BREAKING: Marc Elias drops BAD LEGAL NEWS on Republicans

this is democracy watch Mark we've got. some major news here on behalf of you. and your firm uh we have a major win in. court can you explain what just happened. yeah so big victory in the state of. Pennsylvania where we have been watching. for years now a tug-of-war over whether. or not absentee ballots mail-in votes. that are submitted by voters that are. otherwise totally lawful the voter is. registered the voter has only voted for. one candidate they only voted by mail. but where forget to either put a date.

next to their signature on the outer. envelope or they put the wrong date uh. on their uh on the ballot envelope next. to their signature and the Republicans. have been fighting tooth and nail to. prevent these ballots from counting and. just to give you some numbers Brian in. 2022 there were more than 10,000 of. these ballots that were rejected uh for. misdated or undated in in 2024 that. number is almost certainly in excess of. five ,000 we don't know the full numbers.

but we can account for 5,000 of those. ballots being rejected again these are. otherwise legal votes that literally. were thrown out because the voter either. didn't put a date next to their. signature on the outer envelope or put. the wrong date and a federal court has. now held that throwing out those ballots. violates the United States Constitution. it violates the right to vote because it. is throwing out these votes and there is. no reason there's no purpose Pur for.

this dating other than a trap for for. the for the uny voter and to fulfill the. mission of Donald Trump and the. Republicans to disenfranchise voters. Mark to that point we already know that. the Republicans knew full well that. there's no reason to have to date the. ballot because it's postmarked and so. this is to your exact point just a trap. to be able to get mailin ballots which. overwhelmingly skew Democratic uh to be. disqualified and and that's exactly what. happened and so we're in a situation. where okay after the fact retro L.

they've said okay this is. unconstitutional but the Republicans. knew it was unconstitutional the point. is just that they can do something get. the desired outcome during the election. and then sure after the election a judge. will come forward and say this was. unconstitutional and you can't do it and. they'll say okay we can't do it but that. doesn't mean they're not going to find. the next thing moving forward and say. okay now let's do this and then we'll. get through the election cycle and then. sure you know in in 2027 some issue will. be litigated and a judge will say you. can't do that and they'll go ah damn we.

can't do that okay but like the whole. point is that that they need to lay. traps so that they can try and. disqualify mail ballots because again. they skew overwhelmingly Democratic and. so does this establish some type of. precedent where they can't use any of. these trap tactics and trapit tactics to. disqualify mail in ballots or are we. going to be in a situation where yes. they can't you know mandate uh dating. the outside of the ballots but they can. just do something next time that will. have the exact same effect yeah I wish I. could tell you that this is going to end.

Republican voter suppression tactics or. elections but won't but you know you're. right when the Democratic Senate. Campaign Committee and Democrat. Congressional Campaign Committee brought. this lawsuit it was clear to everyone. that there that this date was doing no. work the state of Pennsylvania. acknowledged that the date didn't do any. work it was the Republican National. Committee that intervened in the case to. make up theories by which this could be. constitutional as you say likely knowing. full well that what they speing was.

nonsense let me tell you what their. theory was in this case they said that. requiring a date um instilled solemnity. in voting like it made people take the. act of voting more seriously because. they like like we're not we're not we're. not allowed to vote unless we're. adequately unless we acknowledge. adequately that is that it's a sacren. process yes that was her argument their. argument was to use their word it was. that it made it more Solem it added.

solemnity from the word solemn to the. voting process like it made people like. sit up and take the voting process as. more solemn by the way this is the party. of Donald Trump I mean I just I just. like want everyone to back up for a. second and realize that they're arguing. that what we need is cimity and voting. at the same time that Donald Trump is. constantly lying about voting saying you. may never need to vote again that he. wants to be a dictator for a day and. we've seen that's turned out like when.

you when you think of the Republican. Party does solemnness really come to. come to to come to mind but that was an. argument and yes the federal judge. discarded it and said this is like not. like a thing and by the way the. Republican Party offered no evidence. that this even does create a more solemn. voting experience but you know I think. it was largely pretextual they just. wanted to find an argument that kept. this case alive as you point out until. after 2024 when there was a very close.

presidential election in Pennsylvania. very an even closer senate election in. Pennsylvania and and so what we see in. case after case is that my team and I. and plaintiffs like in this case the. Democratic party you know are constantly. having to play wacka and I wish it. weren't that way but but you know Brian. you recently had on your show Alison. rigs a state supreme court justice in. North Carolina who won her reelection by. a narrow margin but it was confirmed by. a recount and by a second account and.

the Republican party in North Carolina. is trying to throw out 65,000 legal. votes for a similarly flimsy theory. about why these votes shouldn't count. now you know I hope that at the end of. the day like the courts there reject. that but people don't realize how. committed the Republican National. Committee which is in was in both of. these cases and their their right-wing. you know allies are in finding any. arguments to disenfranchise voters to. prevent them from registering and to not.

certify elections that they don't like. the results on so this is a big win in. Pennsylvania but I hate to tell you that. the fight's going to keep going on but. the fight's going to keep going on well. I do I do want to underscore the. importance here because this is a scheme. that Republicans have employed that to. your exact point disenfranchised 10,000. people two elections ago disenfranchised. over 5,000 people in this last election. and they did it in a state that is the. Tipping Point State in this country the. state of Pennsylvania so the notion that.

