Campaigns are underway for the 2024 presidential election between President Biden and former President Donald Trump. This time, the GOP campaign investment is leaning heavily toward legal infrastructure to ensure electoral integrity based on the circumstances that troubled Republicans after the 2020 election.
Trump Campaign’s Election Integrity Network
The Trump campaign has worked on crafting a vast network of support to ensure “election integrity.” The network includes attorneys and poll watchers.
Traditional Campaign Efforts
Typically, campaigns are focused on “get out the vote efforts,” mobilizing door-to-door campaign efforts, and energizing voters with community events.
Trump’s Response to the 2020 Election
After the 2020 election, Trump notoriously called the election “rigged” and claimed that it was “stolen” from him. This go-around, the GOP frontrunner is working to ensure that will not happen again.
Assembling an Election Integrity Team
Assembling an “election integrity” team ahead of the election will allow the campaign to gather legal evidence that could provide fodder for subsequent lawsuits if Trump loses in November.
RNC’s Election Watch Operation
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is convening a large team for the election watch operation, a subsector of the electoral effort that may dwarf the other components of the RNC.
State Directors for Election Integrity
Specifically, the RNC has named state directors for the “election integrity” initiative in 13 key states. These directors have already begun holding training sessions with local and grassroots GOP parties and chapters in many swing states such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and others.
Legal Contracts with Attorneys
In addition to installing state directors for “election integrity” in these 13 states, they also have legal contracts with 13 attorneys to focus on potential litigation opportunities should Trump not be a clear victor in those states in November.
Engagement of Volunteers
For this operation, the RNC and Trump Campaign will reportedly engage 100,000 volunteers, including lawyers and law students, to help with the polling operation.
Pre-Election Lawsuits
Even before the election, dozens of lawsuits related to the upcoming election were initiated in more than 25 states. These lawsuits were initiated by the RNC, the Republican party, Republican organizations and advocacy groups, and America First Legal, a non-profit organization led by former Trump staffer Stephen Miller.
Lawsuits on Mail-In Ballots
The lawsuits already underway involve efforts to prevent states from processing mail-in ballots with irregularities, such as missing a date. Other lawsuits prevent states from counting ballots that arrive in the mail after election day.
Allegations of Inadequate Election Law Compliance
A third variety of lawsuits involves allegations that some states do not adequately follow current election laws. For example, the lawsuits allege that some states do not have accurate voter registration lists and claim that others do not prevent noncitizens from casting their ballots.
Stricter Voter ID Rules
Finally, parties seeking to enact stricter voter ID rules are championing some current legal challenges in the run-up to the November election.
Republican Lawsuit Successes
Some of the Republican lawsuits underway have seen success in the courts. One law resulted in a New York law being overturned. The law in question allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections (but not federal elections).
Pennsylvania Court Ruling
In another Republican victory in Pennsylvania, the court affirmed that mail-in ballots may not be counted if they are not dated.
GOP Plans for Swing States
The GOP has individualized plans for different scenarios, states, and regions. In Wisconsin, a swing state that went to Biden by less than one point in 2020, the RNC Wisconsin director stated, “We are going to have deployed attorneys specifically for Milwaukee…and roaming attorneys for Racine and Kenosha.”
Complaints in Wisconsin Primary Election
Republicans have already complained to state election officials that they were barred from serving as poll workers in the Wisconsin primary election in April. The GOP allies specifically criticized efforts in Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and Madison to sideline them during the election earlier this year.
Democratic Legal Preparations
Republicans are not the only ones gearing up for a prolonged legal fight that may extend into the post-election period. The Democratic National Convention (DNC) and a firm led by election lawyer Marc Elias are also undertaking legal efforts to secure the election in their favor.
Democratic Lawsuit in Wisconsin
Elias’s legal firm initiated a lawsuit to block a Wisconsin law requiring absentee ballot submissions to contain a witness signature. A federal judge dismissed this lawsuit.
DNC’s Voter-Protection Operation
DNC official Alex Floyd stated, “The DNC has built a robust voter-protection operation, investing tens of millions of dollars to protect against MAGA Republicans’ assault on our voting rights.”
Democratic Disputes in GOP Lawsuits
Democrats are also involved in disputing GOP lawsuits in Arizona and North Carolina.
