The NYT is reporting this morning that
Nevada’s state teachers union and six Las Vegas area residents filed a lawsuit late Friday that could make it harder for many members of the state’s huge hotel workers union to vote in the hotly contested Jan. 19 Democratic caucus in Nevada.
The lawsuit challenges a decision last year to create at-large precincts inside nine Las Vegas resorts on caucus day. These precincts are critical for hotel workers to vote since the Nevada caucuses are at noon and workers cannot leave work to return to their home precincts to vote... (more under the fold)
As the article implies, it is an interesting coincidence that the lawsuit comes
two days after the 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Nevada endorsed Senator Barack Obama, a blow to Mrs. Clinton.
and that the Nevada State Education Association's deputy executive director, Debbie Cahill, was a founding member of Senator Clinton’s Nevada Women’s Leadership Council.
Is this a veiled attempt at voter supression?
Update I: More info in the Las Vegas Sun.
The lawsuit claims that those voting in at-large precincts being held on the Strip would have too much weight compared with those voting at their polling places, violating the equal protection law of the U.S. Constitution. It also claims the at-large precincts violate state statute in the way they were drawn.
State Democratic Party officials disputed the lawsuit’s contentions.