Challenging Intimidation of Voters

Less than 55 days before the election, the National Republican Committee, Nevada Republican Party, Donald J. Trump For President 2024 Inc., and one individual voter sued the Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, the Democratic National Committee, and the Nevada State Democratic Party, seeking a court-ordered purge of Nevada’s voter rolls prior to the November 2024 general election and ongoing purges in the future. The relief demanded is unlawful and would disproportionately impact naturalized citizens and wrongly deprive eligible voters of their right to vote close to the election. In their September 11, 2024 complaint, Plaintiffs rely on debunked and baseless theories of mass voting by noncitizens to falsely claim that thousands of noncitizens in Nevada are registered to vote and have voted in previous elections.

The Democratic National Committee and Nevada State Democratic Party, both Defendants in the case, filed a motion to dismiss on October 3, 2024.

On October 31, 2024, the NAACP Tri-State Conference of Idaho-Nevada-Utah moved to intervene to challenge Plaintiffs’ eleventh-hour attempt to disenfranchise potentially thousands of American citizens from voting in the election, including its naturalized citizen members who are at highest risk of being removed from the registration list. Free Speech For People and Mayer Brown LLP jointly represent the Tri-State NAACP, along with local counsel Woodburn and Wedge.

Read More

Ahead of the New Hampshire presidential primary, Steve Kramer and three corporations orchestrated and distributed a recorded message via robocalls to thousands of New Hampshire voters. The message used artificial intelligence to mimic President Biden’s voice, telling voters not to vote in the primary election. Further, the robocalls displayed a false caller ID number associated with a prominent figure in the state’s Democratic party.

On March 14, 2024, the League of Women Voters of the United States (LWV-US), the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire (LWV-NH), and several individual New Hampshire voters filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire against Steve Kramer, Lingo Telecom, and Life Corporation, who, together, delivered the robocalls. On May 28, 2024, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint which added Voice Broadcasting Corporation as a defendant. LWV-NH, LWV-US, and the individual voters seek to stop the defendants from using robocalls and AI technology to intimidate, threaten, coerce, or deceive voters.

Free Speech For People and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP represent the plaintiffs, along with local counsel Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, & Pachios, Chartered, LLP.

Read More

COLORADO NAACP, LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF COLORADO, AND MI FAMILIA VOTA V. UNITED STATES ELECTION INTEGRITY PLAN

Free Speech For People is appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Colorado Montana Wyoming State Area Conference of the NAACP (NAACP Colorado), League of Women Voters of Colorado (LWV Colorado), and Mi Familia Vota (MFV) in the U.S. District Court of Colorado against the United States Election Integrity Plan (USEIP) and three of its leaders who orchestrated and publicized a door-to-door campaign to intimidate voters in Colorado.

USEIP used voter lists to identify and target voters on their own doorsteps for having voted in the 2020 election. USEIP agents questioned voters about their method of vote, interrogated them about so-called fraudulent ballots, levied baseless accusations of fraud against voters, took photographs of voters’ homes, encouraged armed members to join their door-to-door campaign, and reported their purported findings to local prosecutors.

NAACP Colorado, LWV Colorado, and MFV asked the federal district court for relief, declaring that USEIP’s voter intimidation campaign is unlawful under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Klu Klux Klan Act of 1871, and ordering USEIP and its leaders to cease and desist their intimidation campaign. Instead, the district court dismissed the lawsuit. The plaintiffs are now appealing this decision in order to protect Colorado voters from a new wave of intimidating visits to their homes ahead of or after the 2024 election.

FSFP partnered with the law firm of Lathrop GPM before the district court and is partnering with Attorney Bryan Sells in this appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Read More

Free Speech For People represented Mi Familia Vota Education Fund and individual voters in a lawsuit against President Trump and members of the administration in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit was based on the defendants’ violent suppression of public protests opposing police brutality, the encouragement of white supremacist “vigilantes,” threats to send “sheriffs” and other law enforcement to the polls, the undermining of mail-in voting, and the rejection of the peaceful transfer of power. These actions constitute illegal voter intimidation under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and unconstitutional suppression of speech and votes under the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. We sought a preliminary injunction restraining Trump and the other defendants from continuing to engage in this unconstitutional and illegal intimidation. Unfortunately, Senior Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied our motion.

Read More