Earlier this week, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit over New Mexico’s use of voter drop boxes, which were installed to limit crowding and to allow for social distancing amidst the pandemic. Originally the New Mexico GOP wanted video cameras installed to monitor drop boxes, but that request was struck down last October by a judge after Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver agreed to remind county election officials of security guidelines for drop boxes. This newest lawsuit asks the court to delay the certification of New Mexico’s electoral votes (which were officially cast to Biden last Monday) and order a statewide canvass of all absentee ballots. The lawsuit also asks the court to separate absentee ballots put in drop boxes and to contact those voters who used the drop boxes to make sure no unauthorized ballots were cast. Let’s not forget that the Trump campaign filed a similar lawsuit in Pennsylvania in October, and it was rejected by a Trump-appointed judge because the litigants failed to show evidence of fraud, and the judge added that it was not the job of the judiciary to “contradict the reasoned judgment of democratically elected officials.”
To date, the Trump campaign has lost or withdrawn over 50 lawsuits in other states alleging voter fraud; his lawyers failing to show any evidence of tampering, fraud, or voting irregularities. The more notable Michigan voter fraud lawsuit featured Rudy Giuliani’s flatulence and his star witness “I know what I saw” Melissa Carone, whose performances at the hearing went viral on social media and became the butt of a later SNL skit. And now, this latest lawsuit is yet another tired attempt to overturn democracy and to silence the voices of the people. In New Mexico, the state GOP publicly acknowledged that drop boxes are legal under New Mexico law, but on December 14, when New Mexico’s electoral votes were cast for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Trump’s lawyers decided on launching a desperate attempt to undermine yet another state’s election process.
This lawsuit, and all the others have become absolutely absurd. For example, Pennsylvania, where “Tootin'” Rudy argued that the election results should be thrown out because of supposed improprieties in mail-in voting. Federal Judge Matthew Brann dismissed the suit, citing unsupported evidence. In Arizona, two lawsuits were filed claiming that Sharpie pens used by Republican voters were not processed by the vote-counting machines. And then there’s Trump’s “Kraken,” conspiracy-theorist Sidney Powell (who POTUS considered appointing as the Special Council on Election Fraud) throwing lawsuits around like Mardi-Gras beads all over the country. Powell has filed, again and again, with no evidence, lawsuits alleging an international plot to use Dominion machines to switch votes from Trump to Biden.
Trump and New Mexico Republicans insist on working together to invalidate the electoral vote, calling for a statewide canvass of absentee ballots. You would think that after 50 plus losses, and no evidence of voter fraud, they would just drop it. The reason these lawsuits have fallen flat is not because of some wide-spread conspiracy theory, it’s because there is absolutely no evidence of fraud. Trump’s lawyers have no facts to back up their claims. A common thread running along these lawsuits is that both state and federal judges are hesitant to interfere with the election process by overturning it in court, especially when the claims are unsubstantiated. In some of these dismissed cases, even Republican-appointed judges have issued harsh, and sobering opinions.
It’s very simple, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 elections. Both Democratic and GOP secretaries of state have made it clear that there is no merit to Trump’s outlandish accusations of rampant voter fraud, but Trump still keeps pushing the lie. He claims that the election was stolen from him, that Biden will be an illegitimate president, that the Democrats want to destroy America, etc. Voter fraud is very, very rare in American elections, and a study conducted by Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department attorney, and Loyola Law School professor, found that out of more than 1 billion ballots cast from 2000 to 2014, only 31 of these presented with credible allegations of voter fraud.
New Mexico is the latest victim of yet another unsubstantiated voter fraud lawsuit. And since most people think New Mexico is part of Mexico, I’d be surprised that the Trump campaign even knows it’s location on a map. But these lawsuits are not just about Trump’s desperate effort to overturn votes in states where he lost, it’s about using lawyers and the courts to delegitimize Joe Biden’s presidency-elect and democracy itself. The Trump campaign and it’s supporters have sowed the seeds of doubt regarding the integrity of the election process, but that’s only the means to an end. That end is the undermining of democracy to stay in power.
It’s going to be a daily fight for democracy until January 20th. We should be prepared for more shenanigans until then.
Sources:
1. https://www.abqjournal.com/1512420/nm-ballot-box-lawsuit-resolved-for-now.html
2. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/resources-voter-fraud-claims