debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen’s vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise.” Id. (quoting Reynolds, 377 U.S. at 555).
Plaintiffs attempt to establish an Equal Protection claim based on the theory that Defendants engaged in “several schemes” to, among other things, “destroy,” “discard,” and “switch” votes for President Trump, thereby “devalu[ing] Republican votes” and “diluting” the influence of their individual votes. (ECF No. 49 at Pg ID 3079.)
But, to be perfectly clear, Plaintiffs’ equal protection claim is not supported by any allegation that Defendants’ alleged schemes caused votes for President Trump to be changed to votes for Vice President Biden. For example, the closest Plaintiffs get to alleging that physical ballots were altered in such a way is the following statement in an election challenger’s sworn affidavit: “I believe some of these workers were changing votes that had been cast for Donald Trump and other Republican candidates.”[1] (ECF No. 6 at Pg ID 902 ¶ 91 (citing Aff. Articia
- ↑ Plaintiffs allege in several portions of the Amended Complaint that election officials improperly tallied, counted, or marked ballots. But some of these allegations equivocate with words such as “believe” and “may” and none of these allegations identify which presidential candidate the ballots were allegedly altered to favor. (See, e.g., ECF No. 6 at Pg ID 902, ¶ 91 (citing Aff. Articia Bomer, ECF No. 6-3 at Pg ID 1008-10 (“I believe some of these ballots may not have been properly counted.” (emphasis added))); Pg ID 902-03, ¶ 92 (citing Tyson Aff. ¶ 17) (“At least one challenger observed poll workers adding marks to a ballot where there was no mark for any candidate.”).
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