Detroit News: State Court of Claims Judge Christopher Murray has ruled invalid Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s guidance issued to Michigan clerks in early October that instructed them to presume the accuracy of absentee ballot signatures.Because Benson did not go through the proper … Continue reading
Category Archives: absentee ballots
CNN: Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed into law a controversial bill aimed at limiting voting and making it harder for voters to return absentee ballots, her office announced Monday.The legislation, which passed both Republican-controlled chambers of the state legislature last … Continue reading
CNN: Georgia Republican lawmakers are pushing to clamp down on voting rights Monday, potentially passing a sweeping election bill that among other things would repeal no-excuse absentee voting.Under SB 241, voters would need to be 65 years old or older, absent … Continue reading
NBC New York: Two city council members in Paterson have been indicted for allegedly interfering with a special election last year, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced Wednesday, in a case cited by then-President Donald Trump in his unsuccessful lawsuit to … Continue reading
Enrijeta Shino, Mara Suttmann-Lea, and Daniel A. Smith in Political Research Quarterly: Because of the COVID-19 threat to in-person voting in the November 2020 election, state and local election officials have pivoted to mail-in voting as a potential solution. This method of … Continue reading
538: It was the nightmare scenario for the 2020 election: With so many more people than usual casting absentee ballots, observers feared that a significant share of ballots would be rejected for not following proper procedure. One study, for instance, showed that first-time mail voters, who are less … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer: Federal prosecutors in Harrisburg announced Friday they had found “insufficient evidence” of a crime in an election investigation that President Donald Trump and his allies had repeatedly touted as a sign of vote-rigging in Pennsylvania.The case, involving nine military … Continue reading
AJC: Voting was never easier in Georgia than in November’s presidential election. But it might not last.Republican legislators plan to crack down on voting access after record turnout helped Democrat Joe Biden win Georgia, flipping the state after 24 years … Continue reading
WSB-TV: Channel 2 Action News has learned that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has finished the signature audit in Cobb County over the November election.Earlier in the month, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office had investigated credible allegations that … Continue reading
The Guardian/VoteBeat: Americans shattered records for voting by mail in many states in the 2020 presidential election, a phenomenon that tested existing election laws, new pandemic-related regulations, postal service capacity, voter education efforts and voters’ own resolve.Some states had more wiggle room … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: More Wisconsin voters were allowed to vote absentee without showing photo identification in counties Donald Trump won than in counties that backed Joe Biden, a new analysis shows…A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel review shows 123,357 voters in the 58 … Continue reading
This is typical; an isolated, stupid criminal act, not a vast conspiracy to change election results. “In his political frustration, he chose to do something stupid,” [the man’s lawyer said]. “And for that he is very sorry.” … Continue reading
AP: Georgia’s secretary of state on Monday announced an audit of signatures on absentee ballot envelopes in one county, but the outcome of the presidential race in the state will not change as a result of the audit.“Now that the … Continue reading
Via Bob Barnes, comes news that Justice Alito had moved the date for the response to Rep. Kelly’s request for emergency relief from Dec. 9 to Dec. 8. I had noted in an earlier post that Justice Alito had initially … Continue reading
NBC LX: US Postal Service workers likely delivered more than 99.9% of the nation’s mail ballots in-time to be counted this year, despite record participation and unprecedented pandemic-related challenges. However, it also appears the USPS disenfranchised tens of thousands of … Continue reading
You can find the Court’s order, a concurring opinion, and two dissenting opinions, at this link. The court’s three liberals were joined by conservative Justice Hagedorn in holding that the exclusive remedy for an election contest is to start in … Continue reading
Fox News reports an emergency motion will be filed with SCOTUS today. My earlier coverage of this lawsuit is here. … Continue reading
Must-read: Joe Biden’s lead in the presidential election results in Pennsylvania has now surpassed 81,000 votes, far exceeding Donald Trump’s 44,000-vote victory margin there four years ago. Yet the Trump campaign continues to claim in court huge but incalculable levels … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Republicans filed a new lawsuit in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and it is a window into the kind of post-election maneuvering that we could see both legally and politically should the election … Continue reading
Read the brief, asking for relief tonight, before Election Day, but limited: “Plaintiffs respectfully requests that this Court reverse the order below which found a lack of standing by Plaintiffs to challenge drive-thru voting on Election Day, and to issue … Continue reading
You can find the order in two parts. The reasoning was primarily about lack of standing and laches in bringing suit, something I anticipated would play a great role in this case: defendants knew this voting was going on for … Continue reading
NYT: With absentee ballots flooding election offices nationwide, the officials processing them are tentatively reporting some surprising news: The share of ballots being rejected because of flawed signatures and other errors appears lower — sometimes much lower — than in … Continue reading
Brief here. … Continue reading
