There's no evidence that the Republican National Committee is trying to intimidate voters in violation of a 1982 court order against their doing so, a federal judge ruled in rejecting a request by Democrats for sanctions.
U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez in Newark, N.J., denied the Democrats' request, ruling that the Republicans hadn't violated the order. The Republican committee has long denied that its ballot-security measures intimidate voters or suppress voting.
The Democrats filed their challenge Oct. 26 in a decades-old case accusing Republicans of planning ballot-security measures in violation of the agreement banning the party from such activities. The initial case, filed in 1981, accused Republicans of trying to intimidate minority voters in a New Jersey election. The settlement, called a consent decree, bars the Republican committee from organizing any poll-watching until 2017.
Democrats renewed arguments that Republicans intimidated minority voters under the guise of watching polling places for evidence of voter fraud. A violation of the agreement could result in an eight-year extension for the Republicans.
The agreement doesn't prohibit Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign or state Republican parties from poll-watching. The Republican committee argued that Democrats were conflating state-level voter-fraud planning with national coordination and that agreement allowed some kinds of poll watching, including ensuring people are in the correct precincts and voting machines are working properly.
Vazquez on Oct. 31 ordered the Republicans to turn over evidence of any deals the party struck with Trump's campaign for his supporters to stand watch at polling places.
Trump's running mate Mike Pence and his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway were at the center of the Democrats' claims. Both have said over the past two months that Trump was working closely with the Republican committee to prevent fraud by Hillary Clinton voters, though there is no evidence that such fraud is widespread or coordinated.
Trump and Republican officials have repeatedly said Democrats would engage in illegal voting activities, such as busing people in from other cities to vote in place of dead people or casting multiple ballots.
Friday, lawyers for the Republicans argued at a hearing that Pence and Conway admitted later that they misspoke.
"It was big of Mr. Pence and Ms. Conway to say they were mistaken," Republican lawyer Bobby Burchfield said at the hearing.
Vazquez appeared dubious about the alleged errors.
"How many times can people make these mistakes �� oops �� before you think maybe it's not a mistake?" Vazquez asked during the hearing. There's "healthy level of mistrust between the RNC and the DNC," he said.
The DNC, which isn't barred from organizing poll watchers, said Democratic volunteers gave evidence in court papers of what they said was coordinated Republican activity. Some of the Republican poll-watchers appeared to have detailed training material from the RNC and initially claimed they were independent poll watchers before admitting they were Republican, according to the filings.
