MAGA Asks Courts to Overthrow Utah Government and GOP Primary Results
Plus, FBI raids home of suspected Russian agent, Minnesota Supreme Court upholds voter re-enfranchisement law, 6th Circuit blocks Net Neutrality, and Georgia update
MAGA Asks Courts to Overthrow Utah Government and GOP Primary Results
The 2024 election is already being contested by MAGA in states across the country and it’s garnering little national attention. Up and down the ballot, MAGA candidates are abusing the courts to overturn the outcome of races they have lost. More alarming, these election deniers refuse to accept the will of voters.
The choice is being made to ignore the actions of anti-democratic candidates who are intent on usurping power. It is a failure on so many levels, especially to voters.
Right now, MAGA is attempting to both overthrow Utah’s GOP-controlled government and challenge GOP primary results in tight races. One candidate in particular was pardoned by Trump in late 2020 who was convicted in 2015 of organizing an ATV standoff against the federal government.
Failed Utah gubernatorial candidate and state Rep. Phil Lyman filed a motion with the state Supreme Court to oust Governor Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson from office and remove them from the November ballot.
He alleges that Cox and Henderson committed “malfeasance” and should be disqualified from serving and replaced with Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, as well as Adams’ choice for Lt. Gov. He also named Utah Republican Party chairman Robert Axson, as well as the state party, in his lawsuit, asking the court to order Axson to list Lyman as the GOP gubernatorial candidate on the November ballot. He also demands the court to order Henderson to inform voters of who the new GOP nominees are and explain the mistake in a way that insinuates her office is at fault.
But that’s not all he’s petitioned the court for. Lyman is also petitioning the state Supreme Court to disqualify Rep. John Curtis who won the June GOP primary for Senator Mitt Romney’s seat. In his place, Lyman demands the court order Axson to declare Trump endorsed Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate.
In addition, Lyman is asking the court to toss out the GOP primary results, in which more than half a million voters cast their choice for the general election, arguing the election was conducted improperly.
MAGA demands court-ordered Party Boss Elections, Stripping Power of Electorate
Instead, he wants the court to honor the results of the Republican Party’s nominating convention that took place in April. At that convention, party delegates voted for the candidates that would appear on the primary ballot. And, conveniently, Lyman won just over two-thirds of the delegate vote to appear on the June primary ballot.
What Lyman is contesting is Utah statute 20A-9-408, which enables candidates to qualify for the party primary by collecting a threshold of signatures from voters. Gov. Cox used this law to gather enough signatures to appear on the primary ballot and then defeated Lyman 54.4% to 45.6%. As Lyman argues the statute is unconstitutional and invalid, the hypocrite initially filed to run for Governor as a signature-gathering candidate and then changed tack.
This is just the latest lawsuit Lyman has filed in this primary election. In April, Lyman sued the Lt. Gov. and state Elections Director Ryan Cowley, alleging that they violated state election law by disqualifying his running mate, Layne Bangerter. Bangerter was disqualified because he has not lived in Utah for the past 5 years, which is a requirement under state law. Lyman requested the court to order Henderson’s office to accept Bangerter's candidacy.
The Bad Faith Demand for Access to Voter Records for Utahns who voted against MAGA
Last month, he sued the Gov. and Lt. Gov., asking a district court to compel Henderson’s office to turn over an unredacted list of voters who signed petitions to put Cox/Henderson, as well as for former Utah GOP chairman Derek Brown who is running for state attorney general and former House Speaker Brad Wilson who lost the GOP primary to Rep. Curtis.
Brown lost the delegate vote but did successfully gather enough signatures to be placed on the primary ballot and won. Lyman wants the signatures declared invalid, but no attorney general candidate reached the 60% threshold at the Republican nominating convention. Frank Mylar—who faces a felony charge for bribing an opponent for his endorsement—came in first with Rachel Terry coming in a close second. Terry also garnered the second-largest margin of votes in the GOP primary, which she lost to Brown.
