Free Press, with a quote from former election law prof Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State: Adding hundreds of thousands of voters, many of whom will now be able to cast their ballots by voting absentee, will overwhelm local clerks … Continue reading
Category Archives: absentee ballots
The cases have been referred for further investigation. The initial flag apparently comes from ERIC (the Electronic Registration Information Center), which is more careful than other systems at screening for false positives. … Continue reading
AP: Thousands of Ohio voters were held up or stymied in their efforts to get absentee ballots for last year’s general election because of missing or mismatched signatures on their ballot applications, an Associated Press review has found.The signature requirement … Continue reading
The new lawsuit from Voto Latino and Priorities USA raises both constitutional and Voting Rights Act claims. Read the complaint. … Continue reading
Detroit Free Press: With absentee voting skyrocketing since voters approved a ballot proposal last year allowing for its expansion, clerks across the state are worrying about counting ballots next year, when a record turnout is expected for the presidential race.Some … Continue reading
Detroit News: Local officials bracing for an influx of absentee voters are urging Michigan lawmakers to give clerks more time to process mail-in ballots and avoid logjams that could delay election night reporting results. But a top lawmaker in Michigan’s Republican-led … Continue reading
Michael Herron has written this article forthcoming in the Election Law Journal. Here is the abstract: The aftermath of the 2018 midterm election in North Carolina was marred by allegations of absentee ballot fraud in the state’s 9th Congressional District, … Continue reading
Quite a story from Yahoo News. … Continue reading
AJC: A new Georgia law that prevents absentee ballot rejections has resolved two federal lawsuits over last fall’s election.The law prohibits election officials from disqualifying absentee ballots because of a signature mismatch or a missing birth year and address. These protections for … Continue reading
From the DOJ press release: From October 2013 through November 2013, Raia instructed Dio Braxton, Matt Calicchio, Lizaida Camis, and other conspirators who worked for his campaign, to pay certain Hoboken voters $50 if those voters applied for and cast … Continue reading
Tina Rosenberg NYT column. … Continue reading
Miami New Times: An explosive, 150-page WhatsApp chat leaked to Miami New Times appears to show members of Miami-Dade County Commission District 5 candidate Alex Diaz de la Portilla’s 2018 campaign team discussing destroying or stealing absentee ballots from voters who selected … Continue reading
Hudson Reporter. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Politifact North Carolina reports. … Continue reading
From the introduction: A new election is the gravest remedy available to this State agency that has, for a century, supervised elections meant to ensure “[a]ll political power is vested in and derived from the people; all government of right … Continue reading
McConnell picks on one thing missing from H.R. 1. More on third parties collecting and returning absentee ballots, in California, here. … Continue reading
The Washington Examiner: Among the provisions Republicans may attach to the campaign finance legislation is one that would prohibit ballot harvesting, which is the practice of collecting absentee ballots and delivering them to a polling site with the intent to … Continue reading
Charlotte NPR: Earlier this week, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell spoke about the North Carolina Board of Election’s vote to hold a new election in the 9th Congressional District because absentee mail ballots were illegally harvested. McConnell spoke about that … Continue reading
You can find the 83 pages of opinions at this link. … Continue reading
WRAL editorial: It is hard to imagine where the North Carolina GOP leadership found the gall to have the Ninth Congressional District Republican Executive Committee pass a “resolution” demanding the State Board of Elections “immediately certify” Mark Harris the winner of that district’s … Continue reading
Mara Suttmann-Lea for the Monkey Cage. … Continue reading
WECT: As evidence mounts of potential election fraud in Bladen County, WECT has learned this may not be an isolated problem. WECT has just uncovered that things in Columbus County may be even worse. About a third of the absentee … Continue reading
Steve at Moritz: But the North Carolina story makes clear that it behooves states to do more to promote the security of absentee voting by mail. For starters, reform advocates must recognize that the convenience of absentee voting comes with … Continue reading
AP reports. … Continue reading
