The Republican National Committee has been curtailed by the law in what it can and can't do when it comes to people voting, and has been since 1981. That's because of the RNC's long history of trying to stop people from voting. Nothing has changed in 2016, and a federal judge has put the RNC on notice that they need to come clean on what they might be doing with the Donald Trump campaign.
A federal judge is ordering the Republican National Committee to detail any agreements it has with Donald Trump's campaign to engage in "ballot security" efforts in connection with next week's election—something the national GOP has been banned for doing for decades without court approval.
The order also instructs the RNC to explain by 5 p.m. Tuesday what Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence were talking about in recent comments when they said that Trump's campaign was working closely with the RNC to make sure there is no fraud at the polls.
Newark, N.J.-based U.S. District Court John Vazquez issued the order Monday after the Democratic National Committee went to court last week to allege that the RNC was violating consent decrees from the 1980s settling a case alleging that GOP pollwatchers sought to intimidate minority voters in a practice then known as "caging."
The agreements allow the RNC to organize pollwatchers, but prohibit any effort to intimidate voters as they enter a polling place or to challenge individual voters, except as part of a program approved in advance by the court.
The RNC says they've been in compliance with that order, and that they've told "RNC workers, officials and volunteers not to engage in poll watching efforts at all, not to take video or audio recordings at polling places and not to mention ballot fraud concerns on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter." But Pence and Conway pretty much let the cat out of the bag. In August, Pence said that the "Trump Campaign and the Republican National Committee are working very, very closely with state governments and secretaries of state all over the country to ensure ballot integrity." And then Conway had to step in it by saying the campaign was "actively working with the national committee, the official party, and campaign lawyers to monitor precincts around the country."
The DNC also came in with proof that the RNC was lying when it said it wasn't engaging in poll-watching in Nevada. RNC poll watchers in early voting locations actually told DNC poll watchers that they were there with the RNC, but weren't supposed to reveal that affiliation. Subtle. And bright. They must be Trump's people.
Looks like the restrictions on the RNC aren't going to be ending any decade soon.
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