Federal Court Rules Against Democrats: No Evidence RNC Has Violated 1982 Anti-Voter Suppression Order

Bloomberg reports:

There’s no evidence the Republican National Committee is engaged in efforts to intimidate voters in violation of a 1982 court order barring such activities, a federal judge ruled in rejecting a request by Democrats for sanctions.

U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday denied the DNC request, ruling that the RNC hadn’t violated the order. The RNC has long denied that its ballot-security measures intimidate voters or suppress the vote.

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 RNC from organizing any poll-watching measures 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 1982 agreement could result in an eight-year extension for the RNC.

The accord doesn’t bar presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign or state Republican parties from poll-watching measures. The RNC 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 precinct and machines are working properly.