Clinton’s Former Top Campaign Lawyer Behind New Hampshire Voter ID Lawsuit
Clinton’s Former Top Campaign Lawyer Behind New Hampshire Voter ID Lawsuit
George Soros poured millions into previous efforts from Clinton's lawyer against voter ID laws
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BY: Joe Schoffstall
September 2, 2017 5:00 am
The former top campaign lawyer for failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is behind yet another lawsuit against a state's voter identification laws, the latest in a series of challenges that stem back to 2015.
Previous efforts launched against voter ID laws were backed by millions from liberal billionaire George Soros, who has a personal goal of enlarging the electorate by 10 million people by 2018, as documents leaked last year show.
The League of Woman Voters and three individuals are suing the state of New Hampshire in an attempt to block a law on voter registration that includes requirements such as providing a driver's license to prove an individual's primary residence is in the state and will be living in the state for a substantial time.
The lawsuit is supported by Priorities USA, the largest liberal super political action committee that backed Clinton's campaign. Priorities received $9.5 million from Soros throughout the 2016 election cycle.
Marc Elias, a partner at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Perkins Coie and Clinton's former top campaign lawyer, is listed as an attorney on the New Hampshire lawsuit. Elias joined the board of Priorities earlier this year when the group absorbed Every Vote Counts, a nonprofit created by Clinton allies to mobilize African American and Latino voters. The group is in the process of building a "one-stop inventory" on voting measures that will be shared with other liberal groups.
Elias was behind a number of lawsuits that were filed against voter identification laws in recent years.
Elias led voter challenges in Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, and North Carolina while he was Clinton's campaign lawyer, although he filed the lawsuits in his personal capacity as an attorney at Perkins Coie.
The Ohio Organizing Collaborative, the liberal activist group in Ohio Elias initially represented, was later replaced on the suit and investigated for fraudulent voter registrations. A canvasser for the group pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying voter registrations, which included registering dead people to vote.
Elias's efforts were backed by millions of dollars from Soros. "We hope to see these unfair laws, which often disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in our society, repealed," Soros said in 2015.
Hacked documents released last year show a top priority for the liberal billionaire is to combat "voter suppression" and enlarge the electorate by 10 million voters, the Washington Free Beacon discovered within the trove of files.
"The Open Society Foundations supports efforts to encourage wider participation in U.S. elections, and opposes measures used to try to suppress voter participation," a spokesperson from Soros' foundation told the Free Beacon at the time.
Democrats quickly assembled to build a massive network to combat voter ID laws following President Donald Trump's victory over Clinton.
Elias did not return a request for comment on the New Hampshire challenge by press time.
http://freebeacon.com/politics/clint...er-id-lawsuit/
