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Legal decisions issued over the past few days significant impact voting by mail in a half-dozen states.
More court rulings in favor of a complete (if not quick) election
Sep 21 2020
This month's flurry of courthouse wins is continuing for advocates of a comprehensive and safe election. The most important decision out of six since Friday could prevent the presidential election winner from being declared until the middle of November.
Michigan absentee ballots must be counted so long as they arrive within two weeks of the election, a judge ruled Friday. If not reversed on appeal, the ruling means the tallying of potentially hundreds of thousands of votes won't be done until Nov. 17 in a state Donald Trump carried by a scant 11,000 votes last time — and with 16 electoral votes that remain a tossup again this time.
Judges also allowed easier absentee voting in the biggest county in Texas, relaxed a vote-by-mail restriction in South Carolina and tossed a lawsuit seeking to limit mail voting in Illinois. And the Postal Service agreed to destroy millions of its misleading voter mailings. The only bad news for voting rights groups came from the Supreme Court of Mississippi, which ruled people at high risk of severe Covid-19 complications don't have an automatic right to vote absentee.
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These are the latest developments:
<h3>Michigan</h3><p>Judge Cynthia Diane Stephens of the Court of Claims cited mail delays and past problems with misrouted ballot envelopes in ordering the extension. But she said it will apply only to ballots postmarked by Nov. 2. Normally, the state is one of 33 where ballots may be postmarked as late as Election Day (Nov. 3 this year) but still have to arrive by the time the polls close, and that resulted in thousands of ballots getting rejected in the August primary.</p><p>"This is a HUGE win for all Michigan voters who plan to vote by mail in November," exulted Marc Elias, the attorney who helped push the suit. It's one of the most prominent of nearly 20 he's filed on behalf of the Democratic Party this year, starting before the coronavirus pandemic, in hopes of winning easements to the rules likely to boost turnout by Democrats.</p><p>The judge also ruled in favor of the Democrats on another issue, saying party operatives and other third parties may collect and return completed absentee ballots on behalf of Michiganders — the practice pejoratively labeled "ballot harvesting" by Republicans who maintain, with only scattered evidence, that it allows for easy fraud.</p><p>Stephens rejected, however, the Democrats' bid to make the state pay for return postage on mail ballots.</p><h3>Texas</h3><p>A state appeals court endorsed a plan to mail absentee ballot applications to all 2.4 million registered voters in Harris County, which is centered on Houston and where elections are run by a Democrat.</p><p>But it put that decision on hold pending a ruling expected in the next few weeks from the state Supreme Court, where every justice is a Republican. GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton opposes the mass mailing on the grounds it could promote cheating, an argument the appeals panel rejected as "based on mere conjecture."</p><p>Getting an application would not necessarily lead to another vote cast by mail, however. The second-most-populous state is one of just five, and the only one where the presidential contest is competitive, that is maintaining its usual excuse requirements despite the Covid-19 outbreak. </p><p>While being older than 65 is an acceptable excuse, and Harris County has already sent those people application forms, younger people must claim travel or health as preventing them from voting in person — and <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/absentee-ballot-texas" target="_self">earlier court rulings</a> this year said fear of the pandemic is not, by itself, an acceptable reason. </p><p>The deadline for asking for a mail-in ballot is in four weeks, setting an effective timetable for a meaningful decision from the state's high court.</p><h3>South Carolina</h3><p>The pandemic and the need for social distancing means voters should not have to comply this fall with the usual state law making them find a witness to countersign their absentee ballot envelopes, federal Judge Michelle Childs ruled Friday.</p><p>The judge's order, in another lawsuit brought by Elias and the Democrats, said the rule would illegally suppress the vote of the disabled and Black people, who have proved more likely to be affected by the virus. As written, the law would even make people symptomatically ill with Covid-19 find a witness — and then exposing those additional people to the virus. </p><p>The state may appeal the decision. Just last week, Republicans in charge in Columbia insisted on leaving the signature requirement in place on the grounds that it guards against fraud, even as they <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/south-carolina-absentee-voting" target="_self">agreed to suspend</a> the state's usual excuse rules so that anyone in the reliably red state (albeit one with an increasingly close Senate contest) may vote by mail this year.