Mark Stern flagged this new lawsuit filed in federal court which seeks to throw out over 100,000 ballots cast by Harris County, Texas voters who voted using drive-thru voting in Texas. There was an earlier lawsuit in state court seeking … Continue reading
AP: Simon added that the state will not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, though there might be cause for litigation later. He noted that while there is currently no court order that invalidates ballots arriving after Nov. 3, his … Continue reading
WaPo: Over the past five days, the on-time rate for ballots in 17 postal districts representing 10 battleground states and 151 electoral votes was 89.1 percent — 5.9 percentage points lower than the national average. By that measure, more than … Continue reading
It is hard to know where to start with this opinion. The majority suggests that a consent decree extending the deadline for absentee ballots in Minnesota, entered into by the Secretary of State and plaintiffs and approved by a state … Continue reading
As ELB readers well know, the Pennsylvania GOP has gone back to the Supreme Court seeking to reverse a state supreme court order which extended the deadline for receipt of absentee ballots from 8 pm on Election day until 5 … Continue reading
Politico: A federal judge on Tuesday night ordered the U.S. Postal Service to reverse limitations on mail collection imposed by Trump-backed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, giving the agency until Wednesday morning to inform workers of the court’s changes as more mail-in … Continue reading
Detroit News reports. … Continue reading
Brennan Center resource about what happens when a voter requests a mail ballot and then decides to vote in person, maybe because the mail ballot never arrived, maybe for other reasons. The piece covers the precautions election officials should take … Continue reading
Release: South Carolina election officials must count absentee ballots that election officials had been planning on rejecting due to an alleged mismatched signature, ensuring voters will not be disenfranchised for this reason in the upcoming November election, a South Carolina district court ruled today. United States District Court Judge Richard Mark Gergel … Continue reading
Helpful new report from the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections project. … Continue reading
NYT: They’re well-organized, they’re well-funded, and they have a message: Return your absentee ballot, but don’t use the mail.The Wisconsin Democratic Party and its supporters had been on a mail-voting education crusade since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, advising … Continue reading
On a 5-3 party line vote, the Supreme Court rejected Democrats’ and voting rights groups attempts to reverse the 7th Circuit putting the brakes on a district court order that would have extended the deadline for receipt of absentee ballots … Continue reading
NYT Mag on the record-setting absentee ballot printing required for our pandemic election. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
The Pennsylvania GOP has gone back to the U.S. Supreme Court and the state supreme court in an effort to renew its objection to the counting of mail-in ballots that arrive after 8 pm on Election night (as set forth … Continue reading
ProPublica: Gerry Cohen had already voted, dropping off his state-issued ballot at his local post office, by the time the unsolicited mail ballot applications started showing up at his house in early September. The first one or two didn’t bother … Continue reading
Herron & Smith: Tens of millions of Americans have already cast their ballots for the 2020 election by mail, building on a historic shift in voting methods that started with primary elections held during the COVID-19 pandemic.Mail-in ballots, however, aren’t automatically accepted … Continue reading
Cleveland.com: A legal fight to add more drop boxes in Ohio counties before Election Day ended Thursday, as voting-rights’ advocates dismissed their federal lawsuit against Secretary of State Frank LaRose.The NAACP of Ohio, the League of Women Voters and the … Continue reading
Amy Howe for SCOTUSBlog: Two days after three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit urged them to “take this case up to the Supreme Court immediately,” the Trump campaign and North Carolina Republicans did exactly … Continue reading
Jasper Scherer: News: The Texas Supreme Court has denied @TexasGOP and @HarrisCountyRP's requests for writs of mandamus to block drive-thru voting in Harris County: https://t.co/tn7XtNWUn1 #txlege— Jasper Scherer (@jaspscherer) October 22, 2020 Dissent. … Continue reading
VoteBeat: A new federal lawsuit seeks to block Pennsylvania officials from counting mail-in and absentee ballots received within three days after Election Day, an extension approved by the state’s highest court and recently allowed to stand by the U.S. Supreme … Continue reading
AP: A split Iowa Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a new Republican-backed law that could bar county elections commissioners from mailing absentee ballots to thousands of people who omitted information on their applications.The 4-3 ruling means that voters who want … Continue reading
AP: North Carolina can accept absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day for more than a week afterward, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to block an extension for accepting the ballots that … Continue reading
New Josh Douglas at CNN. … Continue reading
News & Observer: Voters whose absentee ballots have problems with their envelopes can now expect contact from board of elections offices in order to fix their ballots by Election Day. And less than 24 hours after North Carolina added new guidelines … Continue reading
You can find the opinion by Judge Smith (along with a concurrence by Judge Higgenbotham at this link. This case is a nice illustration of the dangers of bringing these suits seeking federal court orders easing voting during a pandemic. … Continue reading
South Florida Sun Sentinel: Teams of lawyers for President Donald Trump and Joe Biden got a rare look Friday at Broward voter signatures, at an event staged to clear up Republicans’ questions about election accuracy.Lawyers for Trump’s presidential campaign had … Continue reading