Trump targets Nevada mail voting
Lawsuit seeks to block state from mailing ballots to all voters
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump escalated his attacks on mail-in balloting Wednesday, announcing a federal lawsuit seeking to block a new Nevada law that expands the practice and promising to scrutinize new rules in other states where officials are scrambling to help voters cast ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit, filed by the Trump campaign late Tuesday in federal court, offered evidence of the president’s growing effort to curtail voting laws in some states while defending the practice elsewhere.
This week, Trump began championing mail-in balloting in Florida, where he was registered to vote, saying it was secure in part because it is controlled by Republicans.
“Nevada has ZERO infrastructure for Mail-In Voting,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “It will be a corrupt disaster if not ended by the Courts. It will take months, or years, to figure out. Florida has built a great infrastructure, over years, with two great Republican Governors. Florida, send in your Ballots!”
The strategy could further complicate Trump’s message on mail-in balloting, which has shifted in recent days amid growing concern among his own advisers that he has threatened Republican turnout with his blanket attacks on absentee voting.
Now, in addition to arguing without evidence that mail-in balloting invites widespread fraud, Trump is making the case that the practice is only problematic in those states that do not have substantial experience with absentee voting.
A senior campaign adviser said there is nothing contradictory about the president’s strategy, which he said is to prevent a “power grab” by Democrats in states that are not prepared to expand mail voting.
The new law in Nevada includes two striking provisions: a requirement that election officials mail a ballot to every active registered voter in the state, and another requiring the counting of ballots with no postmark if they are received up to three days after Election Day.
Only a handful of states will mail ballots directly to all voters this year whether they apply for a ballot or not, and most have extensive experience conducting mail-in elections.