</p><p>The leaders of the GOP majority in the General Assembly had asked Childs to leave the decision to legislators, but she said "substantive issues under the Constitution and federal law" prompted her to intervene.</p><h3>Illinois </h3><p>Federal Judge Robert Dow dismissed <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/vote-by-mail-illinois" target="_self">last month's lawsuit</a> from Republicans seeking to block the state's new law making voting easier. </p><p>The judge said there was no evidence to support the central claim: that the new rules were pushed through by the Democrats in charge in Springfield this spring in an effort to disenfranchise GOP voters by making it easier for their opponents to cheat, especially in Chicago.</p><p>"Plaintiff's allegations rest primarily on unsupported speculation and secondarily on isolated instances of voter fraud in other states and historical examples from Illinois during the prior century," the judge wrote.</p><p>The law, passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker this spring, allows election officials to send absentee ballot applications to anyone who voted in the 2018 midterm, last year's municipal elections or the primary in March. More than 1.3 million forms have been returned and maybe a million more are expected from people deciding to avoid in-person voting because of Covid-19.</p><h3>Postal Service</h3><p>The Postal Service settled a lawsuit <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/usps-colorado" target="_self">filed just 10 days ago </a>by Colorado, agreeing to destroy whatever copies haven't already been distributed of a postcard that was destined for every household in the nation. While its aim was to educate Americans about the need to plan ahead if voting by mail, some of it's advice seemed confusing or contradictory in light of the rules and requirements in many states — mainly in places, like Colorado, that are planning for almost entirely vote-by-mail elections this fall.</p><p>The USPS also agreed to allow Colorado's attorney general and secretary of state to preview any other national mailings related to the election — and the right to block any they believe would confuse the state's voters. </p><p>Last week the post office worked to stop distributing the mailing, which had already landed in about three-quarters of the state's mailboxes, after Colorado sued. But tens of million continued to arrive across the rest of the country, the latest problem for an agency — and in particular its boss, Postmaster General Louis DJoy — beset by suspicion of working with the Trump administration to undermine the mail as a vehicle for democracy this fall.</p><h3>Mississippi</h3><p>The state's reputation as one of the hardest places to vote, which has only been reinforced during the pandemic, was furthered by the latest decision from its Supreme Court.</p><p>"Having a pre-existing condition that puts a voter at a higher risk does not automatically create a temporary disability for absentee-voting purpose," the majority held in a decision that does not expand access to absentee ballots to anyone worried about the risk of contracting Covid-19.</p><p>Deeply red Mississippi is one of just five states that have held onto their strict excuse rules for voting by mail this year; 11 others have relaxed them because of the pandemic.</p><p>In July, the Legislature in fact made the rules <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/mississippi-absentee-voting" target="_self">somewhat more exacting</a>. The law used to make an absentee ballot available to those with a "temporary or permanent physical disability" who cannot vote in person without substantial hardship or risk. But, rather than allow that to be broadly interpreted during the coronavirus, legislators added language to specifically allow absentee voting by those caring for someone in, or themselves under, "a physician-imposed quarantine" because of Covid-19</p><p>Voting rights groups sued. One of their main arguments was that the state health director's guidance to avoid large indoor gatherings amounts to a doctor's statewide quarantine order. A trial court rejected that argument and the high court underscored her decision.</p>
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Inmates at Illinois' Cook County Jail cast ballots in the March primary. A county ordnance requires more access to voting in jails.
Jail presents special challenges for a half-million voters
Sep 10 2020
The vast majority of states allow those serving misdemeanor sentences in jails to vote. And the Supreme Court ruled back in 1974 that eligible voters being held in jails — those who have been arrested but not yet convicted — could not be denied their right to vote because they were incarcerated.
On any given day, the number of eligible voters locked up by cities and counties ranges from half a million to 700,000, numbers big enough to tip the outcome of close legislative or congressional contests — or even a presidential battleground state.
But in a year in which the coronavirus pandemic has made everything about elections more difficult, this particularly hard-to-reach segment of the electorate is even tougher to reach.
