You can find the order here, based on lack of irreparable harm. The same issue should soon be decided by the Pa Supreme Court. … Continue reading
Category Archives: absentee ballots
Texas Tribune: As Texas prepares for an expected deluge of mail-in votes in November, a federal judge has found that one facet of the state’s signature verification rules for those ballots is unconstitutional and must be reworked for the upcoming … Continue reading
WSJ Editorial: On election night, the electoral map might suggest a solid lead for Mr. Trump that is eroded as mail ballots are canvassed. What if Mr. Trump reprises his tweet from six days after Florida’s 2018 elections? “An honest vote count … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: As states across the country scramble to make voting safer in a pandemic, Texas is in the small minority of those requiring voters who want to cast their ballots by mail to present an excuse beyond the risk … Continue reading
That’s in an article entitled “Scoop: Kevin McCarthy Warns Trump’s War on Mail Could Screw GOP.” The idea that Trump is attacking mail-in voting to give himself an excuse if he loses to Biden in November is the most benign … Continue reading
Important deep dive by the WSJ: In a year of uncertainties, one thing seems certain: This November’s general election is shaping up to be one of the most complicated in U.S. history.States are racing to make changes to voting procedures … Continue reading
Politifact. … Continue reading
President Trump made some worrisome comments today that seemed to encourage double voting in the state of North Carolina. You can watch the short interview here. Here’s the transcript (my emphasis): (Q) 600,000 people could vote by absentee in this … Continue reading
Trip Gabriel for the NYT: In Michigan, Ms. Benson predicted that three million votes would be cast by mail this year, 60 percent of the total. She has called for changes to let election clerks process absentee ballots early — opening envelopes, … Continue reading
The stay is in effect as the court considers whether to grant emergency relief. … Continue reading
NPR: The U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general has outlined a number of ongoing concerns about the agency’s ability to manage the influx of mailed ballots for the 2020 election — separate from the recent controversial actions by the postmaster general.The … Continue reading
Here is the opinion. The court rejected other challenges to Georgia law as well, but the extension of the time for receipt of ballots is significant given how late Georgia voters can request and receive absentee ballots and given potential … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: Until now, the fight over voting by mail in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic has focused on which voters are eligible to cast an absentee ballot. Now, the battle has progressed to an argument between the state and … Continue reading
AP: The cumbersome and sometimes slow counting of an expected record number of mail-in ballots — especially in some crucial swing states — could delay results and open the door to challenges in this year’s elections.In 13 states and the … Continue reading
AP: A judge ordered an Iowa county Thursday to invalidate 50,000 requests for absentee ballots, agreeing with President Donald Trump’s campaign that its elections commissioner overstepped his authority by pre-filling them with voters’ personal information.Judge Ian Thornhill issued a temporary … Continue reading
GPB: A Georgia State Election Board investigation Thursday found that Fulton County’s absentee ballot request process failed in the run-up to the June 9 primary, leaving hundreds of voters without the ballots they requested and contributing to long lines on … Continue reading
The participatory and partisan impacts of mandatory vote-by-mail View ORCID ProfileMichael Barber1,* and View ORCID ProfileJohn B. Holbein2,* See all authors and affiliationsScience Advances 26 Aug 2020:Vol. 6, no. 35, eabc7685DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc7685 ArticleFigures & DataInfo & MetricseLetters PDF Abstract Recently, mandatory vote-by-mail has received a … Continue reading
Charles Stewart at the Monkey Cage: In an article forthcoming in the Harvard Data Science Review, I have worked to quantify how much riskier it is for someone to vote by mail than in person. Depending on the state in which a … Continue reading
Politico: Donald Trump Jr. is urging voters to cast absentee ballots in robocalls detected across the nation Wednesday — even as his father continues to rail against widespread mail-in voting.The robocalls, which reference this week’s Republican National Convention have been deployed in … Continue reading
Detroit News: A Michigan Court of Claims judge dismissed Wednesday a suit challenging Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s decision to mail absentee ballot applications to every registered voter in Michigan ahead of the August and November elections. The court in June had … Continue reading
Politico: Those partisan attacks on mail voting mirror wariness among California Republicans, according to a new poll conducted by the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.The poll affirmed that mail voting is already widespread in California: pluralities of both Republican … Continue reading
Politico: In a series of recent focus groups conducted in Philadelphia and Las Vegas by iVote — a Democratic group focused on voting rights and secretaries of state — and shared with POLITICO, Black and Latino voters said the experience of … Continue reading
