With the 8 November election now just days away, the Democratic party has launched a pre-emptive legal strike against what it perceives as efforts on the part of Mr Trump and the broader Republican Party to intimidate voters from minority backgrounds.
Polling station ‘watchers’
Still tailing in a majority of pre-election polls, Mr Trump has repeatedly alleged that the election has been ‘rigged’ by his Democratic rivals and has encouraged his supporters to keep an eye out for signs of voter fraud on election day. The DNC is concerned that Mr Trump’s call for his supporters to act as ‘election observers’ is tacit encouragement of vigilante-style voter intimidation in key battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada that have the power to decide the presidency, particularly against minority voters. Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton is relying on a strong turnout among black and Latino voters in swing states to clinch the election in her favour.
Allegations denied
The DNC court filing in New Jersey accuses the RNC of violating consent decrees dating back to 1982 which prohibit the group from participating in polling station security efforts. ‘Trump has falsely and repeatedly told his supporters that the November 8 election will be “rigged” based on fabricated claims of voter fraud in ‘certain areas’. Unsurprisingly, those ‘certain areas’ are exclusively communities where large minority voting populations reside,’ the filing reads. A spokesperson for the RNC has described the filing as ‘completely meritless’ and has denied that the RNC has played any role in voter fraud prevention efforts, including those of the Trump campaign.
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