Federal court rejects group’s claim that voter fraud would affect Nevada mail-in primary

A federal court has rejected a claim by the Texas-based voting rights group True the Vote that said voter fraud would run rampant in the state’s all-mail Republican primary on June 9. 

The Texas-based group dedicated to the prevention of voter fraud filed a lawsuit against the state on April 21 after the state moved to have an all-mail primary due to fears of the coronavirus. 

U.S. District Court Judge Miranda Du, an Obama appointee, said the plaintiff’s arguments were “difficult to track and ail to even minimally meet the first standing prong,” and “their claim of voter fraud is without any factual basis.”

Du wrote that the argument that an all-mail election is more susceptible to voter fraud “seems unlikely” given that the steps taken by the Nevada Secretary of State’s office “maintain the material safeguards to preserve election integrity.”

She also dismissed claims by members of True to Vote who alleged that the all-mail election violated state law. 

“The Court finds that Defendants’ interests in protecting the health and safety of Nevada’s voters and to safeguard the voting franchise in light of the COVID-19 pandemic far outweigh any burden on Plaintiffs’ right to vote, particularly when that burden is premised on a speculative claim of voter fraud resulting in dilution of votes,” wrote Du.

President Trump has taken a hard stance against expanding alternatives to in-person voting, arguing that mail-in voting risks “tremendous potential for voter fraud” and hands an advantage to Democrats.

“No, because I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting,” Trump said at a White House briefing early this month. “I think people should vote with ID, voter ID. I think voter ID is very important, and the reason they don’t want voter ID is because they intend to cheat.”

Maryland’s special election Tuesday was the state’s first test of conducting a nominating contest almost entirely by mail amid the spread of the coronavirus.

While there were three in-person voting centers scattered across the district, the vast majority of ballots were cast via mail.