Philadelphia Inquirer: Republican leaders in the Pennsylvania Senate introduced legislation Monday that would effectively prohibit the use of mail-ballot drop boxes that President Donald Trump has criticized, make it more likely that a winner in the presidential race is known soon after … Continue reading
In a thoughtful 37-page opinion, in one of the most closely watched pieces of litigation surrounding the conduct of the 2020 election, a federal court (Trump appointee Judge Nicholas Ranjan) has used Pullman abstention to decline to consider the Trump … Continue reading
NPR: An extraordinarily high number of ballots — more than 550,000 — have been rejected in this year’s presidential primaries, according to a new analysis by NPR.That’s far more than the 318,728 ballots rejected in the 2016 general election and has raised … Continue reading
Roy Greenwald and Robert Kuttner debate at The Prospect. … Continue reading
A federal district court has rejected arguments that the system violates equal protection or the 26th amendment (which was made on the grounds that older voters can vote without an excuse but others cannot). It will not issue a preliminary … Continue reading
CityBeat reports. … Continue reading
A very important and correct ruling on both due process and equal protection grounds. … Continue reading
NYT: New York State will allow most voters to cast their ballots by mail in the November general election, joining a growing list of states that have expanded mail-in voting to address the potential spread of the coronavirus at polling places.Gov. Andrew … Continue reading
The Intercept: In a motion last week, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future and the Sierra Club called on the Trump campaign to provide evidence of the existence of voter fraud, arguing that the campaign’s lawsuit was “replete with salacious allegations and dire warnings” … Continue reading
NYT: … Continue reading
The system works. … Continue reading
NJ.com: Accusing Gov. Phil Murphy of a “brazen power grab,” President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has asked a federal judge to overturn the state’s plan to send ballots to all 6.2 million registered voters this fall. … Continue reading
WaPo: At least 20 states plan to file lawsuits this week against the U.S. Postal Service and its new postmaster, Louis DeJoy, seeking to reverse service changes that have prompted widespread reports of delays and accusations of an intentional effort … Continue reading
WaPo NYT … Continue reading
WSJ: Supporters of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden are more likely than Trump supporters to say they will vote by mail and are more likely to trust the accuracy of November’s ballot count, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll … Continue reading
WaPo:House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called House lawmakers back Sunday to try to prevent Postal Service changes that Democrats fear could make it harder for millions of Americans to cast mail ballots in November. Members will be expected to return … Continue reading
WaPo: President Trump’s unprecedented attacks on the U.S. Postal Service amid widespread mail delays across the country are shaking voters’ faith that their ballots will be counted, prompting a rush among federal, state and local officials to protect the integrity … Continue reading
AP: Although widely practiced and rarely found to be abused, the rule permitting a third party to collect and return multiple ballots remains a source of partisan dispute. Those fights are likely to continue up to Election Day as states … Continue reading
WaPo: Anticipating an avalanche of absentee ballots, the U.S. Postal Service recently sent detailed letters to 46 states and D.C. warning that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be … Continue reading
WaPo: “The Postal Service will have the funding that it needs,” McCarthy said in an interview on CNBC. “We will make sure of that. We want to make sure we have an accurate election. I think any Republican that gets … Continue reading
WaPo editorial: As is often the case with Mr. Trump, his narrative is not only false but also self-contradictory and convoluted. Mail-in voting is not riddled with opportunities for fraud; it has been carried out honestly in several states for … Continue reading
Pam Fessler for NPR. … Continue reading
Philadelphia Inquirer: The U.S. Postal Service has warned Pennsylvania that some mail ballots might not be delivered on time because the state’s deadlines are too tight for its “delivery standards,” prompting election officials to ask the state Supreme Court to extend the … Continue reading
CNN: A federal judge in Pennsylvania told the Trump campaign and the Republican Party that they must produce evidence they have of vote-by-mail fraud in the state by Friday.The judge’s order, in a high-profile case about vote-by-mail in the battleground … Continue reading
Rhode Island loosened its witness and notary requirements for voting by mail as part of a consent decree in response to a lawsuit against the requirements during the pandemic. The RNC objected. Today the Supreme Court, over the dissents of … Continue reading
More unsubstantiated rhetoric from the President (starting at the 10 minute mark). Christina Wilkie: Trump on the Post Office: "They don't have the money to do the mail in voting. Are they gonna do it even if they don't have … Continue reading
FOX13 reports. … Continue reading