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LAS VEGAS, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A Nevada judge on Tuesday denied a motion by the Donald Trump campaign to preserve and set aside ballots as part of a lawsuit alleging election officials there ordered certain early voting locations to stay open up to two hours past closing time. The suit was filed Monday night, naming Joe P. Gloria, the Clark County registrar of voters as the defendant.
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"The registrar's actions were not random and neutral in their effect, but very much appear to have been intentionally coordinated with Democratic activists in order to skew the vote unlawfully in favor of Democratic candidates," Trump's lawyers argue in the suit.
The suit lists four polling places in the Las Vegas area that it says were kept open late in violation of the law, and where other alleged anomalies occurred. They include Cardenas Market, Deer Springs Town Center, Silverado Ranch Plaza and Las Vegas Strip.
The Trump suit filed a motion seeking an immediate order from the judge for the affected ballots from those four polling places be "set aside, sequestered, and impounded pending any legal challenges to the results of the November 8, 2016, election."
On Tuesday, however, Judge Gloria Sturman dismissed the motion because, she said, the ballots are already preserved.
"What are you saying? Why are we here? You want to preserve the poll data? That is offensive to me," Sturman told a Trump attorney Tuesday. "Why don't we wait to see if the secretary of state wants to do this?"
Sturman also expressed concern that acting in the case could also identify poll workers and make them vulnerable to harassment.
"I am not going to expose people doing their civic duty helping their fellow citizens vote, that they are taking their personal time to preserve ... to public attention, ridicule, and harassment," Sturman added, before telling the Trump lawyer, "Thank you, sit down."
Clark County spokesperson Dan Kulin echoed the judge's position.
"Trump campaign petition asks to preserve early voting records. This is required by state law and so it is something we are already doing," he said.
Nevada is one of several battleground states that may play a critical role in Tuesday's vote.
Last weekend, Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald also criticized Gloria for keeping the polls open longer so that "a certain group" of people could vote.
Nevada state law, like most, explicitly states that all citizens physically present at polling stations waiting to vote are legally permitted to do so, even if they are still waiting in line after the polls close. Trump's lawsuit claimed that people who joined the lines well after 8 p.m. were allowed to vote.
"Nothing happened that wasn't supposed to happen," Kulin told NBC News. "Voters who were in line by the scheduled closing time were allowed to vote."
