Democratic super-lawyer Marc Elias took his voting rights litigation rampage to the next level with a pandemic-related case he filed Thursday evening with the title “Corona v. Cegavske.”
The lead plaintiff is Daniel Corona, the mayor of a small town in Nevada, where Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske has sought to shut down several polling places for the state’s June 9 primary.
The lawsuit alleges that the reduction, under Cegavske’s policy, of in-person polling places to just one-per-county will “leave too many Nevadans without a meaningful ability to cast a ballot.”
Cegavske is reducing the number of polling places as she makes the primary a mail-in election given the pandemic. The lawsuit called the state’s efforts to expand access to mail-in voting”laudable,” but said it doesn’t eliminate the need for “adequate” in-person voting.
The lawsuit also challenges several aspects of the new mail-in voting policies, including election officials’ plans to send ballots only to registered voters listed as “active”on Nevada’s rolls. Additionally, the lawsuit asks the court to strike down Nevada’s ban ballots being collected and submitted by people other than voters’ family members.
Even before the pandemic scrambled election plans, Elias — a longtime Democratic voting rights lawyer — had brought a cascade of lawsuits across several states taking aim at restricting GOP laws ahead of the 2020 election.
He is known for his aggressive tactics, and isn’t shy on social media about his eagerness to get into the courtroom to duke it out with Republicans over suppressive voting policies.
On Thursday night he retweeted a post noting the “Amazing” case caption.
Man, @marceelias is just a savage genius. In his new lawsuit against Nevada’s Republican secretary of state, the lead plaintiff is a voter (and mayor of a small town) named Daniel Corona. The case caption?
CORONA v. CEGAVSKE
Amazing https://t.co/veIIMBGUq5 pic.twitter.com/1bsi7jdjQ5
— David Nir (@DavidNir) April 16, 2020