Details. … Continue reading
Release: Voting rights advocates filed a lawsuit today challenging a Pennsylvania law that makes it difficult for voters to vote by absentee ballot. The plaintiffs include nine Pennsylvania residents, all of whom applied for absentee ballots on time but received … Continue reading
Order. … Continue reading
NJ.com: Frank “Pupie” Raia, a real-estate developer and major figure in Hoboken politics for decades, was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday and accused of overseeing a cash-for-votes operation during the city’s 2013 municipal race. Prosecutors allege Raia, 67, directed an … Continue reading
Bloomberg: Allegations that Georgia’s Republican-led election officials are unfairly throwing out mailed ballots over hyper-technical errors are set to go before a federal judge two weeks before Election Day. Hundreds — perhaps thousands — of ballots are being rejected because … Continue reading
AJC: Nearly one in 10 vote-by-mail ballots have been rejected by Gwinnett County election officials, alarming voting rights groups. Gwinnett is throwing out far more absentee ballots than any other county in Georgia, according to records from the Secretary of … Continue reading
Jonathan Lai for the Philly Inquirer: Thousands of registered Pennsylvania voters who live outside the United States are being blocked from accessing absentee ballots on the state’s website in a move intended to beef up election security. Several other states, … Continue reading
Phil Keisling and Sam Reed NYT oped. … Continue reading
Tuscon.com reports. … Continue reading
Jonathan Lai in the Philly Inquirer: In 2010, election officials reported 2,162 absentee ballots were rejected for coming in too late; 2,030 were rejected in 2014. And given all the cuts endured by the postal service in recent years, election officials … Continue reading
Read the order granting a preliminary injunction and a related order. The orders relate to signature matching requirements for absentee ballots, the time to cast such ballots, and voter id requirements. … Continue reading
Philadelphia Inquirer on some absentee ballot vote buying allegations: Voice recorder in his pocket, Rodney Cotton, 51, got out of the private detectives’ car and headed for the Gilliam for Mayor headquarters on Atlantic Avenue. As the two retired state troopers … Continue reading
John Myers for the LAT: A lawsuit filed in a California appeals court on Thursday alleges the ballots of as many as 45,000 voters weren’t counted last November because of the state’s flawed rules for verifying the signatures of those … Continue reading
I’ve said for years that if Republicans were serious about combatting voter fraud, at the top of the list would be measures to stop absentee ballot fraud. Voter fraud is rare, but when it does happen, it more often involves … Continue reading
Palm Beach Post: Detectives with the State Attorney’s Office found clear-cut evidence of voter fraud in last year’s August election, with nearly two dozen people’s signatures forged on requests for absentee ballots. But prosecutors are dropping the case. Why? They can’t … Continue reading
Great NYT oped: Next term the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Wisconsin’s election maps that could lead to a precedent-setting ruling against partisan gerrymandering — the problematic process whereby incumbents draw legislative boundaries to help their fellow partisans. But … Continue reading
Interesting phenomenon; misleading headline. … Continue reading
The Dallas Morning News reports. … Continue reading
The Dallas Morning News reports. … Continue reading
“OK and if anything happens you have my power of attorney and you be sure to vote for Donald Trump for me’.” —-Woman’s instructions to her daughter in North Carolina to vote her absentee ballot for Trump if she died. … Continue reading
The latest from the Palm Beach Post on absentee ballot fraud. … Continue reading
Palm Beach Post: A Palm Beach County commissioner and a state House member clinched their seats last year by stepping into voters’ homes and helping them fill out their mail-in ballots, a Palm Beach Post investigation has found. Commissioner Mack … Continue reading
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The city’s top prosecutor said her office “uncovered important evidence” in a voter fraud investigation dealing with an August primary statehouse race that has since been reversed by voters. The case — which centered on the validity … Continue reading
A big fight involving possible absentee ballot fraud and the Rhode Island House speaker. … Continue reading
Steve Huefner: Indeed, earlier this year the American Law Institute approved a set of principles (which can be found here) for conducting early and absentee voting, one of which is akin to Arizona’s anti-harvesting law. (I serve as the Associate … Continue reading