In the year 2022 alone, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has filed 73 different lawsuits in 20 different states, alleging various violations of election procedure and resulting in several key victories, with two weeks to go before the midterms.
As reported by Fox News, the lawsuits focus on such matters as the counting of ballots that are either undated or mismarked, as well as the rights of poll watchers to directly observe the counting of ballots. The large-scale legal action by the RNC comes after widespread accusations of voter fraud in the 2020 election cycle, which many believe was enough to swing the results away from President Donald J. Trump and in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel described the 2022 election cycle as the “most litigious” in modern history, with many of the lawsuits directly targeting Democratic secretaries of state and other election officials who unilaterally changed their states’ election procedures in response to the coronavirus pandemic. These changes, which included expanded access to mail-in voting, ballot-harvesting by third parties, longer early voting periods, and the implementation of ballot drop boxes, all led to practices that are more susceptible to voter fraud.
RNC spokesman Gates McGavick described the lawsuits as the result of a “multimillion-dollar investment into building an election integrity operations infrastructure that draws on its legal, political, data and communications resources.”
The lawsuits were welcomed by election integrity advocates.
“After the shortcomings of the last election, a proactive and preemptive legal strategy is critical to the election integrity voters deserve in 2022, 2024 and beyond,” said Michael Bars, executive director of the Election Transparency Initiative, further adding that there have been “significant strides” that have “restored voters’ faith in fair and secure elections.”
Some of the most recent legal victories as a result of these lawsuits include successful efforts in Nevada and Arziona to force the state governments to produce data on all poll workers. In Michigan, the RNC won a lawsuit against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D-Mich.) over her attempts to impose severe and unconstitutional restrictions on people who are appointed as poll-challengers.
And in Pennsylvania, the state supreme court has agreed to hear a case regarding undated mail-in ballots, to determine whether such ballots should be counted in the election.