If Trump loses the election tonight, he’s definitely not going down without a fight. The Republican presidential nominee has already filed a lawsuit against the state of Nevada over an early voting dispute.

The lawsuit accuses Clark County, Nevada, of keeping the polls open “two hours beyond the designated closing time” Friday night. The polling locations closed at 7 PM; however, some polling locations were kept open until 10 PM to accommodate voters waiting in line.

Nevada state law requires that voters be allowed to cast their ballots if they have entered a polling place, or are physically waiting in line to vote at the time of closing.

As it just so happens, the Las Vegas polling places targeted in the suit happen to be home to large Hispanic populations–and Hillary Clinton has a significant advantage over Donald Trump with Hispanic voters.

The Trump campaign called the extended voting times evidence of a “rigged system,” and alleged that Clark Country voting registrar Joe Gloria’s actions “very much appear to have been intentionally coordinated with Democratic activists.”

According to Business Insider, Judge Gloria Sturman denied Trump’s lawyer’s request for Gloria to preserve the names of the poll workers who permitted the late voting–mainly because he is already legally required to do so.

“I don’t get what you’re asking,” Judge Sturman told David Lee, a lawyer with the Trump campaign.

“I can’t obligate [Gloria] to do something he’s already obligated to do,” Sturman said. “This is Election Day. He has other things to be doing.”

Sturman maintained that she would not expose the poll workers to harassment and an army of Twitter trolls, especially when “they’re not here to defend themselves.”

Trump’s lawyers also requested that the votes cast after 7 PM not be “co-mingled” with the other votes, but that request was shot down as well.

While Trump may not have been successful in what very well may be his first attempt at proving voter fraud, it’s very clear that he’s steadfast in disputing the election if the results don’t swing in his favor.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Black voters showed up in historically large numbers in 2008 and 2012 to help elect Barack Obama to the White House. Will that trend continue in 2016? If early voting numbers are any indication, black turnout will be a bit lower than in the previous two elections. And on Wednesday, President Obama, in an interview with radio host Tom Joyner, said African-American turnout is “not as solid as it needs to be,” for his preferred successor, Hillary Clinton.

“I need everybody to understand that everything we’ve done is dependent on me being able to pass the baton to somebody who believes in the same things I believe in,” he said, noting that Trump might even rip up Michelle Obama’s vegetable gardens.

Obama has been pushing this message in the weeks leading up to Election Day, and in the midst of the early voting period, when compared to 2012 numbers, the number of black voters casting ballots early has dipped slightly. For instance, in North Carolina, blacks have cast 23 percent of the state’s early votes, 111,000 less than at this point in 2012, when they made up 28 percent of early voters. Clinton is failing to muster Obama-level enthusiasm among black voters in Florida as well.

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina tried to change the state’s voting laws, but a federal court struck down the measure because it “targeted black voters with surgical precision.” Obama told the audience at a rally in Chapel Hill on Wednesday as much, adding that it is now “easier to vote than ever” in North Carolina. “What’s our excuse?” he added.

Obama is not the only Clinton acolyte making an 11th hour pitch to black voters. Bill Clinton visited Detroit on Wednesday and met with black ministers. But Obama–who captured 95 percent of the black vote in 2008 and 93 percent in 2012–is Clinton’s most valuable and vocal supporter in the waning days of the election.

He warned voters on Wednesday of the implication a Trump White House could have on his legacy: “If we let this thing slip and I’ve got a situation where my last two months in office are preparing for a transition to Donald Trump, whose staff people have said that their primary agenda is to have him in the first couple of weeks sitting in the Oval Office and reverse every single thing that we’ve done.” 

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Obama Says Black Turnout “Not as Solid as it Needs to Be” appeared first on Law Street.

In key battleground states and some Republican strongholds, early voting trends appear more favorable to Democrats this year compared with the same time last cycle. With less than two weeks to Election Day, 13.4 million voters have cast ballots by mail or in person in 37 states. For starters, the early vote total is far higher than during the same period in 2012. Forty percent of the electorate, or 46 million people, are expected to vote before Election Day on November 8. Below are some takeaways from a handful of key states.

North Carolina

Republican Mitt Romney won this vital battleground state in 2012. But if current trends hold, it seems the state could swing to the left. Fewer people have voted early in North Carolina this year compared to 2012, but of those who have, 46 percent are Democrats and 29 percent are Republicans.

According to a CNN analysis of the early votes, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, will need a strong turnout from African-American voters to capture the state. Their share of the electorate is down five percent from 2012. In the most recent poll, Clinton leads Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, by seven points.

Florida

The Sunshine State went to Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. Democrats seem poised to repeat their victory there on November 8. Two million ballots have been cast in Florida so far, with the two major parties in a dead heat, each garnering 41 percent of the voters. This bodes well for Democrats: at the same point in 2008 (the most recent available data) Republican voters cast 113,222 more votes than Democrats, according to CNN.

This could be due to changing demographics: the Hispanic portion of the electorate is up four percent in Florida from 2008, while the share of whites has dropped from 82 percent in 2008 to roughly 77 percent this year. But the most recent poll shows Trump edging Clinton by two percentage points in Florida.

Red to Blue?

Some traditionally purple states are showing signs of turning blue, including Nevada and Colorado. Democrats have cast 46 percent of the ballots in Nevada thus far, compared to 35 percent for the GOP. In Colorado, over 400,000 people have cast early ballots, 40 percent Democrats and 34 percent Republicans. CNN’s analysis of the early vote data shows the Democrats with a 15,000 vote lead, which is slightly more than they had in 2012. Obama won Nevada in 2012, though recent polls show a tie between Clinton and Trump.

Historically, Nevada is not necessarily a Republican shoo-in. Bill Clinton won there in 1992 and 1996. George W. Bush won there in 2000 and 2004. And President Obama won in 2008 and 2012. The past two decades or so in Colorado are nearly identical, aside from the 1996 election, when Bob Dole picked up its eight electoral votes.

Obama won Colorado in 2012, but compared to the same early voting period, Republicans held a slight lead. This year, Democrats are up by about 10,000 votes, according to CNN.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post The Road to 270: A Look at Early Voting Trends in 2016 appeared first on Law Street.