You can find the 83 pages of opinions at this link. … Continue reading
Category Archives: absentee ballots
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
You can find the opinions (including two dissents) at this link. Aside from the merits of this decision (which I discussed in this post), there is a whole lot going on in this opinion about proper application of the Purcell … Continue reading
Philly.com: Days before the Pennsylvania deadline to return completed absentee ballots, hundreds of voters in Montgomery County are complaining that they have not yet received their absentee ballots in the mail. Democrats and Republicans have expressed concern about the issue, … Continue reading
On October 30 I wrote the following post: Arizona passed a law limiting who is allowed to collect a completed absentee ballot from voters (so called “ballot harvesting”). Democrats and others filed suit claiming that the law was unconstitutional and … Continue reading
This is the one that might go en banc: 10/31/2016 Supplemental Brief – Republican Party 10/31/2016 Supplemental Brief – Plaintiffs-Appellants 10/31/2016 Supplemental Brief – Arizona-Appellees … Continue reading
The Orlando Sentinel reports. … Continue reading
Arizona passed a law limiting who is allowed to collect a completed absentee ballot from voters (so called “ballot harvesting”). Democrats and others filed suit claiming that the law was unconstitutional and a Voting Rights Act violation. A divided … Continue reading
In the fight over the constitutionality of bans on ballot selfies, I’m having a definite sense of deja vu. Back in 2008, I noted that Ben and Jerry’s, in an act of civic virtue, promised free Ice Cream on election … Continue reading
You can find the petition here. From the petition: The Sixth Circuit’s decision left in place only the prohibition on requiring full and accurate completion of two fields (address and birthdate) on the absentee ID envelope. It disregarded the identical issues … Continue reading
Ariane de Vogue for CNN: Arizona Democrats will ask a federal appeals court on Monday to put on hold a state law that criminalizes the practice of ballot collection, arguing that the law could disenfranchise thousands of voters — particularly … Continue reading
Jerusalem Post: Several US citizens in Israel complained that get-out-the-vote organization iVoteIsrael did not mail in their ballots ahead of deadline. Absentee ballot requests must be postmarked by Friday at the latest in order to be accepted in New York, … Continue reading
Press release about another Wisconsin election issue to watch closely: Today, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and the Fair Elections Legal Network submitted a letter to the Wisconsin Elections Commission requesting they take swift action so thousands of … Continue reading
Little noticed Scott Walker change leading to disenfranchised voters. Patrick Marley: Thousands of mailed absentee ballots could be thrown out because witnesses for the voters did not provide their full addresses. With only a fraction of absentee ballots mailed in, … Continue reading
Politico: Democrats are suing Florida’s top election official in federal court to stop the practice of election officials tossing vote by mail ballots if the signature on the ballot envelope does not match the one on file. The lawsuit was … Continue reading
Interesting turn of tables at CBS Austin, with Democrat raising voter fraud concerns: “Voting by mail is extremely important,” said Bill Maxey with the Texas Democratic Party. Mail in ballots are meant to help senior citizens, people with disabilities and … Continue reading
Over an impassioned dissent recounting the disparate racial effects of its decision, a 6th Circuit panel has voted 2-1 to mostly reject a district court order rejecting some Ohio voting rules which make it harder for voters voting absentee or with … Continue reading
Important story from OH: In an online ad, a smiling Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted holds up a letter with his name in large print and the promise, “Your absentee ballot request form is in the mail.” But for … Continue reading
A ChapinBlog. … Continue reading
Steve Hutkins has a very interesting post on the Voting by Mail blog. … Continue reading
Doug Chapin: Regular readers of this blog will remember that the last year has seen a sharp uptick in stories about how issues with the U.S. Postal Service have begun to affect states’ and localities’ management of vote by mail … Continue reading