he Republican National Committee has jumped into Rhode Island’s legal fight over witness requirements for the signing of mail ballots during the pandemic.
Late Sunday night, lawyers Brandon Bell and Joseph Larisa joined lawyers from Arlington, Virginia, in filing a request with the U.S. District Court that both the state and national GOP be given status as defendants in a lawsuit filed last week so they can fight its proposed easing of requirements for mail ballot voting, as the party did in Alabama.
Without deciding definitively on the Republicans’ bid to intervene, U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy told their lawyer, Thomas McCarthy, she would listen to the party’s arguments at a “fairness hearing” on Tuesday on a proposed consent agreement in the case.
State election officials would not, however, give up their right to request that mail voters voluntarily provide, as identification, their Rhode Island driver’s license or state ID number, the last four digits of their Social Security number or their phone number.