Electionline Weekly September-3rd-2020

Legislative Updates

New Jersey: Gov. Phil Murphy signed several Bills into Law that will help with the Voting Process this November.

A4475/S2580 – Requires County Boards of Election to establish Ballot Drop Boxes in each County at least 45 days before Election; Revises Procedures concerning Mail-in-Ballots for 2020 General Election.

A4276/S2598 – Establishes “The Ballot Cure Act” requiring Election Officials to Notify Voters within 72 hours of Receiving their Ballot, or within 48 hours of Election Day, to provide an Explanation for the Potential Rejection and an Opportunity to Repair the Defect.

A4320/S2633 – Extends Ballot Receipt and Election Certification Deadlines; Increases certain Messenger and Bearer Ballot Limits; requires certain Information to Increase Public Awareness, and use of Voting by Mail.

Ohio: The House, by a 58-33 Vote, has Approved a Bill that would Limit the Governor’s Emergency Rulemaking Powers when it comes to Elections. The Legislation states that “no public official shall cause an election to be conducted other than in the time, place, and manner prescribed by the Revised Code.” The only Exception would be in Cases of Enemy Attack. The Bill comes after Gov. Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Frank LaRose Attempted to Reschedule the March 17th Primary for June 2nd.

Pennsylvania: The House has Approved a Bill that seeks to address concerns that County and Election Officials raised about Late-Arriving, Uncounted Ballots, Election Security, timely Vote Counts, and finding Poll Workers to help Run the Election. Among the Proposed Changes to Election Law:

- Reset the Deadline for Applying for Mail-In or Absentee Ballots to 15 days before the Election.

- Allow Voters to Drop off Mail-In or Absentee Ballots at Polling Places on Election Day as well as at the County Election Office or at a Designated Location in the County Courthouse any day it is Open up through Election Day.

- Allow County Election Officials to begin Opening Ballots, Verify Voter Signatures and Start Processing Mail-In and Absentee Ballots Three days before the Election.

- Permit Poll Workers to come from Outside the County where a Polling Place is Located.

The Bill was Approved 112-90 on a near Party-line Vote. Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has said he will Veto the Legislation.

South Carolina: The Senate Unanimously Voted to Expand Absentee Voting to All Registered Voters. However, the Senate also Voted to Eliminate the State Election Commission’s Plans to Add more Drop Boxes for Collecting Ballots and keep the Absentee Ballot Witness Signature, One Measure a Judge Removed before the June Primary citing the Danger of Forcing Voters to make Contact with other People during COVID-19. The Expansion is similar to what Lawmakers did in May ahead of the June Primary when, after a Spike in COVID-19 Cases in the State, Counties decided to Consolidate Precincts. The Legislation now moves to the House which will Not Return until September 15th.

Virginia: Virginia’s General Assembly Passed Measures to broaden Access to Absentee Voting in this Fall’s Presidential Election, including the Creation of Ballot Drop Boxes that Republicans Warned would be an Invitation to Fraud. Each Measure would set aside $2 Million for Prepaid Postage on Mail-in-Ballots and instruct Registrars to allow Voters to Correct Ballot Errors that might keep an Absentee Vote from being Counted. The Bills also would Remove the Requirement for a Witness to Certify a Ballot Signature and Mandate Drop Boxes at Voting Precincts as an Alternative to putting Absentee Ballots in the Mail. Once the Senate and House of Delegates take up each other’s Version, the matter will go to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who Supports the legislation, for his Signature.

Legal Updates

Arizona: Attorney General, Mark Brnovich, is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to force Tucson to Align its Local Elections with Regular State Balloting. The Lawsuit follows a Conclusion by Brnovich in July that Cities have No Legal Right to Maintain their Own Election Dates when Turnout is Low. Tucson Officials Disagree and have Refused to Budge. So now the Attorney General hopes to Force the Issue. But it remains to be seen whether Brnovich will have any better luck in Court than he had before. At the heart of the Battle is a 2012 Law that Declared that All Elections must be Conducted in Even-Numbered Years, and only on Dates spelled out by the Legislature. But the State Court of Appeals concluded that there were No Legislative Findings to Support the Action Overriding the Decisions of Charter Cities like Tucson.

The Arizona Center For Disability Law (ACDL) has Sued Cochise County alleging that the County’s Refusal to Implement Curbside Voting is in Violation of the American With Disabilities Act. A Staff Attorney with ACDL who Represents a Client with Multiple Disabilities Impacting her Ability to Walk. In says the Client was Denied a Request to Vote Curbside in Cochise County in 2018, Violating her Rights under the ADA providing for a Reasonable Modification. “Voting on election day in person is an important right and people with disabilities should be given all the same voting options as non-disabled people.” ACDL filed the Lawsuit in federal Court in Arizona, seeking a Preliminary Injunction against the Policy.

