Former President Donald Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the new co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), was widely criticized after declaring during a Fox Business interview that ballots shouldn't be counted "after elections are over."
Speaking to host Maria Bartiromo, Lara Trump defended a lawsuit the RNC brought in Nevada blocking the counting of absentee votes that arrive after Election Day.
When asked about the RNC's decision to sue "a battleground state to stop counting ballots past Election Day," she gave the following response:
"You cannot have ballots counted, Maria, after elections are over. And right now, that is one of the many lawsuits we have out across this country to ensure that just that happens, that we have a free, fair and transparent election.”
"In Nevada as you pointed out, we are saying we want Election Day to be the last day that ballots can be counted and we've been very successful in a lot of lawsuits a couple weeks ago."
"We won a big lawsuit in Pennsylvania. They wanted to take off dates [by], of course, the Democrats in an effort to make it easier to cheat. We pushed back against that, we won, and that's our precedent for the entire country."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
The RNC lawsuit seeks to prevent the counting of mail-in ballots received after Election Day, even if they are postmarked on time.
Nevada’s current election laws allow ballots to be counted up to four days after Election Day, provided they were postmarked before the end of Election Day.
Similar lawsuits attempting to restrict mail-in ballots have been dismissed by judges, including those appointed by Trump, in states like Illinois and North Dakota. Nevertheless, Trump and his allies continue to file similar lawsuits across the country, targeting the 19 states and territories that allow mail-in ballots postmarked on or by Election Day to be counted after the day.
While these legal challenges may not ultimately succeed, they serve to sow doubts about the democratic process and attempt to preemptively discredit election results. In a worst-case scenario, given the composition of the U.S. judicial system, the lawsuits could potentially lead to a ruling that invalidates all ballots arriving after Election Day, even those postmarked before the deadline.
Lara Trump was slammed with reminders of how elections actually work.
Not to mention that Trump's model for running an election would disenfranchise active duty military votes.
Lara Trump faced similar blowback last month after she told Newsmax host Eric Bolling that the RNC's 2024 election operatives will include "people who can physically handle the ballots."
Her comments came shortly after the RNC announced a significant "election integrity" initiative, pledging to deploy 100,000 volunteers and attorneys to key battleground states to "protect the vote and ensure a big win" in the upcoming election.
According to a press release, the volunteers and legal teams will be assigned to oversee various stages of the electoral process, including logic and accuracy testing, early voting, ballot counting, mail ballot processing, Election Day voting, and post-election canvasses, audits, and recounts. The statement hints that they might also aim to recruit poll workers.
However, poll watchers are usually designated by political parties to oversee election administration and sometimes monitor voter turnout. They are tasked with reporting issues or irregularities to authorities and election officials.
State-specific regulations guide their actions, but poll watchers are generally forbidden from disrupting the electoral process, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Between 1982 and 2017, the Republican National Committee (RNC) was bound by a court order limiting its poll watcher activity after Democrats filed a lawsuit alleging voter intimidation tactics against minorities in 1981. In 2018, a judge decided not to renew the consent decree—a decision that Lara Trump suggests now allows the RNC to do whatever it wants.
