A Nevada judge has dismissed an effort by Donald Trump’s campaign to challenge early votes.
The Republican nominee’s campaign sued Clark County to preserve evidence surrounding the decision to extend early voting hours Friday night because of long lines at a Cardenas supermarket in Las Vegas.
During a just-concluded hearing, Trump campaign attorney David Lee asked Clark County Judge Gloria Sturman to preserve the personal information of poll workers who kept polling stations – in areas with larger populations of minority voters – open two hours past closing time.
The Trump campaign wants to make names of Nevada poll workers public. Judge’s response: pic.twitter.com/tes99IMbbH
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) November 8, 2016
The judge countered that once the court issued an order making the names public, “Anybody can get access to it, and I’m not doing that.
“The secretary of state is who tells us what she needs to do that investigation. It’s for her to say,” Sturman continued. “That’s not, with all due respect, for any campaign to say.”
In response to Lee’s assertions that the poll workers would not be harassed if their names were made public, the judge asked, “Do you watch Twitter?”
“I am not going to expose people who are doing their public duty helping citizens to vote,” Sturman said.
Nevada already is the site of a previous suit filed by the state Democratic Party on Oct. 30 against Trump operative Roger Stone’s Stop the Steal group, the Nevada Republican Party and Trump’s campaign.
Stop the Steal claims on its website that it has enlisted more than 3,100 observers, including 65 in Nevada, to help with exit polls on Election Day.
“It’s great that the volunteers are being reminded and that everyone will know the rules,” Amy Rose, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said in a phone interview.
“These election rules were put in place to ensure the integrity of the election. Hopefully, everyone will know what they can and can’t do.”
In their lawsuit, Nevada Democrats accused the Trump campaign of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
On Friday, the federal judge did not find enough evidence that the Nevada Republican Party and Trump campaign were intimidating voters to issue an injunction.
Over the weekend, Stop the Steal warned its volunteers not to speak with voters before they entered polling places, among other rules for exit polling.
Democrats have filed similar suits in five other battleground states. Federal courts have rejected the complaints in North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a request by Democrats to review a lawsuit against Trump supporters alleging voter intimidation in Ohio.
Senior Radio Editor Cheryl Devall and Digital Editor Julia B. Chan contributed to this story.
Jennifer Gollan can be reached at jgollan@cironline.org. Follow her on Twitter: @jennifergollan.