The Michigan Democratic Party filed suit against Donald Trump and the the state Republican Party this morning in federal court to block GOP efforts they say amount to “voter intimidation” targeted mainly at the black electorate.

The suit seeks an injunction to prevent Republican harassment and suppression of votes cast at the polls on Tuesday. The GOP in Michigan has been holding training sessions that advise Republican activists on the watchdog role they are allowed to play at polling places. But the Democrats argue that this is an organized conspiracy to hold down turnout in precincts where minority voters dominate.

The 41-page lawsuit sometimes reads more like a press release than a typical legal document:

“There are only 5 days left until Election Day. Trump’s calls for unlawful intimidation have grown louder and louder, and the conspiracy to harass and threaten voters on Election Day already has resulted in numerous acts that threaten the voting rights of registered Michigan voters. The Michigan Democratic Party, and untold numbers of Michigan voters, will suffer irreparable harm if the right to vote is imperiled by the same forms of virulent harassment that federal law has prohibited since shortly after the Civil War.”

Filed with the U.S. District Court in Detroit, the suit also names Trump advisor Roger Stone and the group Stone formed called Stop the Steal Inc. Stone and Trump claim that Democrats are attempting to steal the election, particularly in urban areas, and they have urged local Republicans to man the polls and call for the disqualification of voters who do not have proper credentials. The suit points out that Stone’s reputation as a campaign dirty trickster began in the 1980s when a federal court halted a voter scrutiny effort he launched at that time.

Trump, Stone and the GOP are violating the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the suit claims, by engaging in a conspiracy to block minority votes from being cast. They cite this comment, reported by Bloomberg News last week, by an unnamed Trump campaign official:

“We have three major voter suppression operations under way” that target African Americans and other groups of voters.

 

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