Georgia: U.S. District Judge, Eleanor Ross, Extended the Deadline for Absentee Ballots to be Returned in Georgia, Ruling that they must be Counted if Postmarked by Election Day and Delivered up to Three Days Afterward. The Decision will likely Result in Tens of Thousands of Ballots being Counted after Nov. 3rd that would have otherwise been Rejected, enough to Swing Close Elections. The Ruling Invalidates Georgia’s Requirement that Ballots had to be Received at County Election Offices by 7 p.m. on Election Day. “Extending the deadline would ensure that voters who receive their ballots shortly before Election Day are able to mail their ballots without fear that their vote will not count,” Ross wrote in her 70-page Order.

Indiana: Judge Tanya Walton Pratt has Ruled that Secretary of State, Connie Lawson, Cannot Summarily Purge Indiana Voters from Election Rolls because of a Change in Address. Pratt Ruled Aug. 24th that the Secretary of State must Notify Voters they will be Purged Due to a Suspected Change in Address and, if they Fail to Respond, Wait Two Federal Election Cycles before Removing them. The Voting Rights Act also say they can be designed on the Rolls as Inactive.

Maine: Secretary of State, Matt Dunlap, Appealed a Court Decision that put a Republican Effort to Repeal a New Law Expanding Ranked-Choice Voting to Presidential Elections back on Maine’s November Ballot. The Timeline for Dunlap’s Challenge, which Centers around whether Petition Circulators needed to be Registered Voters at the time they were Collecting Signatures, is Not yet Clear. But his Office has begun laying out Ballots that Feature the Question and do Not Feature Ranked-Choice Voting for the Presidential Race. The State will have to Pivot Quickly if the Court takes it back off. Some may have not been Registered Voters when they Collected the Signatures but were Registered when they Submitted the Signatures.

Michigan: Indianapolis-based Public Interest Legal Foundation filed a Federal Lawsuit against Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, to get Access to Voting Records that Resulted in Felony Charges last year against the Southfield Clerk. The Complaint the seeks the Release of 193 Voter History Files that Clerk, Sherikia Hawkins, is Alleged to have Altered during the November 2018 Election. The Suit was filed in the Western District of Michigan U.S. District Court. The Lawsuit wasn’t Filed until Wednesday because the Foundation First Attempted to Gain the Records from Southfield last year, then Oakland County, then Benson’s Office. When Benson Refused to Allow a Review of the Records, the Foundation had to wait 90 days under Federal Law before Filing Suit to Allow for a Potential Reversal of Benson’s Decision.

Missouri: Iron County Circuit Judge, Kelly Parker, entered Judgment for a New Sheriff Election to take place Sept. 22nd, following a Petition filed by Iron County Sheriff, Roger Medley, Contesting the Results of the August Primary Election. Medley’s Petition filed last week alleged that several Irregularities occurred during the Election, and Requested the Court to Order the Sheriff Primary to be Rerun. After a Preliminary Hearing Parker found that there were “multiple and substantial irregularities of sufficient magnitude to cast doubt on, and place under suspicion, the validity of the primary election in Iron County for the Republican Nomination for Sheriff of Iron County, Missouri.”

New Hampshire: The Attorney General’s Office says an Absentee Ballot Application Distributed by the New Hampshire Republican Party Violates State Election Law and may Confuse Voters, and has Ordered Party Officials to Stop Mailing it immediately. “The State [Republican] Committee’s choice to publish this defective form more than two weeks prior to the September State Primary may cause voter confusion and frustration,” reads a Cease and Desist Order Issued Friday by the Department of Justice. The Order also Requires the State Republican Party to come up with a Plan for Letting the Recipients of the Mailer know that the Absentee Ballot Form it includes is Faulty.

North Carolina: Nineteen People in North Carolina face Federal Charges of Voter Fraud over Accusations that they Voted in 2016 despite Not being Citizens. Some were also Charged with other Crimes. All of them Voted in a 2016 Federal Election and One Person also Voted in 2018, according to a News Release Wednesday from U.S. Attorney, Matthew G.T. Martin, announcing the August Indictments. The Charges include: Voting by a Non-Citizen; Claim of United States Citizenship by Non-Citizen; False Statement in a Voter Registration Application; False Statement in an Immigration Document; False Statement in a Naturalization Proceeding; False Statement to a Federal Agent, and Procuring Naturalization Contrary to Law.

