The Harris campaign says it is taking steps to prepare for “anything Republicans throw at us” in court before, after, and on Election Day.
“The 2024 presidential election is already the most litigated in American history, but we are also the most prepared campaign in history for what we face,” the Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee said in a memo obtained by NBC News outlining the steps they’ve taken to prepare for an anticipated deluge of litigation.
“Democrats are prepared and enter this final stretch with a playbook to protect the integrity of our elections — before and after November 5,” the memo says.
It says the “veteran lawyers who fought and won in 2020 have been preparing for dozens of scenarios, drafting thousands of pages of legal briefs, and working directly with hundreds of lawyers and experts on the ground in battleground states so we are ready for whatever the other side throws our way.”
The memo was written by Dana Remus, senior advisor and outside counsel for the Harris campaign, and DNC co-executive director Monica Guardiola. It seeks to reassure allies and voters who are concerned about Trump Republicans trying to overturn results in close states, as they did in 2020.
Vice President Kamala Harris sought to do the same in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, saying “We will deal with election night and the days after as they come, and we have the resources and the expertise and the focus on that.”
Both Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have refused to say the former president lost the 2020 election. Trump’s allies told NBC News they expect him to declare victory even if the outcome is unclear. Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on his election night plans.
The Harris campaign memo gets into some specifics.
“The country is still waiting for Trump to acknowledge the results of the last election, and we expect more of the same this time,” the memo said.
“Democrats are running an aggressive, proactive legal strategy to protect your right to vote and have that vote count. We have been planning for four years to win not only at the ballot box but also in court, and to ensure another free and fair election,” the pair wrote.
They said Republicans have already filed lawsuits this year in an “effort to sow doubt in the results.” The memo said Democrats’ legal teams have already had success batting back voter suppression efforts in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada.
The memo said they’re also prepared to counter any Republican intimidation tactics on Election Day itself with “hundreds of staff across the country and tens of thousands of volunteers signing up.”
“Our program will include highly trained, game day-ready poll and count observers at polling stations, watching for MAGA antics and working with a national network to quickly resolve issues,” the memo said.
“We will make sure that voters are able to cast their ballots this fall, and that those votes count,” it said.
An official working on plans for election security and a potential litigation phase said the overall message of the memo is, “We’ve done the work so this will be okay.” We just need to execute,” the official said.