<p>Recently, for example, when a voting rights group sent postcards with election registration and voting information to some incarcerated voters in Arizona for a July primary, officials confiscated the mailings with little explanation, according to Dana Paikowsky, a jail voting expert at the <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/campaign-legal-center" target="_self">Campaign Legal Center</a>, which advocates for voting rights. </p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Voting while incarcerated is hard, and the turnout rate among jailed voters is already low. During a pandemic that has further cut off outside visits into jails and prisons — including, in many cases, voter registration drives — the situation has only worsened. </p><p>"Jail-based disenfranchisement is a complex system of conditions and factors and laws that make it incredibly difficult for incarcerated people to cast their ballots," Paikowsky said. "Covid-19 has exacerbated all of those problems."</p><p>Even in normal times, Paikowsky said there are a variety of hurdles incarcerated voters must overcome to cast largely absentee ballots.</p><p>Few jailed voters know they remain eligible to vote from behind bars. Neither do many officials, who Paikowsky said often don't know what obligations they have to facilitate that process. There's little oversight from the states. Nor are there many policies from jail administrators or election officials that clearly explain how to vote from the inside.</p><p>And for those jailed after their state's deadline for obtaining an absentee ballot, there may not be another way of voting. This reportedly happened to some Black Lives Matter protesters who were arrested during the wave of demonstrations early this summer, when many states were holding primaries. </p><p>"If the state doesn't provide them with an alternative means of exercising that right," Paikowsky said, "then they're just disenfranchised."</p><p>Among other solutions to combat this, jails often rely on groups such as the <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/directory/league-of-women-voters" target="_self">League of Women Voters </a>and the <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/naacp" target="_self">NAACP</a> to run voter registration drives. </p><p>"Those efforts are severely hampered if not entirely halted as a result of a pandemic," said Sean Morales-Doyle, senior counsel for democracy issues at the <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/directory/brennan-center-for-justice" target="_self">Brennan Center for Justice</a>, a voting rights group. "You can't go into a jail to register people to vote when you've got a pandemic that hits incarcerated people particularly hard."</p><p>Both Morales-Doyle and Paikowsky said the onus to make sure jailed voters can exercise their political rights is on local election and jail officials. They say polling stations should be set up inside the lockups and election officials should work with sheriff's offices, which run most jails, to get jailed people vote-by-mail ballots in time. </p><p>"The state takes responsibility for all kinds of things for them because the person is locked up," Morales-Doyle said. "They take responsibility for their health care and their meals, and all the other things that they're constitutionally entitled to. This is another one of the things that they're constitutionally entitled to."</p><p>Morales-Doyle pointed to places such as Chicago, where a Cook County ordinance mandates more access to voting in jails, as an example of how the system can improve. The County Jail set up multiple polling centers for the primary in March. Other states have taken additional measures. </p><p>To minimize the risk of Covid-19 exposure for presidential election voters, Vermont — one of only two states, with Maine, that allows prison inmates to vote — is also among the handful of states that have decided to send all registered voters a mail-in ballot this fall. And that will include incarcerated registered voters with a prison address. Emily Tredeau, an attorney for the Vermont Prisoners' Rights Office, predicted that because the ballots will be sent out with a postage-paid return envelope, prison turnout will increase this year. </p><p>But while some jurisdictions are taking steps to make voting more accessible for pre-trial detainees during the pandemic, Morales-Doyle said many counties and states still have much work to do. He notes how the pandemic has put a spotlight on voting by mail and the hurdles that come with it — especially for people who are effectively quarantined because they're ill or have been in close contact with infected people. </p><p>"That's always been the case for people in jail that they face all those obstacles and then some," Morales-Doyle said. "We should use this renewed focus to shine a light on and pay more attention to the people who are both experiencing the brunt of the pandemic from a public health perspective and the highest obstacles when it comes to casting a ballot. Those are people who are currently in custody." </p><p>After the Arizona voting postcards were confiscated, one jailed person was connected with the Campaign Legal Center, which arranged for him to get an absentee ballot. But after the confiscation, which meant he didn't have the information from the postcard about voting, he said he felt intimidated. He didn't end up voting in the July primary.</p><p>"That situation shows, in order to even get a ballot, you might have to be an agitator," Paikowsky said. "In order to be able to use that ballot, you need access to lots of information and resources. It's something that can be incredibly difficult for people who are incarcerated." </p>
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Republicans claim Illinois Gov. J.P Pritzker "snuck through" legislation that invites voter fraud.
