A state court judge in Nevada denied a request from the Donald Trump campaign to issue a court order to preserve names of poll workers for a complaint about what the campaign calls early voting irregularities.
Clark County District Court Judge Gloria Sturman said Tuesday that making the names part of the court record could expose the workers to possible “public attention, ridicule and harassment.”
She says the county registrar is already required to keep the records, and the Nevada Secretary of State is responsible for investigating the complaint.
Trump campaign attorney Brian Hardy told the judge he wants to preserve records about late ballots on the last day of early voting at four locations in the Las Vegas area.
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The campaign says allowing people to vote past closing time was illegal, but the county says they were accommodating people already in line.
Neither side commented outside the courtroom.
Long lines kept polls open past the 7 p.m. posted closing time at sites including a Mexican market and several shopping centers, including one in southeast Las Vegas where officials say the last voter cast a ballot after 10 p.m.
State Republican party chief Michael McDonald has also criticized the process.
A lawyer for Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign dismissed the legal action in Nevada with a Tweet calling it “a frivolous lawsuit.”
Nevada voters are playing an outsized role on Tuesday as they decide whether Clinton or Trump should get their six coveted electoral votes and choose a replacement for Sen. Harry Reid in a race that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.
Polls opened for 12 hours starting at 7 a.m., but nearly 53 percent of Nevada’s 1.5 million active registered voters have already weighed in through in-person early voting or absentee ballots. Democrats have a six-point lead over Republicans in early voting turnout, but Republicans are holding out hope that they'll overcome that deficit on Election Day, when they traditionally outperform Democrats.
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