we should be losing 10 or five however. many thousands of votes in in a key. swing state where by the way the. majority of maelin Voters are are. democratic anyway is is first of all. completely unacceptable and second of. all especially important that you were. able to litigate and win this race does. this make it I want to point out an. additional uh important connector which. is the role of the media you know. because when Bob Casey the senator from. Pennsylvania who lost a few thousand.

votes in Pennsylvania it was more than. 5,000 but it wasn't a lot more than. 5,000 votes um when when when we were in. court for him the Washington Post and a. lot of the national media were like oh. Democrats you shouldn't be litigating. elections because you are doing exactly. what Donald Trump did which is insane. what we were litigating were very close. elections to try to make sure lawful. votes were counted as opposed to what. Donald Trump did but meanwhile you know. here we are you know it's it's April.

and Alice and rigs still that election. still going on North Carolina and the. republ not a word the Republicans are. just litigating away to try to overr. that here we won this case in. Pennsylvania I'm looking forward to the. big headlines in the Washington Post and. and the other Legacy Media talking about. how this case in Pennsylvania you know. was was just showed that Republicans. were engaged in voter expression all. along in Pennsylvania but it just it. feels like Brian outside of you and. democracy docket and of the other you.

know Pro democracy Outlets the Legacy. Media just seems to treat what Donald. Trump does with one and Republicans do. with one test and then what Democrats do. you know like as an inconvenience to. them right I mean it's this is this is. them grading the Trump Administration. and the Republican party on a curve like. if Democrats take one one step left to. Center out of line then all of a sudden. you're going to have a windfall of of. coverage and by the way that's their. prerogative to have critical coverage. against both sides but reality is it's.

not critical coverage against both sides. it's critical coverage against the. Democrats judge by the same rules of. politics we've always had and then. Donald Trump it's just kind of assumed. that he's going to act in a way that is. overtly hostile to democracy and so. unless he does something that's going to. surprise anybody then they're not going. to bother covering it to the same degree. because you know it's not going to get. the same they're not going to be able to. lean in the same way against him because. we just assume that he's going to be an. enemy to democracy and so that's the. asymmetry of the media at play which by. the way underscores the importance of.

the work that you and your team at. democracy docket do so I'm going to put. the link to democracy docket right here. on the screen anybody who's looking to. support the invaluable work that Mark. and his team are doing please go ahead. and sign up uh and support Fearless. independent journalism Mark the the. question that I wanted to answer is is. there going to be an easy way now for. Republicans to replicate this strategy. that won't go against what they've what. the fact that they've already lost in. court um does this prevent them for. example from using you know these traps.

on the outside of envelopes or is it. very narrow where they can't make you. sign your date but maybe they can. require a signature maybe they can you. know have you write what day of the week. it is maybe they can have you write the. last four four numbers of your Social. Security number like something like that. yeah look this is the state that. remember Republicans wanted to throw out. ballots and were successful throwing out. ballots that didn't have inner envelopes. remember the naked ballots that was. Pennsylvania this is a state where. Republicans are refusing to change the. law on a bipartisan basis to allow the.

counting of these absentee ballots. earlier so that election results can be. announced earlier in Pennsylvania right. because because they they want to be. able to have a red Mirage they want the. the the day of ballots counted first so. that they have a pretext to be able to. say Donald Trump was clearly winning. Republicans are clearly winning any. effort to count legal lawful ballots and. have them be added to the totals. throughout the day now we can just say.

oh look vote dumps are happening at. midnight and 1: in the morning and 2 in. the morning it must be fraud because. look all of the early totals were just. uh Republican heavy right so the fact is. Republicans are Shameless they are. willing to spend whatever money they. need to spend in order to fight against. free and fair elections in court and. that is the reality So when you say is. there going to be some other scheme yes. there'll be some other scheme there'll. be other schemes in Pennsylvania there. are we talked about a scheme that.

they've currently got going on in in. North Carolina throw out votes they run. a very efficient um voter suppression. and election suppression War Machine and. it grinds on day after day you know when. a lot of Democrats and progressives turn. their attention to other things after. election the RNC just keeps going we. have an important election today in. Wisconsin and and at the same time that. Elon Musk was doing his million dollar. giveaway I saw an article that said that. there was some ice cream Sho or someone.

who was giving out free ice cream to. people and the Republican na committee. wrote a letter to them saying how you. can't give out free ice cream like these. folks have no shame yeah and they will. they will latch onto anything that they. can latch on to if it means. disenfranchising voters inconveniencing. voters where they think that those. voters vote Democratic so you know we. all just need to stay very Vigilant we. all need to recognize that that's the. state of play and that we need to make. sure that we are fighting every single. day just like they are to disenfranchise.

voters we need to be fighting every day. to enfranchise them and make sure that. we have free and fair elections well. look we we have spoken at length about. the need for law firms in particular to. be able to stand up against this. Administration and fight back and not. capitulate and you know you you put your. money where your mouth is here because. not only uh did you take a posture of. standing up to this Administration but. you've also fought fought them in court. right now and you've also defeated them. in court right now so again for anybody. watching right now to support the work.

that Mark and his team to support the. work these Fighters are actually doing. in the courtroom a small step we can all. take is to sign up for democracy docket. it's also you know a great resource to. be able to follow the news anyway but. more broadly a way to support their. effort so I'll put the link right here. on the screen and also in the post. description of this video I'm Brian. teller Cohen I'm Mark elath this is. democracy watch. [Music].