Marc Elias drops bad legal news on Republicans - Brian Tyler Cohen

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Democracy Watch episode 283: Marc Elias wins major lawsuit against Republicans.

Transcript:

this is democracy watch Mark we've got
some major news here on behalf of you
and your firm uh we have a major win in
court can you explain what just happened
yeah so big victory in the state of
Pennsylvania where we have been watching
for years now a tug-of-war over whether
or not absentee ballots mail-in votes
that are submitted by voters that are
otherwise totally lawful the voter is
registered the voter has only voted for
one candidate they only voted by mail
but where forget to either put a date
next to their signature on the outer
envelope or they put the wrong date uh
on their uh on the ballot envelope next
to their signature and the Republicans
have been fighting tooth and nail to
prevent these ballots from counting and
just to give you some numbers Brian in
2022 there were more than 10,000 of
these ballots that were rejected uh for
misdated or undated in in 2024 that
number is almost certainly in excess of
five ,000 we don't know the full numbers
but we can account for 5,000 of those
ballots being rejected again these are
otherwise legal votes that literally
were thrown out because the voter either
didn't put a date next to their
signature on the outer envelope or put
the wrong date and a federal court has
now held that throwing out those ballots
violates the United States Constitution
it violates the right to vote because it
is throwing out these votes and there is
no reason there's no purpose Pur for
this dating other than a trap for for
the for the uny voter and to fulfill the
mission of Donald Trump and the
Republicans to disenfranchise voters
Mark to that point we already know that
the Republicans knew full well that
there's no reason to have to date the
ballot because it's postmarked and so
this is to your exact point just a trap
to be able to get mail-in ballots which
overwhelmingly skew Democratic uh to be
disqualified and and that's exactly what
happened and so we're in a situation
where okay after the fact retro L
they've said okay this is
unconstitutional but the Republicans
knew it was unconstitutional the point
is just that they can do something get
the desired outcome during the election
and then sure after the election a judge
will come forward and say this was
unconstitutional and you can't do it and
they'll say okay we can't do it but that
doesn't mean they're not going to find
the next thing moving forward and say
okay now let's do this and then we'll
get through the election cycle and then
sure you know in in 2027 some issue will
be litigated and a judge will say you
can't do that and they'll go ah damn we
can't do that okay but like the whole
point is that that they need to lay
traps so that they can try and
disqualify mail ballots because again
they skew overwhelmingly Democratic and
so does this establish some type of
precedent where they can't use any of
these trap tactics and trapit tactics to
disqualify mail in ballots or are we
going to be in a situation where yes
they can't you know mandate uh dating
the outside of the ballots but they can
just do something next time that will
have the exact same effect yeah I wish I
could tell you that this is going to end
Republican voter suppression tactics or
elections but won't but you know you're
right when the Democratic Senate
Campaign Committee and Democrat
Congressional Campaign Committee brought
this lawsuit it was clear to everyone
that there that this date was doing no
work the state of Pennsylvania
acknowledged that the date didn't do any
work it was the Republican National
Committee that intervened in the case to
make up theories by which this could be
constitutional as you say likely knowing
full well that what they speing was
nonsense let me tell you what their
theory was in this case they said that
requiring a date um instilled solemnity
in voting like it made people take the
act of voting more seriously because
they like like we're not we're not we're
not allowed to vote unless we're
adequately unless we acknowledge
adequately that is that it's a sacren
process yes that was her argument their
argument was to use their word it was
that it made it more Solem it added
solemnity from the word solemn to the
voting process like it made people like
sit up and take the voting process as
more solemn by the way this is the party
of Donald Trump I mean I just I just
like want everyone to back up for a
second and realize that they're arguing
that what we need is cimity and voting
at the same time that Donald Trump is
constantly lying about voting saying you
may never need to vote again that he
wants to be a dictator for a day and
we've seen that's turned out like when
you when you think of the Republican
Party does solemnness really come to
come to to come to mind but that was an
argument and yes the federal judge
discarded it and said this is like not
like a thing and by the way the
Republican Party offered no evidence
that this even does create a more solemn
voting experience but you know I think
it was largely pretextual they just
wanted to find an argument that kept
this case alive as you point out until
after 2024 when there was a very close
presidential election in Pennsylvania
very an even closer senate election in
Pennsylvania and and so what we see in
case after case is that my team and I
and plaintiffs like in this case the
Democratic party you know are constantly
having to play wacka and I wish it
weren't that way but but you know Brian
you recently had on your show Alison
rigs a state supreme court justice in
North Carolina who won her reelection by
a narrow margin but it was confirmed by
a recount and by a second account and
the Republican party in North Carolina
is trying to throw out 65,000 legal
votes for a similarly flimsy theory
about why these votes shouldn't count
now you know I hope that at the end of
the day like the courts there reject
that but people don't realize how
committed the Republican National
Committee which is in was in both of
these cases and their their right-wing
you know allies are in finding any
arguments to disenfranchise voters to
prevent them from registering and to not
certify elections that they don't like
the results on so this is a big win in
Pennsylvania but I hate to tell you that
the fight's going to keep going on but
the fight's going to keep going on well
I do I do want to underscore the
importance here because this is a scheme
that Republicans have employed that to
your exact point disenfranchised 10,000
people two elections ago disenfranchised
over 5,000 people in this last election
and they did it in a state that is the
Tipping Point State in this country the
state of Pennsylvania so the notion that
we should be losing 10 or five however
many thousands of votes in in a key
