By Tresa Baldas
November 4, 2016
With the presidential election just days away, the Michigan Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Friday against the Donald Trump campaign in a preemptive move to block any move by the Republican presidential candidate's supporters to try to intimidate voters in minority communities on Election Day.
The lawsuit — the sixth such one filed this week in the U.S. — is asking a federal judge to issue a restraining order to prevent such activity on Election Day. The suit does not specify exactly what type of behavior should be banned from polling places, claiming only that there have been calls by Trump adviser Roger Stone and others for vigilante action at the polls and for Trump supporters to "descend on polling places" in red T-shirts to intimidate minorities and prevent them from voting.
"There are only five days left until Election Day. Trumps' calls for unlawful intimidation have grown louder and louder, and the conspiracy to harass and threaten voters on Election Day already has resulted in numerous acts that threaten the voting rights of registered Michigan voters," the lawsuit states. "The Michigan Democratic party, and untold numbers of Michigan voters, will suffer irreparable harm if the right to vote is imperiled by the same forms of virulent harassment that federal law has prohibited since shortly after the Civil War."
The Trump campaign said the lawsuit has no merit, and that it is not affiliated with Roger Stone and his so-called Stop the Steal campaign.
“The complaints are long on rhetoric, short on substance, and are clearly designed to change the subject away from Hillary Clinton's mounting legal problems. Stop the Steal and Roger Stone are not affiliated with the campaign, and we have no idea what they are doing," the Trump campaign said in an e-mailed statement Friday. "The campaign is doing everything in accordance with applicable law — the suit does not challenge this, and asks only that the law be followed, which the campaign is already doing.”
The lawsuit comes one week after the first such lawsuit was filed in New Jersey by the Democratic National Committee, which is asking a federal court to enforce a decades-old order barring Republicans from engaging in voter intimidation.
“Trump has falsely and repeatedly told his supporters that the Nov. 8 election will be rigged based upon fabricated claims of voter fraud in ‘certain areas’ or ‘certain sections’ of key states,” the New Jersey lawsuit suit says. “Unsurprisingly, those ‘certain areas’ are exclusively communities in which large minority voting populations reside.”
Republicans have scoffed at the New Jersey case.
"The filing is completely meritless," said RNC spokeswoman Lindsay Walters. "Just as in all prior elections in which the consent decree was in effect, the RNC strictly abides by the consent decree and does not take part directly or indirectly in any efforts to prevent or remedy vote fraud. Nor do we coordinate with the Trump campaign or any other campaign or party organization in any efforts they may make in this area. The RNC remains focused on getting out the vote.”
Meanwhile, the Michigan lawsuit alleges that Trump has made racially tinged statements to his supporters claiming he could lose the election because of imagined voter fraud, and that they should "go to particular precincts on Election Day and intimidate voters" to prevent that from happening.
For example, the lawsuit states, Trump made the following comments at an August rally in Altoona, Pa.:
"I hope you people can ... not just vote on the 8th, (but also) go around and look and watch other polling places and make sure that it's 100% fine. We're going to watch Pennsylvania — go down to certain areas and watch ... The only way we can lose, in my opinion — and I really mean this, Pennsylvania — is if cheating goes on."
Besides Michigan and New Jersey, similar lawsuits have been filed in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona.
Detroit attorney Mary Ellen Gurewitz, one of several lawyers involved in the Michigan lawsuit, said voter intimidation has long been an issue of concern in Michigan. But this time around, it's an even bigger concern, she said,because Trump is encouraging his supporters to engage in it.
But the Michigan Democratic Party is prepared, she said, noting that more than 1,000 people — many of them lawyers — have volunteered to help monitor the polls for intimidation tactics.
When asked exactly what types of tactics are feared, she said: "We’re worried about people who come and try to intimidate voters in whatever way because that’s what Trump has been encouraging them to do."
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