GOP claims the troops are committing voter fraud — by voting

A legal complaint filed by the Nevada Republican Party alleges that members of the military committed voter fraud by voting legally.

The criminal referral, sent by the party to the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, baselessly alleges “at least 3,062 instances of voter fraud” in Tuesday’s elections in the state. “Thousands of individuals have been identified who appear to have violated the law by casting ballots after they moved from NV,” the party claimed.

But according to the Washington Post, Nevada law allows many people temporarily residing out of state to continue to participate in elections. This includes Nevadans serving in the military and their spouses as well as those attending colleges outside of Nevada.

And as Jon Ralston, founder and editor of the nonprofit Nevada Independent, noted on Friday, a significant number of the names included on the GOP’s list were clearly military service members.

“Many on list sent to the DOJ have these postal codes: AE, AA and AP: Armed Forces Europe, Armed Forces Americas and Armed Forces Pacific. That is, Nevadans in the military who sent absentees,” Ralston tweeted. “Incompetence or fraud, gentlemen? Why does Team Trump hate NV military personnel?”

As signs continue to point to a victory by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by a comfortable margin, Donald Trump and his supporters have pushed false claims of voter fraud and election stealing by Democrats.

Trump has pushed to exclude many military votes from the 2020 vote count.

Last year, his administration took steps to make it more expensive for overseas service members to send in ballots, raising the cost to $60 per ballot.

A week ago, he told reporters: “It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on November 3. Instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate, and I don’t believe that’s by our laws. I don’t believe that.”

Trump’s own state of Florida — like many others— gives extra time for overseas military ballots to be delivered, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

He also spent much of his term attacking U.S. troops and their families. He took billions of dollars appropriated by Congress for the military and used it to fund his massive southern border wall; he refused to ask Vladimir Putin about intelligence showing that the Russian president offered bounties for the killing of American troops in Afghanistan; and he reportedly called people who died in military service “losers” and “suckers.”

The results in Nevada have not yet been called by major networks, but Joe Biden as of this writing holds a lead of more than 10,000 votes. The vast majority of uncounted ballots are from Clark County, a heavily Democratic area that includes Las Vegas.

The winner of the state will receive six electoral votes.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.