WASHINGTON -- A U.S. District Court judge in Newark has scheduled a hearing for next week on charges that the Republican National Committee violated a consent decree on voter intimidation stemming from the 1981 New Jersey gubernatorial election.

Judge John Michael Vazquez ordered a hearing Nov. 2 after initially declining the Democratic National Committee's request to immediately block any "ballot security" efforts. He said the preliminary filings should be completed by Nov. 1.

The accelerated activity would allow Vazquez to issue a ruling before the Nov. 8 election, though he said the deadlines were subject to change.

In bringing the lawsuit, the Democrats cited Trump's accusation about a "rigged" election and his call for observers to fan out to areas with a large number of minority voters.

Trump also has embraced voter identification laws that federal courts have said prevent minorities from casting ballots. Republicans have defended the laws as necessary to prevent in-person fraud, a problem that has been shown to be virtually non-existent.

The Democrats charged that such actions violated the consent decree agreed to by the GOP after the state party in 1981 reportedly targeted heavily minority communities that tend to support Democratic candidates.

While the consent decree was directed at the Republican National Committee and "its agents," the Democrats contend that the limits also should be applied to Trump because his campaign is raising money jointly with the national party.

RNC spokeswoman Lindsay Walters dismissed the allegations.

"The filing is completely meritless," she said. "Just as in all prior elections in which the consent decree was in effect, the RNC strictly abides by the consent decree and does not take part directly or indirectly in any efforts to prevent or remedy vote fraud. Nor do we coordinate with the Trump campaign or any other campaign or party organization in any efforts they may make in this area. The RNC remains focused on getting out the vote."

New Jersey Democratic State Committee Chair John Currie, though, said Trump was trying to violate voters' civil rights.

"I lived through voter suppression and intimidation efforts in New Jersey, and unfortunately we already know what this means and looks like," Currie said. "Donald Trump is leading the RNC by calling for the same dirty tricks of years past to suppress votes.

Trump's insistence that the election may not be fair, including his refusal in the third presidential debate to commit to accepting the results on Election Day, is resonating with his supporters.

While 64 percent of U.S. voters in a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday said they were confident that the election would be open and fair, just 43 percent of Trump voters said the same thing. More than half, 56 percent, doubted that there would be a fair election.

Clinton supporters, on the other hand, said they were confident of a fair and open election, 88 percent to 11 percent.

In addition, registered voters, by 56 percent to 43 percent, Trump had no or little respect for U.S. democratic institutions. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, was seen as respecting those democratic institutions, 63 percent to 37 percent.

The Pew survey of 2,120 registered voters was conducted Oct. 20-26 and had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook