Civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit against political canvassers, some of them armed, who pounded on voters’ doors in Colorado with questions about what they claimed was a rigged presidential election.
Interrogating residents about baseless claims of election fraud and photographing their homes amounted to a “voter intimidation campaign” in violation of the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan Act, alleges the suit filed in U.S District Court in Colorado by the NAACP, the Colorado League of Women Voters of Colorado and Mi Familia Vota.
The suit accuses the U.S. Election Integrity Plan, which organized the canvassers, and three of its leaders of violating the Voting Rights Act through “intimidating, threatening and coercive conduct,” often in neighborhoods with a high number of people of color. It asks the court to declare the canvassing intimidation and harassment, and to order it stopped.
The canvassers often display badges, the lawsuit says, and are encouraged to carry weapons. They confront voters “for allegedly casting fraudulent ballots” and take photos of people’s homes, according to the suit.
The group uses such tactics across Colorado and in several other states, the suit says. It was founded by supporters of former President Donald Trump after he lost the 2020 election and began spreading his widely debunked lies about election fraud. Funders, according to the suit, include MyPillow guy Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of Trump’s bogus claims.
“Defendants’ objectives are clear,” the suit says. “By planning to, threatening to, and actually deploying armed agents to knock on doors throughout the state of Colorado, USEIP is engaging in voter intimidation.”
A U.S. Election Integrity Plan representative could not immediately be reached for comment.