In big states, tiny counties, Trump attacking voting rules

https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-election-2020-donald-trump-local-elections-lawsuits-4298a514550323d39931f3e5fff2ccae

In big states, tiny counties, Trump attacking voting rules

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI, JONATHAN DREW and SCOTT BAUER
October 1, 2020

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — When Donald Trump’s campaign took issue with a new rule on processing some votes in North Carolina, it didn’t just complain to the Board of Elections and file a lawsuit. It wrote to some of the state’s 100 local election offices with extraordinary guidance: Ignore that rule.

“The NC Republican Party advises you to not follow the procedures,” Trump campaign operative Heather Ford wrote in an email to county officials last week.

The email urging defiance was a small glimpse at the unusually aggressive, hyperlocal legal strategy the Trump campaign is activating as voting begins. Through threatening letters, lawsuits, viral videos and presidential misinformation, the campaign and its GOP allies are going to new lengths to contest election procedures county-by-county across battleground states.

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