Judge permits email for NC trial subpoena of election integrity activist Mitchell
A federal judge will allow left-of-center groups to use email to serve a trial subpoena for election integrity activist Cleta Mitchell. The judge denied the groups’ request to compel Mitchell’s appearance at a trial scheduled later this month in Winston-Salem.
Mitchell had urged US District Judge Thomas Schroeder to permit her to avoid appearing and testifying in the trial over a challenged 2023 state law linked to same-day voter registration, or SDR.
“As an initial matter, the court reaffirms that Mitchell’s address appears well within the 100-mile geographic limit of this courthouse, permitting the issuance of a trial subpoena,” Schroeder wrote in an order issued Thursday. “And although ‘[s]erving a subpoena requires delivering a copy to the named person,’ many courts have permitted alternative means of service of a subpoena where, as here, a party has diligently attempted to effectuate personal service and the alternative means is likely to reasonably ensure actual receipt of the subpoena.”
“Here, the record reflects that Mitchell is taking affirmative steps to avoid service,” Schroeder added. “Thus, the court finds that Plaintiffs may effectuate service on Mitchell so long as they provide her with the subpoena by both email and priority mail.
https://www.carolinajournal.com/judge-permits-email-for-nc-trial-subpoena-of-election-integrity-activist-mitchell/
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