It’s unlikely the state Supreme Court will grant his request for the names of voters who signed the petitions. Utah’s State Records Committee and lower courts have upheld state law that allows voters to designate their records as private. Lyman was a proponent of that law. Election records are also protected under federal law.
The court still has not taken up Lyman’s case and has scheduled it for review in September.
MAGA challenger for 2nd Congressional District asks court to overturn loss
Lyman isn’t the only MAGA candidate contesting the Utah primary. The loser candidate for the GOP primary for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District filed a motion with the state Supreme Court as the tight race triggered a recount. On July 29, GOP primary challenger Colby Jenkins requested a recount and then the next day sued Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, the state’s chief election officer, and county clerks, contesting the election certification.
Jenkins alleges that 1,171 ballots had been unlawfully disqualified for late postmarking and asked the state Supreme Court to order county clerks in 9 southern Utah counties to accept them. He also claims that the Lt. Gov., the director of elections, and the 9 county clerks named in the lawsuit were aware of the delays but failed to address the issue or notify voters that their ballots were disqualified.
Utah law requires vote-by-mail ballots to be postmarked no later than the day before Election Day. Mail handled by the United States Postal Service in southern Utah is often routed through its Las Vegas, Nevada facility for processing. Jenkins argues that the postmark date rule for state elections “disenfranchises a significant number of voters who only reside in southern Utah” as the out-of-state USPS facility causes delays for tallying vote-by-mail ballots.
Utah’s closest primary election in decades
Interesting how when it suits them, Republicans want to count disqualified ballots. Jenkins lost by 214 votes—that’s 0.2 percentage points—to incumbent Rep. Celeste Maloy. Utah law automatically recounts race results that are within a .25% difference. He is hoping the state high court will help him override state law passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature to overturn the results in his favor.
On Monday, Henderson’s office announced that Maloy won the GOP primary, noting that the recount did reduce the margin of votes, but not nearly enough for Jenkins to flip the result. The final tally on the state’s website shows Maloy’s 176-vote victory in the recount—Malloy’s 53,777 to Jenkins’ 53,601.
Courts agree to hear MAGA candidate’s claims over election loss
While the Utah Supreme Court rejected his first motion, the court did allow him to refile by Wednesday. They determined that Jenkins had failed to explain why the Supreme Court instead of a district court should take the case. Today, Thursday, August 8, the state Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and scheduled oral arguments for Friday.
It’s not just the election Jenkins wants overturned. Like Lyman, Jenkins is also suing to compel a county clerk to turn over contact information for the voters whose ballots were disqualified.
Last month, he filed a separate lawsuit against Washington County Clerk/Auditor Ryan Sullivan in Utah’s 5th District Court. He claimed in a court filing that his campaign would like to contact voters to encourage them to fix their ballots and notify them about the tight results.
Washington County had found 531 uncured ballots, meaning they have minor discrepancies, including mismatching signatures. He called the number a “suspicious coincidence” since he commanded nearly 60% of the vote in the county.
A hearing for that case is scheduled for Monday. If the courts accept the results of the GOP primary, Rep. Malloy will face Democratic candidate Nathaniel Woodward in November. Utah’s 2nd Congressional District hasn’t been represented by a Democrat since 2013.
MAGA-controlled Georgia state election board passes rule enabling county officials to delay election certification
On Tuesday, Georgia’s GOP-controlled State Election Board (SEB) passed the Trump campaign’s desired election rules that give county officials the authority to refuse to certify their county’s election results. Before this rule, local county board members did not have the authority to delay certification as they reviewed results. Now, county officials will be able to delay certification in large counties (aka Democratic strongholds) if a single board member requests an investigation into voting equipment or the voting process. The GOP-controlled board also passed a rule that expands partisan poll watcher access to ballot tabulation.
Days before the vote, Donald Trump praised the 3 Republican election deniers on the SEB at his August 3 campaign rally in Atlanta. It’s another example of how Trump is subverting state’s rights by intervening in state election proceedings, which will go unchecked. Trump’s MAGA election deniers who sit on several county election boards rejected certifying results in the 2022 midterms and the 2020 election. Their efforts were foiled by boards controlled by Democrats.
