Selling Americans a ‘lie’: How election integrity attorneys battled left-wing efforts to upend voting laws


The 2024 election cycle was rife with repeated criminal battles to give protection to the balloting processes from left-wing legal professionals leveraging the courts to strip election safeguards, the prominent of an election integrity nonprofit who noticed a thread of criminal wins instructed Fox Information Virtual. 

“They’ve been selling American people a lie,” Restoring Integrity & Consider in Elections (RITE) President Derek Lyons instructed Fox Information Virtual in a Zoom interview, relating to left-wing efforts to undermine election regulations. “And I think that these past two election cycles, where people have said ‘No, voting is very easy and millions, hundreds of millions of people have been doing it,’ have shown that what they’re doing is misleading, at the very least.”

RITE is a non-profit group based in 2022 following citizens’ worry over the safety of the 2020 election throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The gang used to be co-founded through Fox Information contributor Karl Rove and comprises board individuals reminiscent of former Legal professional Normal Invoice Barr and Fox Information contributor Andrew McCarthy. The group accident the grassland working in 2022 to assure its “mission of protecting the rule of law in the qualifications for, administration of, and tabulation of voting in the United States,” in step with the gang’s web site. 

Lyons told to Fox Information Virtual simply lower than a life then Election Month, when he took a victory lap for his workforce’s battles in opposition to efforts to reportedly undermine election integrity, detailing the manage criminal ways left-wing activists took throughout the election season. 

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From left to proper, White Area Counselor Hope Hicks, White Area Deputy Eminent of Personnel for Communications and Director of Social Media Dan Scavino, White Area Eminent of Personnel Mark Meadows and White Area Personnel Secretary and Suggest to the President Derek Lyons move at the South Garden then then-President Trump returned to the White Area from a shuttle to Michigan Would possibly 21, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Photograph through Alex Wong/Getty Photographs)

Lyons, an lawyer and previous White House staff secretary and counselor to the president below President-elect Donald Trump’s first time period, defined that Democrat activists had been hyper-focused right through the election on decrying efforts set off through atmosphere legislatures to assure shield elections, reminiscent of voter ID regulations, steadily claiming any such coverage would disenfranchise citizens. 

“​​The main thing they do is anytime anybody puts up any sort of election integrity measure, whether that’s voter I.D., voter photo I.D., whether that’s rationalization of cure periods – the ability of people to fix errors in their ballots sort of after the election – ballot receipt deadlines, so that we can know the result of the election quickly … they attack it and say, this is disenfranchising,” he mentioned. 

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“‘This makes voting harder … this takes away people’s right to vote.’ …. They invoke federal voting rights laws that were meant to prevent the worst abuses of Jim Crow. They’re sort of shameless about it. They’ll throw any, any tactic at it,” he defined of Democratic efforts to switch balloting regulations. 

Nation series up outdoor a polling station positioned on the McFaul Job Heart in Bel Breeze, Maryland, throughout early balloting on Oct. 27, 2020. (REUTERS/Hannah McKay)

When teams reminiscent of RITE step in to problem claims that such balloting laws are legal and protect elections from criminality, Lyons mentioned left-wing activists slam them in court docket as keeping refuse status. 

“They try to kick us out on procedural grounds because, ultimately, a lot of times they don’t want to defend the merits of what election administrators are trying to do.”

Lyons pointed to a a hit case in Wisconsin again in 2022 when RITE challenged atmosphere officers from enabling what he referred to as “re-voting” procedures, which entailed absentee citizens who already submitted their ballots converting their votes mid-election. RITE challenged the follow and gained to assure that after a poll is mailed, it can’t be modified. 

“We were able to win that case on the grounds that once a ballot is put into the mail, received by the election officials, that’s the end of that person’s vote. There’s no fishing ballots back out and putting them back in, etc. Which obviously creates a risk of errors and double voting and all sorts of other problems. And so they tried to kick us out on standing. We were able to defeat that and secure that victory in Wisconsin,” he mentioned. 

ARIZONA BALLOT HARVESTING CASE LEADS TO 2 WOMEN BEING SENTENCED

Former President Donald Trump participates in a Fox Information The city Corridor with Sean Hannity on the Untouched Holland Area on Sept. 4, 2024 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs)

Pennsylvania was again the premier battleground atmosphere this time, with each Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris and a bevy in their respective surrogates criss-crossing the atmosphere to rally help forward of Election Month. For RITE, the gang has filed and brought phase in 10 other election circumstances since 2022, together with a case revolving round doable double votes. 

“In Philadelphia, we just got them to admit that they had planned to eliminate a crucial check against double voting to make sure that people weren’t both voting in the mail and in person. So we had that in place for both elections [the 2022 midterms and 2024 election] to prevent that type of double voting, which does happen in Allegheny County,” he mentioned of the double vote case. 

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Lyons additionally celebrated a win in a case he described because the “crown​​ jewel” of Pennsylvania: making sure undated and incorrectly dated mail-in ballots weren’t counted within the legit tally. 

The Pennsylvania Preferrred Court docket dominated in September that mail-in ballots with out the right kind dates on poll envelopes can’t be counted in elections. 

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks throughout a marketing campaign rally at The Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Heart on Oct. 27, 2024 in Philadelphia. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs)

The ruling received customery consideration following Nov. 5, when Democratic-led election forums bucked the atmosphere top court docket’s ruling and voted to incorporate such ballots in a recount regarding longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey’s race in opposition to Sen.-elect Dave McCormick. Democrats within the atmosphere overtly defied the ruling ahead of the atmosphere Preferrred Court docket ordered counties not to come with undated ballots, and Democrats walked again their choice. 