Ohio: The League of Women Voters of Ohio, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a National Organization for African American Trade Unions, and Community Activists; and the NAACP of Ohio, Sued Ohio Secretary of State, Frank LaRose. last week, seeking to Dismiss his Directive that Forces each County to have just One Drop Box for Absentee Ballots. Attorneys filed the Lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Cleveland that Requests an Injunction to Prevent the Move that Advocates say Violates Residents’ Constitutional Voting Rights. The Suit came a day after the Ohio Democratic Party filed a similar Suit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. The Lawsuit filed Wednesday in Federal Court in Cleveland seeks to Allow Multiple Drop Boxes in each County, as it says LaRose’s Order Unfairly Harms Voters in the State’s Largest Counties, such as Cuyahoga.

Pennsylvania: The re-election campaign for President Donald J. Trump is asking a Pittsburgh federal Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan to order the state and county election officials all across Pennsylvania to “segregate” and not open or count certain of state’s vote-by-mail ballots in the fall general election. They include mailed ballots returned through drop boxes, those missing an inner secrecy envelope or containing any marks on them, or delivered in-person by someone other than the voter, unless the voter is disabled. lawyers also want a court order to retain and make available for periodic review any and all digital images and video used to monitor drop boxes and locations, including county election offices used for return and collection of mail-in ballots.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will take up another Election-Related Lawsuit, it announced Tuesday, this one filed by the State Democratic Party amid a Partisan Fight over Fixing Glitches and Gray Areas in the Battleground State’s fledgling Mail-in-Voting Law. The Democratic Party’s Lawsuit asks the Court to:

- Order an Extension of Pennsylvania’s Election Day Deadline to Count Mailed-in-Ballots, a similar Request to One in a Lawsuit already taken up by the State Supreme Court.

- To Allow Mailed-in-Ballots to be Counted if they are Returned Without a Secrecy Envelope.

- To Allow Voters to Fix Problems with their Mail-in-Ballot before it is Discarded.

- Uphold the Requirement in State Law that Poll Watchers be Registered Voters from the County.

- To Allow the use of Drop Boxes, which Philadelphia and its heavily Populated Suburbs used in the Primary to Help Relieve the Pressure from an Avalanche of Mailed-in-Ballots, as well as Satellite Election Offices.

Briefs are Due Sept. 8th, the State Supreme Court said.

Tennessee: Sharing an Absentee Ballot Request Form can be Prosecuted as a Felony in Tennessee if the Sharer is Not an Election Commission Employee. A New Lawsuit that aims to Change the System before the November General Election calls the Restriction on Sharing the Form, which is Freely Available on the Secretary of State’s Website, a Limit to Free Speech. The New Filing joins a Pair of Cases at both the State and Federal Level aimed at Expanding Access to Voting-by-Mail during the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic as Record Numbers of Absentee Ballots were Returned in the August Primary Election. A Memphis Labor Organizer, the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP, the Equity Alliance, the Memphis A. Phillip Randolph Institute, and Voter Advocacy Organization Free Hearts, filed the Federal Lawsuit Friday in Nashville. In the Lawsuit, the Groups argue the Law “serves no purpose, unreasonably restricts how they can engage voters and “imposes an extraordinarily burdensome restraint on (their) right of free speech.”

U.S. District Judge, Eli Richardson, in Nashville, Rejected a Request for a Preliminary Injunction of a Ballot Verification Law, Ruling late last week that the Record shows the Risk of Ballot Rejection through the Verification Process is Exceedingly Low, whether it’s Proper or Erroneous. He also wrote that Voters have Other Options, including Voting In-Person Early or on Election Day. The Groups Challenging the Law have sought the Right for Voters to Fix Signature Issues before Ballots are Rejected. “Although the signature-verification requirement does represent some kind of obstacle between placing a vote and having it counted, the mere existence of such an obstacle does not mean that Plaintiffs are excluded from voting,” Richardson wrote.

Virginia: A Court has Approved an Agreement that will Ensure Virginians who have Disabilities will be Able to Safely Vote this November. The Agreement means the State will Provide Voters with Disabilities different Options for Voting, such as using Screen Reader Assistive technology, so they can Vote Privately and Independently. The State will make the Tool that Allows Print-Disabled Voters to Electronically Receive and Mark their Absentee Ballots, using Assistive Technology, Available to All Localities. The State will also Send Updated Guidance to Local Registrars and Instructions on how to make a Ballot Marking Tool Available to All Print-Disabled Voters.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker