Judge allows consent decree barring RNC from ballot security activities to expire

A U.S. District Court judge on Tuesday reportedly ended a consent decree that had restricted the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) freedom to participate in certain “ballot security” measures for more than 30 years.

Politico reported that Judge John Vazquez found that the decree had expired in December and would not be prolonged past that date.

{mosads}The agreement had been reached in 1982, when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in a lawsuit accused its Republican counterpart of attempting to dissuade African-Americans from casting ballots.

“We are gratified that the judge recognized our full compliance with the consent decree and rejected the DNC’s baseless claims,” said Ryan Mahoney, the RNC communications director, as reported by Politico.

“Today’s ruling will allow the RNC to work more closely with state parties and campaigns to do what we do best, ensure that more people vote through our unmatched field program.”

Vazquez in the order said that “the DNC did not prove, by a preponderance of the evidence,” that the RNC had violated the agreement.

The ruling comes after President Trump last week disbanded a voter fraud commission that had been established to prove his unsupported claims that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election.