GOP lawsuit attacks expansion of Illinois voting by mail
Aug 11 2020
Republicans in Illinois are accusing the state's Democratic governor of seeking to promote election fraud in November.
The allegation is the centerpiece of a lawsuit the Cook County GOP filed in federal court Monday against Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The Chicago Republicans contend the governor, by promoting the use of mail-in voting, is attempting to put as many ballots into play as possible in order to sway the election.
The litigation is a reversal of the normal narrative about courthouse battles over voting this year: Democrats suing GOP state governments for not doing enough to make voting easier during the coronavirus pandemic. It also amplifies President Trump's unfounded allegation that mail voting guarantees widespread election theft.
<p>The suit alleges Pritzker "snuck through" several election easements that invite widespread voter fraud, mainly by allowing ballot applications to be automatically sent to all active voters.</p><p>GOP political rights are violated by "a partisan voting scheme that is designed to harvest Democratic ballots, dilute Republican ballots, and, if the election still doesn't turn out the way he wants it, to generate enough Democratic ballots after election day to sway the result," the lawsuit says of the governor.</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>The nation's fifth most populous state is the most reliably blue piece of the Midwest's electoral map. Its 20 electoral votes are a near lock for Joe Biden, who stands to extend the Democrats' presidential winning streak in the state to eight. So the lawsuit's success would mainly improve GOP prospects in down-ballot contests, including a House race in suburban Chicago, where Republican Rep. Rodney Davis is being vigorously challenged.</p><p><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/voting-by-mail-gets-boost-in-illinois-and-minnesota" target="_self">Passed in May</a> by the solidly Democratic General Assembly and signed in June, the laws will:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Deliver vote-by-mail applications to approximately 5 million voters across the state who have cast ballots in recent elections</li><li>Expand voting hours</li><li>Allow for curbside voting</li><li>Designate Election Day a state holiday</li></ul><p>Illinois already has one of the most liberal vote-by-mail laws in the country, with no excuse needed to apply for an absentee ballot — which Republicans argue makes the new measures unnecessary. </p><p>The suit also takes issue with the deadline for mailed ballots, claiming it contributes to the potential for fraud. Ballots submitted or postmarked by midnight on Election Day will still be counted even if they arrive at election offices two weeks later. </p><p>Republicans assert that Illinois is woefully unprepared to expand its vote-by-mail system so drastically, citing the state's 2017 experience establishing automatic voter registration that was fraught with problems. The program mistakenly registered over 500 people who were not U.S. citizens as well as 4,700 ineligible 16-year-olds. </p><p>The suit says the new laws do not comport with mail ballot recommendations set by the Postal Service. <a href="https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2020/0529-usps-provides-recommendations-for-successful-2020-election-mail-season.htm" target="_blank">It recommends</a> voters mail their ballots at least one week before the due date; however, in Illinois eligible voters can still request a ballot until Oct. 29, only three business days before Election Day. </p><p>Republicans even go as far as referencing Illinois' joblessness woes, by pointing to the 120,000 cases of unemployment fraud experienced during the coronavirus pandemic as evidence the state is "one of the most inept in the Union and the public has no reason to expect a vote-by-mail system to work any more smoothly than a variety of projects Illinois has stumbled through in recent years."</p><p>The lawsuit asks the court to stop the laws from taking effect. It was filed against Pritzker, the State Board of Elections, Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough and the Chicago Board of Election commissioners on behalf of the Cook County GOP by the Liberty Justice Center, a conservative legal enterprise.</p>
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mapchart.net; Tristiaña Hinton/The Fulcrum
Can you spot the gerrymandered congressional district?
Jul 30 2020
Think you can recognize what congressional districts look like? Take this quiz to see if you can pick out which pieces were drawn on maps by legislatures and which ones are abstract doodles created by our staff.
<p><br></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><script src="https://app.credspark.com/assessments/gerrymandered-congressional-district-or-abstract-art/embed_script.js" type="text/javascript"></script><div class="credsparkQuiz" data-quiz-id="gerrymandered-congressional-district-or-abstract-art"></div></div><div></div><div><p><em>This quiz is powered by <a href="https://www.credspark.com/" target="_blank">CredSpark</a>.</em></p></div>
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