Almost a week before the fateful vote, the candidates are in the starting blocks. Initially, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. To support them, millions of voters… and thousands of lawyers. According to a Pew Research Center survey of last October 10, the voters surveyed estimate 72% that Kamala Harris will recognize her failure in the event of defeat on November 5.
But conversely, 74% of Americans think that the billionaire will contest his rival’s victory. A situation from which the Democrats seek to protect themselves by expanding their legal team. With more than 10,000 lawyers mobilized across the country, the vice-president’s supporters are preparing to respond to any attempt at voter intimidation as well as an avalanche of post-election lawsuits in the event of Donald’s defeat. Trump. An unprecedented legal battle for the Democratic camp, “ready to do anything” to win.
$22 million in legal fees
“As soon as they [les républicains, NDLR] will file a file, as soon as they start to say that the election results are not reliable, we will be ready to react”, affirmed to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Dana Remus, former White House adviser to Joe Biden who heads Kamala Harris’ legal operation. If the lawyer is so calm, it is because the Democrats have been developing a very precise strategy for many months. Their approach: relentless coordination between local lawyers who know every detail of their state’s election laws and large national law firms, like Covington & Burling and WilmerHale, who guide the strategy.
In a note accessed by NBC NewsKamala Harris’ campaign team and the Democratic National Committee write that “the seasoned lawyers who fought and won in 2020 prepared for dozens of scenarios and wrote thousands of pages of defense.” And this defense is far from being prepared by strangers. Two lawyers who served as attorney general of the United States, Seth Waxman and Donald Verrilli, are involved. Marc Elias, who became famous among Democrats for publicly fighting Donald Trump in court, was also recruited to focus on potential recounts and other post-election issues. If his aggressive tone has not always gone well with the 46th President of the United States, the vice-president wanted to see him strengthen his group. In total, the Democratic National Committee has spent more than $22 million on legal fees since the summer, according to the WSJ.
“The most contentious election in history”
Faced with this army of Democratic lawyers, an armada of Republican lawyers. According to Claire Zunk, spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, the party is already involved in more than 130 legal actions. And this, in 26 different states “to protect the integrity of elections by ensuring that voter rolls are accurate and that ineligible people, including non-citizens, do not vote.” Procedures viewed with a dim eye by the opposing camp which considers this presidential election to be “the most contentious in American history”. “By filing all these lawsuits week after week, [les républicains cherchent à] plant seeds of demands that they can then make if Trump loses,” explains Bob Bauer, former White House counsel under Barack Obama.
But despite the efforts made, the Republican defense has so far not borne fruit. Last week, judges in North Carolina and Michigan rejected Republicans’ bid to block some U.S. citizens living abroad from registering to vote and voting. Several courts have also not responded to several challenges supported by the Republican Party concerning the way in which the electoral rolls are maintained.
Although election law veterans say litigation is unlikely to determine the outcome of the White House race, they say the work of lawyers can play an important role in the outcome. So who, Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, will win this legal battle?