The one thing standing in the way of MAGA upending Georgia’s election is state law. An election statute requires county election boards to vote on certifying election results no later than 6 days after Election Day—November 11. Also, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger is required to verify Georgia’s results by November 22.
FBI raids former UN weapons inspector suspected of being an unregistered foreign agent of Russia
On Wednesday, FBI agents and New York State Police executed a search warrant on Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector and frequent commentator on RT, a Russian state-owned media outlet. Local newspaper, the Times Union, reported that federal authorities seized more than 2 dozen boxes out of Ritter’s home and Ritter told the outlet that the search warrant was “related to concerns the U.S. government has about violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.” In June, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers confiscated his passport at John F. Kennedy International Airport just before he was about to board a flight to Istanbul with a connection to Russia where he was to attend a conference.
The search of Ritter’s home comes one day after he posted a selfie of himself and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on X (formerly Twitter), exclaiming, “Burgers with Bobby!”
The independent presidential candidate is in New York this week testifying about why he should be allowed on the state’s November ballot as he faces another scandal for admitting on video that he dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park 10 years ago. The meet-up with an unregistered foreign agent and convicted child predator is just the cherry on top of RFK Jr.’s scandal-plagued campaign. When asked why he met with Ritter, Kennedy told the Times Union, “Because I admire his stance on foreign policy and I’m trying to keep this country out of a nuclear war.” In addition to his punditry on RT, Ritter writes articles criticizing U.S. foreign policy toward Russia and praising Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously upheld voter re-enfranchisement law
On Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously upheld a 2023 state law that restores voting rights for felons upon completion of their prison sentences. In December 2023, a district court judge dismissed a lawsuit by dark money-backed group Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA), ruling that the group lacked standing and that it failed to prove the state Legislature overstepped its authority in passing the law. In a 13-page order, the high court agreed with the district court ruling.
The MVA is represented by the Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) and Liberty Justice Center (LJC), which have both received funding from Leonard Leo’s and Charles Koch’s dark money networks, as well as other nonprofits affiliated with the two networks. James Dickey, a lawyer for the UMLC and Federalist Society member, and Reilly Stevens, a lawyer for LJC and Federalist Society member, argued that public funds spent on publicity for the law gave the MVA standing. Dickey also argued that the state Legislature could only restore the right to vote for felons if it was part of a broader civil rights bill that included the right to hold office and serve on a jury.
The law, which went into effect on June 1, 2023, reinstated the right to vote for 55K Minnesotans. Previously, convicted felons were not eligible to vote again until completion of their probation period and payment of all fines. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, more than 20 states have laws that immediately reinstate the right to vote upon release.
A 3-judge panel on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously blocks FCC’s Net Neutrality rule
Last week, a 3-judge panel on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously blocked the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Net Neutrality rule, ruling that internet service providers (ISPs) are likely to win the case on the merits of their challenge to the rule. Last month, the appeals court issued an administrative stay that delayed enforcement of the rules. On August 1, the panel issued a new order icing Net Neutrality until the court rules in Ohio Telecom Association v. FCC. A different panel on the appeals court will hear oral arguments as soon as October 28.
The fallout from the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo continues—that ruling overturned a 40-year-old precedent known as the Chevron deference, which gave administrative agencies the authority to interpret laws. The panel cited the ruling, noting that previous courts relied on Chevron to uphold net neutrality.
In a concurring opinion, Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a George W. Bush appointee and a Federalist Society member, wrote that the FCC’s constant flip-flopping on the issue makes it difficult to apply a fallback standard known as the Skidmore deference. Sutton, who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, wrote, “An agency’s power to persuade turns on the thoroughness of its reasoning, its technical expertise, and its ‘consistency with earlier and later pronouncements.’ The problem is, we do not know which group of experts to respect.” He added, “The consistency query makes matters worse. The Commission’s ‘intention to reverse course for yet a fourth time’ suggests that its reasoning has more to do with changing presidential administrations than with arriving at the true and durable ‘meaning of the law.’” He’s so close to getting it.