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“​​We took it to state court and got a declaration that this had to be done under state law,” Lyons mentioned of RITE’s combat in opposition to Democratic activists over undated poll envelopes. “They ran to federal court and said federal law prevents this. We won that case. They took it to the Court of Appeals. Democrat judges disagreed with them and said the date requirement does not violate federal law. They went back to state court and said, ‘well, this violates the state constitution.’ That case was procedurally improper. That case was thrown out. And then they tried to bring some other little case that nobody was paying attention to and use that case to revolutionize the way election administration was done in Pennsylvania. And finally, the state Supreme Court, to its great credit, said enough.”

In Arizona, RITE had some other win when it led a coalition of teams in opposition to a poll initiative throughout the Arizona Preferrred Court docket that Lyons mentioned would have expanded poll harvesting. 

“One of our first engagements that we’re very proud of was, we quickly led a coalition of like-minded groups to litigate against a ballot initiative that was pending … in Arizona that would have eliminated things like precinct voting, would have expanded opportunities for ballot harvesting. It would have prevented efforts to keep noncitizens off the voter rolls and a host of other, I think, really bad rules for elections,” he mentioned. 

White Area aider Ivanka Trump seems to be on with White Area Personnel Secretary Derek Lyons as then-President Trump indicators an govt form on immigration coverage within the Oval Workplace on the White Area in Washington, D.C., on June 20, 2018. (REUTERS/Leah Millis)

“We were able to invalidate hundreds of thousands of signatures that the left, the liberal organizations that were pursuing this initiative had, quote unquote, gathered. We invalidated them. We litigated the case up to the Arizona Supreme Court. It actually went back a couple of times. And in the end, that ballot initiative was not approved. And so that meant that the 2022 election, but I think more importantly the 2024 election in Arizona, was not infected by ballot harvesting.” 

When requested if Democrat activists necessarily cried uncle amid the avalanche of election court cases, Lyons pointed to Democratic Birthday party elections lawyer Marc Elias and a case originating out of Ohio as his “favorite” instance of defeat over broad legal professionals. 

VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SUPPORT PHOTO ID REQUIREMENT TO VOTE, NEW POLL SAYS

Marc Elias went to Ohio. Ohio passed a very sensible voter photo ID law. He started out the year in 2024 boasting and proclaiming to all who would listen on Twitter and in the media, that if Ohio passed this law, it will be sued and the law will be struck down. So he went to Ohio, and he did file that lawsuit. He followed through on his threat.”

“We showed up, and we defended that lawsuit. We defended against that lawsuit alongside the state. And the victory was complete and total. A Democrat judge appointed by President Clinton, I believe, threw out his entire case, said ‘you have not proven at all that there’s even a remote chance that any voters are disenfranchised or burdened by this law. Case dismissed. Final judgment.’ [Elias] didn’t even appeal that case. Didn’t even bother to try to take it up to the courts of appeals,” he recounted. 

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the voter ID invoice into regulation in January 2023, which mandated citizens handover a driving force’s license, atmosphere ID, passport or army ID when casting a poll, rather of earlier methods of id reminiscent of a attic remark. 

Democrats and a few citizens within the atmosphere dubbed it one of the restrictive ID insurance policies within the society and the “worst anti-voter” invoice, arguing it might disenfranchise lower-income citizens who’ve suspended licenses or lacked the desired documentation. The Ohio Secretary of Situation place of work discovered over the summer time that greater than 8,000 citizens who attempted to forged ballots because the regulation’s passage weren’t incorporated in ultimate vote tallies as they lacked the correct id, USA Today previously reported.  

Republicans have defended the regulation as “an elementary precaution to protect the voting process,” bringing up that American citizens can’t board a airplane or purchase alcohol with out the similar requirement. 

A voter arrives at a polling location to forged his poll within the Michigan Number one Election on Aug. 2, 2022 in Lansing, Michigan. (Invoice Pugliano/Getty Photographs)

Concerns over election integrity had been brewing for years and had been underscored throughout the 2020 election as citizens hunkered indisposed amid stay-at-home orders, and mail-in and absentee poll balloting grew. Heading into the 2024 election, a ballot from January discovered 46% of registered Republicans mentioned they’d refuse self assurance ballots can be as it should be counted and reported, Fox Virtual up to now reported. At the alternative hand, 81% of registered Democrats reported within the ballot they’re “very” assured the 2024 elections can be “fair.”

Polls curious about particular measures touted through Republicans and conservatives to assure shield elections have won customery help around the board. A Gallup Ballot exempted days forward of Election Month discovered that 84% of respondents preferred requiring citizens to handover a photograph ID, occasion 83% mentioned they help offering evidence of citizenship when registering to vote for the primary age. The ballot famous that voter attitudes towards those problems had been alike to these visible in its July 2022 ballot. 

Voter photo ID is supported by something like 80% of the country. The notion that this is somehow unconstitutional has been rejected time and time and time again,” Lyons mentioned. 

Taking a look towards while elections, Lyons mentioned RITE will focal point on election regulations situation left-wing efforts to “normalize” noncitizen votes in blue states ahead of such efforts seep into purple states, in addition to proceeding their efforts on voter ID regulations, bettering the integrity of signature homogeneous necessities, and unraveling what Lyons mentioned used to be left-wing “lies” situation claims of disenfranchised citizens over practices reminiscent of voter ID regulations. 

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“I think our organization was able to do and to plug into a much broader coalition of of groups ,who really care about what I call the crown jewel of the United States of America, which is our elections. That’s the key. It’s the foundation of our self-government. And I think today we can believe, and we can have confidence, and we can be proud of the fact that they’re a little more secure today than they were two years ago and four years ago,” he mentioned. 


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