In a sign that the Trump campaign is prepared to lose, but lose in supreme sore-loser fashion, it sued a Nevada county registrar for allegedly extending early voting hours in Clark County. Nevada’s GOP chairman was very clear about the group being targeted by the campaign, when he said at a Trump rally on Saturday night that the hours were extended “so a certain group could vote.” Clark County is 30 percent Latino, and includes the city of Las Vegas. Given that early voting among Latino voters strongly favored Hillary Clinton, as well as the fact that Nevada is a key battleground state, the Trump campaign’s heavy-handed intervention is not surprising, although it does reek of desperation.
The lawsuit also tapped into conspiracy theory by alleging that the registrar’s actions “very much appear to have been intentionally coordinated with Democratic activists in order to skew the vote in favor of Democratic candidates.”
According to a county spokesperson, long lines for early voting meant that the hours had to be extended to include all those still waiting. In Nevada, this is the law. The judge hearing the suit was visibly flummoxed by Trump’s lawyers, who insisted that revealing poll workers’ names—which the suit might enable—would not open them up to harassment.
“Do you watch Twitter? Have you watched any cable news show?” the judge asked.