Judge Rejects Trump Campaign Lawsuit In Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS (AP) – A Nevada state judge denied a request from the Donald Trump campaign Tuesday to issue a court order to preserve names of poll workers for a complaint about what the campaign calls early voting irregularities.
Clark County District Court Judge Gloria Sturman said that making the names part of the court record could expose the workers to possible "public attention, ridicule and harassment."
She said the county registrar was already required to keep the records, and the Nevada Secretary of State was responsible for investigating the complaint.
Trump campaign attorney Brian Hardy told the judge he wants to preserve records about late ballots on the last day of early voting at four locations in the Las Vegas area.
The campaign says allowing people to vote past closing time was illegal, but the county says they were accommodating people already in line. Long lines kept polls open past the 7 p.m. posted closing time at sites including a Mexican market and several shopping centers, including one in southeast Las Vegas where officials say the last voter cast a ballot after 10 p.m.
A lawyer for Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign dismissed the Trump legal action in Nevada with a Tweet calling it "a frivolous lawsuit."
Long lines kept polls open past the 7 p.m. posted closing time at sites including a Mexican market and several shopping centers, including one in southeast Las Vegas where officials say the last voter cast a ballot after 10 p.m.
Meanwhile, immigrant advocates were walking in Latino neighbors to get Hispanics who haven't voted yet to the polls.
The group Immigrant Voters Win PAC sent a mariachi group to an eastern Las Vegas home on Tuesday to make sure 20-year-old Jacqueline Lima voted.
Mariachi Vegas Interacional serenaded Lima and her 4-year-old sister, Karla, as they walked to Halle Hewetson Elementary School to vote in the mostly Latino neighborhood.
Lima said she was honored to get a serenade as she went to vote for the first time.
Raul Sosa, a bass guitarist with the mariachi group, also voted for the first time this year.
Both said they voted for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and feared Republican Donald Trump's immigration proposals.
Secretary of State Spokeswoman Gail Anderson said the office hadn't gotten reports of major problems around the state as of mid-morning Tuesday.
The Review-Journal reports the line at the Rainbow Library in Las Vegas slowed to a crawl early because there weren't enough electronic cards available to run all the voting machines there, but the site was back up to full strength by 9 a.m.
Polls opened at 7 a.m. and will close at 7 p.m. Nevada voters are playing a big role this year as they decide where the swing state will fall in the presidential election.
They'll also choose a replacement for Sen. Harry Reid in a race that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.
"It's not fear," he said in Spanish about the prospect of Trump becoming president, "but I don't like it. Not for myself, but for the people who don't have papers."
Just over half of Nevada's 1.5 million active registered voters have already cast ballots through early or absentee voting. Democrats have a six-point lead over Republicans in early turnout, but Republicans think they can overcome that deficit on Election Day, when they traditionally outperform Democrats.