The wife of a U.S. Air Force major lashed out after she and her husband were falsely accused of “criminal voting fraud” in Nevada by Donald Trump’s campaign.
“We knew our votes were legal and we had done nothing wrong, but our integrity was being challenged,” attorney Amy Rose told The Military Times. She called it “upsetting” to be used to “undermine legitimate election results.”
“We take our duties as citizens very seriously, and it’s just a shock to see that this accusation had been made without any basis in fact,” Rose told NBC affiliate KSNV-TV in Las Vegas.
Rose, the former legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said she and her husband voted by absentee ballot from Davis, California, where her husband is working on his doctorate.
Military personnel often vote by absentee ballot because they may be assigned to different locations — including overseas.
The Trump campaign’s Nevada list of alleged voter fraud includes votes mailed from hundreds of overseas military post office boxes, and more than 1,000 locations where military personnel are stationed, according to Military.com’s analysis.
“The list has addresses that are literally on Air Force bases,” Rose said.
Trump campaign attorneys from the Weir Group nevertheless listed the voter information in a Nov. 5 letter to Attorney General William Barr, stating: “We write to bring to your attention criminal voter fraud in the state of Nevada in the 2020 general election.”
“Voter fraud is a serious federal felony, one that cuts to the heart of our representative democracy,” the Trump lawyers wrote. “We understand that these are serious allegations and we do not make them lightly.”
The list available to the public doesn’t include names, but does include communities and zip codes. Rose said she was “shocked” to find her information on the list.
“Our names were ... sent to the Department of Justice for investigation for criminal voting fraud,” a stunned Rose told The Military Times. “It’s incredibly frustrating and upsetting that our votes are being used in this way, to try to undermine legitimate election results in Nevada.“
To “see my integrity challenged, along with other members of the military, to be challenged in this way, it is a shock,” she added. “To be potentially disenfranchised because of these actions, that’s not okay.”
Rose told the newspaper that other military spouses in similar circumstances have reached out to her.
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act created special provisions for military service members and U.S. citizens living overseas to vote by mail in elections.