President Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee are looking to combat an issue that led to a lot of debate during the 2016 presidential election.
Both organizations are accusing the Democrats of “rigging” votes and now they are fighting to come up with a favorable resolution before the 2020 election in November.
According to Politico, Trump and the RNC will be investing more than $10 million into legal efforts to prevent voter fraud and suppression. The funds will also be used to build a “massive Election Day operation” according to the report.
The legal move is expected to create further tension between the two parties. While Democrats insist they are working to make the process easier for Americans to cast votes, Republicans see that attempt as a potential opportunity to commit voter fraud.
This new effort will also tackle a legal hurdle in Michigan as a result of the 2016 election. Trump won the state by a very thin margin but many Americans argued that voter suppression contributed to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s loss in Michigan.
On Wednesday, the RNC and Michigan Republican Party filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division against Priorities USA, the Democratic super PAC.
Democrats are trying to challenge laws that restrict organizations from assisting voters with submitting absentee votes and organizing transportation to polls.
Priorities USA argues in a lawsuit that these laws are a “’severe burden’ on citizens’ ability to vote in Michigan, particularly among minorities, seniors, voters with disabilities and low-income voters,” as Politico reports.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel claimed that Democrats are “trying to rig the game with frivolous lawsuits that do nothing but create electoral chaos, waste taxpayer money, and distract election officials in an attempt to advance the Democrats’ voter suppression myth because they know they can’t beat President Trump at the ballot box,” she told Politico.
However, Republicans argue that Priorities USA has failed to prove how the laws serve as a direct disadvantage to voters.
Although Trump is accusing Democrats of corrupt voting practices, ironically, the GOP has also been accused of the same practice in the past. In a report previously published by The Guardian, one of Trump’s top advisors admitted that he’d depended on voter suppression in “battleground states.”
Justin Clark, who serves as a senior political adviser and senior counsel to Trump’s re-election campaign, made the statement just days after a group of conservatives in Wisconsin were accused of suppressing more than 230,000 votes in the 2016 presidential election.
“Traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places,” Clark previously said. “Let’s start protecting our voters. We know where they are … Let’s start playing offense a little bit. That’s what you’re going to see in 2020. It’s going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program, a much better-funded program.”
As expected, the statement raised lots of questions. When asked to clarify exactly what his statement meant, Clark claimed he was referring to false accusations about Republicans suppressing votes.