Trump campaign files lawsuit against Nevada election officials, claiming polls were kept open 3 hours late

Advertisement

donald trump

REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Donald Trump speaks in New Mexico.

Donald Trump's campaign has filed a lawsuit against Nevada election officials, alleging they "intentionally coordinated with democratic activists" by keeping the polls open late during early voting.

Advertisement

So many people lined up to vote early last Friday in Nevada that officials kept the polls open until 10 p.m. local time - three hours later than scheduled.

The Election Day lawsuit, first reported by CNN's Jim Sciutto, requests the votes from after 7 p.m. on Friday shouldn't be "co-mingled" with other votes.

It wasn't the first time Republicans denounced election officials' actions in Nevada.

To open a rally for the Republican presidential nominee in Reno on Saturday, Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald accused workers of keeping the polling place open "so a certain group could vote." Critics said the group to which he was referring was Latino voters, who came out in droves in the state's early voting. Polls have shown Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton with a significant advantage among the voting bloc.

Advertisement

But as Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin told The Associated Press, allowing everyone in line when the polls close to vote is the law.

"If there's a line when closing time comes, we just keep processing voters until there's no more line," he said. "We're flexible because we want people to vote."

Nevada state law says every person in line when the polls close should be able to vote.

"The Legislature hereby declares that each voter has the right," the law reads, "to vote on Election Day if the voter is waiting in line at his or her polling place to vote before 7 p.m. and the voter has not already cast a vote in that election."

The law further defines "a person is waiting to vote at the hour of closing the polls if the person (a) is physically in line waiting to vote; or (b) Has entered the polling place."

Advertisement

Ned Foley, director of Ohio State University's Election Law @ Moritz, wrote a post for Medium about the history of keeping polls open for people to vote.

"It's one of the most basic principles of electoral democracy," Foley wrote. "If you go to the polls when they are open, and you are a registered and qualified voter, then as long as you wait in line, you are entitled to cast your ballot even if the line is so long that you must wait until after the scheduled time for the polls to close."

NOW WATCH: What would happen if the presidential election ended up in a tie