The Nevada Secretary of State, Barbara Cegavske (a Republican), responded in a filing that the claims are "absurd", "speculative", and "lack a factual or legal basis"
🙏 Background noise from folks who haven't muted their lines plus that beeping sound every time someone joins or leaves the call 🙏
The GOP plaintiffs' lawyer is arguing that they don't have full access to the ballot count, and that they should be allowed to observe from six feet.
But mostly all I can hear is people talking in the background and beeping
Ha, Judge Andrew Gordon cites Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence in the recent Wisconsin case at Scotus, when it blocked a court ordered extension to mail ballot deadlines
Kavanaugh argued that federal judges shouldn't meddle in state election rules. Judge Gordon tells the Trump campaign lawyer:
"You’re asking me it seems to ignore Justice Kavanaugh’s direction. Isn’t that a good counsel to a judge like me to not step in?"
Judge Gordon notes that the plaintiff claiming he could not observe, a Republican strategist and Fox News contributor, says in his affidavit that he was in the media and observer areas in the ballot counting room.
"What specifically did your client not get to see?"
Judge Gordon has moved on from the back-and-forth about how and where exactly the plaintiffs want to be able to observe the count.
He seemed reluctant to issue an order, noting that he could end up being asked to give individual injunctions for anyone who came into his courtroom
Now we're on to the plaintiff who said she wasn't allowed to vote because there was already a mail ballot in her name, which she denies sending.
Gordon is questioning why the lawsuit came 6/7 days after that incident. (She had tried to early vote on October 28.)
Election officials had offered to let the plaintiff (Jill Stokke) vote if she had signed a statement saying that she hadn't signed the mail ballot, but she had refused
It doesn't sound like this lawsuit is going to succeed in halting the use of Clark County's signature matching machines.
Where's the evidence that the signature matching software caused the problem with Stokke's ballot, Gordon asks?
The Trump campaign lawyer doesn't have it
"Why do I grant extraordinary relief if you don’t have evidence to show the likelihood of success on the merits?" Gordon asks
Gordon notes that a Nevada state judge has already looked at Clark County's signature machines, and found that you couldn't complete the count in time without them.
"What you're asking me to do .... Judge Wilson has already found can’t be done under the statutory timeframe."
Judge Gordon keeps asking the GOP lawyer how long he thinks it's going to take if Clark County has to recheck all the ballot signatures by hand.
He doesn't know but offers: "You can’t say to the American people that we’re not going to go back because of the timeframe."
Craig Newby, the Nevada deputy solicitor general, has made a few broad arguments:
On observation -- he said the court shouldn't be getting into the business of writing precise rules that aren't in Nevada law
And on the signature matching machines, he says Clark County has a different process to rural Nevada counties because it has lots more people (Las Vegas), and that there's no evidence in the case that the machines didn't work properly
Mary-Anne Miller, attorney for Clark County, says Chris Prudhome (the plaintiff who says he wasn't allowed to observe the count) was trying to film in contravention of the rules
"He is more than welcome back as an observer at any time if he doesn’t disrupt the system."
Gordon asks O'Mara, why wasn't it ok for Clark County to let your client vote in person and invalidate the mail ballot? Why doesn't that solve any injury she suffered?
O'Mara says the harm that remains is: “There is a ballot out there that has been fraudulently been filed.”
Judge Gordon to O'Mara, the GOP plaintiffs' lawyer: "I’m not sure factually whether what you’re saying is correct or not."
Maybe I should have known better, but I didn't predict that the flood of post-election litigation would deal with a single, individual ballot that is "out there"
Ok, we're getting to the judge's oral decision now
The GOP effort to halt the use of signature matching machines in Clark County has failed.
"I don't find that the plaintiffs have demonstrated a likelihood of success," says Judge Gordon
Trump campaign wasn't a party in this case, but it did tout the lawsuit. Another defeat
"Plaintiffs have shown there is at best one ballot that was improperly placed," Gordon notes -- by contrast, if he halted the use of signature matching machines, tens of thousands of votes may not be counted in time
Judge Gordon hammers the point home:
"I’m not deciding this case on a technicality. Rather I’m deciding that the plaintiffs have not come to the court at this point with a sufficient legal showing and a sufficient evidentiary basis."
Hearing is over
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Diamond: Are your observers in the counting room?
Trump campaign: "There's a non zero number of people in the room"
Diamond: "I’m asking you as a member of the bar of this court: are people representing the Donald J Trump for president, representing the plaintiffs, in that room?"
Hearing in Trump's Michigan lawsuit kicking off now:
Judge Cynthia Stephens sounds unimpressed so far, says the Trump campaign's claims of issues with the Michigan count are "hearsay"
"The counting boards are done ... the ship has really sailed on the relief that they're requesting on this case," says Heather Meingast, lawyer with Michigan attorney-general's office
Trump campaign says it has received a court order in Pennsylvania allowing them more access to observe the count. They're selling it as a 'massive legal victory'
This appears to be the order
Here's the docket for the appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by Philadelphia County Board of Elections.
There are reports the court has already granted the appeal but that's not showing on the docket yet
This filing is currently unavailable from the Nevada Supreme Court website because, according to the clerk's office, too many people are trying to download it