The Trump reelection campaign and the Republican Party sued Montana on Wednesday after Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock gave counties the choice to conduct the November election entirely by mail-in votes amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The lawsuit alleges Bullock’s directive would negatively affect Montana’s election system. The lawsuit in Montana names Bullock and Republican Secretary of State Corey Stapleton as defendants.
The move is the latest attempt by the Trump campaign to block mail-in voting, which he believes would lead to widespread fraud. Despite claims from Democrats and left-leaning media that President Trump offered no evidence, Kayleigh McEnany has frequently cited the California primary where over 100,000 mail-in votes went uncounted, as well as the election in New Jersey that was ruled as ‘irreversibly tainted’ after 4 postal workers and two locally elected leaders were charged with voter fraud. And although Democrats say those cases are rare and the indictments show the security in place works, the elections were some of the first-ever to include that multitude of mail-in votes and the New Jersey election has been thrown out and will have to be held again. The President also cited a few cases where people’s pets, aive and deceased, received mail-in ballots under their names.
The campaign and Republican Party also sued last month over a new law in Nevada that will automatically send voters mail-in ballots for November, contending the plan would undermine the election’s integrity.
Montana allows for voting by mail but only at the request of the voter. Under Bullock’s directive, counties have the option to have voting done entirely by mail for the November election. Counties have until Friday to state how they will conduct the election. According to the secretary of state’s elections office, 42 out of 56 counties have already confirmed they plan to hold the November elections entirely by mail.
