Even Red States Are Stopping Trump's Midterm Election Rigging
No one would confuse Kentucky with a blue state, but the Bluegrass State defeated Donald Trump in court and denied him access to its voter rolls.
A comment beneath the recent story on Trump losing in court and failing to get access to sensitive voter information in Connecticut wondered if only blue states were fighting Trump’s election rigging.
Deep, deep red West Virginia is one of the red states that has refused to turn over its voter data and won in court.
One of the earliest cases where the DOJ lost was in the swing state of Michigan. The DOJ has lost in every swing state, but the Michigan ruling was important because it established the precedent and the foundation for future court rulings.
On Thursday, a Trump-appointed judge in Kentucky became the latest to rule against the president’s plot to rig the midterm election.
In reaching this conclusion, the Sixth Circuit considered three letters sent by the government to Michigan’s chief election official, Jocelyn Benson. Id. Two of the letters sent to Benson referenced the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) as the authority for the request but omitted any mention of Title III. Id. The third letter referenced Title III and “specified the purpose for the government’s request,” but did not indicate the basis. Id.
As for the first two letters, the Sixth Circuit held that, even assuming the letters contained a sufficient basis for the demand, they did not identify a purpose. Id. Regarding the third letter, the Sixth Circuit found that it specified a purpose but contained no basis for the request. Id. Thus, “[n]one of the three letters contains both a statement of the basis along with the purpose of the government’s request for Michigan’s qualified voter file.” Id.
This proved problematic in the Sixth Circuit’s view because “[t]he statutory context suggests that any demand must contain both [a basis and a purpose].” Id. Accordingly, the Sixth Circuit found that the government’s noncompliance with “its mandatory statutory obligation” provided an independent basis to dismiss the complaint. Id.
There’s that Michigan ruling again, and that was a very bad sign for Trump’s scheme.
