into the night. “If there’s a line when closing time comes, we just keep processing voters until there’s no more line,” Kulin said. “We’re flexible because we want people to vote,” the spokesman for heavily Democratic Clark County told TheDCNF
“It’s concerning when you hear reports about special favors and perhaps special rules for Democratic voters. We already know that their presidential nominee has special rules for her,” Trump’s campaign manager Kelly Ann Conway told CNN Sunday. Conway is presumably referring to potential voter fraud in Nevada.
When CNN‘s Jake Tapper pushed back, saying that polls are often kept open to allow those in line at closing time to vote, Conway said, “We just always want the law followed and rules followed.” She predicted that folks are, “going to see really long lines — serpentine-like lines on Tuesday of folks there for Donald Trump. You’re going to see record turnout in many of these places.”
Tapper continued to assert that polling places stayed open late to accommodate voters already in line, to which Conway replied, “We’ve not been able to independently verify that. I’m telling you that we just want the rules and laws followed and that will be fine. Excuse us that the Democratic presidential nominee is somebody who lives under a separate set of rules than the rest of us. That’s very clear.”
Trump is also criticizing alleged voting irregularities in Nevada, saying recently, “It’s being reported certain key Democratic polling locations in Clark County were kept open hours and hours beyond closing time to bus and bring Democratic voters in.”
Trump reminded his supporters of the “rigged system,” and insisted that “we’re going to beat it.”
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