swing state where by the way the
majority of maelin Voters are are
democratic anyway is is first of all
completely unacceptable and second of
all especially important that you were
able to litigate and win this race does
this make it I want to point out an
additional uh important connector which
is the role of the media you know
because when Bob Casey the senator from
Pennsylvania who lost a few thousand
votes in Pennsylvania it was more than
5,000 but it wasn't a lot more than
5,000 votes um when when when we were in
court for him the Washington Post and a
lot of the national media were like oh
Democrats you shouldn't be litigating
elections because you are doing exactly
what Donald Trump did which is insane
what we were litigating were very close
elections to try to make sure lawful
votes were counted as opposed to what
Donald Trump did but meanwhile you know
here we are you know it's it's April
and Alice and rigs still that election
still going on North Carolina and the
republ not a word the Republicans are
just litigating away to try to overr
that here we won this case in
Pennsylvania I'm looking forward to the
big headlines in the Washington Post and
and the other Legacy Media talking about
how this case in Pennsylvania you know
was was just showed that Republicans
were engaged in voter expression all
along in Pennsylvania but it just it
feels like Brian outside of you and
democracy docket and of the other you
know Pro democracy Outlets the Legacy
Media just seems to treat what Donald
Trump does with one and Republicans do
with one test and then what Democrats do
you know like as an inconvenience to
them right I mean it's this is this is
them grading the Trump Administration
and the Republican party on a curve like
if Democrats take one one step left to
Center out of line then all of a sudden
you're going to have a windfall of of
coverage and by the way that's their
prerogative to have critical coverage
against both sides but reality is it's
not critical coverage against both sides
it's critical coverage against the
Democrats judge by the same rules of
politics we've always had and then
Donald Trump it's just kind of assumed
that he's going to act in a way that is
overtly hostile to democracy and so
unless he does something that's going to
surprise anybody then they're not going
to bother covering it to the same degree
because you know it's not going to get
the same they're not going to be able to
lean in the same way against him because
we just assume that he's going to be an
enemy to democracy and so that's the
asymmetry of the media at play which by
the way underscores the importance of
the work that you and your team at
democracy docket do so I'm going to put
the link to democracy docket right here
on the screen anybody who's looking to
support the invaluable work that Mark
and his team are doing please go ahead
and sign up uh and support Fearless
independent journalism Mark the the
question that I wanted to answer is is
there going to be an easy way now for
Republicans to replicate this strategy
that won't go against what they've what
the fact that they've already lost in
court um does this prevent them for
example from using you know these traps
on the outside of envelopes or is it
very narrow where they can't make you
sign your date but maybe they can
require a signature maybe they can you
know have you write what day of the week
it is maybe they can have you write the
last four four numbers of your Social
Security number like something like that
yeah look this is the state that
remember Republicans wanted to throw out
ballots and were successful throwing out
ballots that didn't have inner envelopes
remember the naked ballots that was
Pennsylvania this is a state where
Republicans are refusing to change the
law on a bipartisan basis to allow the
counting of these absentee ballots
earlier so that election results can be
announced earlier in Pennsylvania right
because because they they want to be
able to have a red Mirage they want the
the the day of ballots counted first so
that they have a pretext to be able to
say Donald Trump was clearly winning
Republicans are clearly winning any
effort to count legal lawful ballots and
have them be added to the totals
throughout the day now we can just say
oh look vote dumps are happening at
midnight and 1: in the morning and 2 in
the morning it must be fraud because
look all of the early totals were just
uh Republican heavy right so the fact is
Republicans are Shameless they are
willing to spend whatever money they
need to spend in order to fight against
free and fair elections in court and
that is the reality So when you say is
there going to be some other scheme yes
there'll be some other scheme there'll
be other schemes in Pennsylvania there
are we talked about a scheme that
they've currently got going on in in
North Carolina throw out votes they run
a very efficient um voter suppression
and election suppression War Machine and
it grinds on day after day you know when
a lot of Democrats and progressives turn
their attention to other things after
election the RNC just keeps going we
have an important election today in
Wisconsin and and at the same time that
Elon Musk was doing his million dollar
giveaway I saw an article that said that
there was some ice cream Sho or someone
who was giving out free ice cream to
people and the Republican na committee
wrote a letter to them saying how you
can't give out free ice cream like these
folks have no shame yeah and they will
they will latch onto anything that they
can latch on to if it means
disenfranchising voters inconveniencing
voters where they think that those
voters vote Democratic so you know we
all just need to stay very Vigilant we
all need to recognize that that's the
state of play and that we need to make
sure that we are fighting every single
day just like they are to disenfranchise
voters we need to be fighting every day
to enfranchise them and make sure that
we have free and fair elections well
look we we have spoken at length about
the need for law firms in particular to
be able to stand up against this
Administration and fight back and not
capitulate and you know you you put your
money where your mouth is here because
not only uh did you take a posture of
standing up to this Administration but
you've also fought fought them in court
right now and you've also defeated them
in court right now so again for anybody
watching right now to support the work
that Mark and his team to support the
work these Fighters are actually doing
in the courtroom a small step we can all
take is to sign up for democracy docket
it's also you know a great resource to
be able to follow the news anyway but
more broadly a way to support their
effort so I'll put the link right here
on the screen and also in the post
description of this video I'm Brian
Taylor Cohen I'm Marc Elias this is
democracy watch