The Republican Party has responded to a lawsuit over polling place activities by Jefferson County Election Commissioner by disputing all the points raised.

The lawsuit questioned Stu Soffer’s role as both a poll watcher, who can challenge voters’ eligibility, and an election commissioner who decides such challengers. Local voters also said they’d found his presence intimidating.

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The response said, among others that: Soffer is no longer a poll watcher; he legally COULD be a poll watcher; if poll watching presented a conflict in a voter challenge with his office as election commissioner, he could recuse; the plaintiffs in the case had no standing.

Soffer himself said:

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“My action on the first day of early voting at the Jefferson County Courthouse in the County Clerk’s Office were all within the law and necessary to preempt election fraud by the Democratic Party and County Clerk. Three prepared voting machines were discovered and subsequently removed from County Clerk’s private office, as witnessed by a State Board of Election Commissioners election monitor. This was the only time I held myself out as a poll watcher.” 

He called attention to statements attached to the response that said his concern was with voting machines in the county clerk’s office and that he had surrendered his role as poll watcher after that issue was addressed. He said he had challenged no voters.

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