Five members of a far-right election activist group called United Sovereign Americans made an unexpected appearance at Monday night’s City Council meeting. In an orchestrated move, the speakers, none of whom live in Piedmont, took turns using their three minutes of public comment time to claim they had evidence of “serious issues” and “massive inaccuracies” in the 2022 election and asked the council to sign on to a raft of provisions for the November 2024 elections that ranged from proof of citizenship to vote, handmarked ballots, to publicly verifiable voter rolls.
City Councilmembers do not respond to topics brought up during general public comment and had no reaction to the group’s claims.
The speakers on Monday night are part of a larger movement to undermine election integrity in advance of the November 2024 elections. United Sovereign Americans is led by Harry Haury who helped push former President Trump’s baseless challenges to the 2020 election, according to a report by Democracy Docket on May 29. The group’s co-founder, Maryly Hornik, is actively working to file lawsuits in various states hoping that one will reach the Supreme Court and disrupt the proceedings of the 2024 election.
So far, efforts by United Sovereign Americans (not to be confused with the “sovereign citizen” movement) to gum up the courts with frivolous election integrity lawsuits have been struck down.
On May 1 The LA Times reported on the group’s plan to sue California to block certification of the 2024 election results unless the state can prove that ballots were cast only by people eligible to vote.
United Sovereign Americans is part of a cottage industry of far-right election deniers that has sown disinformation since Trump lost his reelection bid. The group aims to scrutinize elections with a legal strategy that can “throw massive amounts of sand in their gears,” Hornik said during a February presentation in Orange County.
“Inside the far-right plan to use civil rights law to disrupt the 2024 election”, Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2024:
On June 24 The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the lawsuit the group filed against the state.
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, is “a frivolous action alleging, without any supporting facts or viable legal theories, a panoply of conspiracy claims advanced by litigants who have repeatedly filed baseless actions rejected by the courts,” a state department spokesperson said. The spokesperson said that the department would respond to the suit “accordingly.”
Two of Donald Trump’s former lawyers have filed a lawsuit in Pa. alleging widespread election fraud, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 24, 2024
According to the group’s website, they are prepared to file in nine more states, and are preparing “evidence” in twelve additional states. “We seek a Supreme Court ruling before the 2024 election,” the site says.