Michigan's top court has decided not to weigh in on one of the emerging big issues of the November election: whether absentee ballots delayed in the mail should still count.
The state Supreme Court decision means that Michigan, like most of the presidential battlegrounds and 33 states altogether, will only open and tabulate envelopes that have landed at election offices by the time polls close on Election Day. As a result, the franchise may be denied to millions nationwide unless the beleaguered Postal Service is able to keep up with the coming torrent of mailed-in ballots.
Friday's decision was part of the latest flurry of legal developments over voting rights — including a lawsuit, similar to the one in Michigan, to make Indiana count late-arriving ballots, along with two fresh suits to relax absentee voting rules in Ohio and a bid to force South Carolina to make elections safer for people vulnerable to the coronavirus.
These are the details:
Michigan
The high court divided 4-3 in deciding not to reconsider a lower court decision upholding a state law, which mandates that ballots arrive by the time the polls close on Election Day in order to be counted.
The League of Women Voters had sued in May to make the state count all ballots postmarked on or before Election Day. Only 17 states count delayed ballots, sometimes only if they arrive a day late but sometimes for as long as two weeks after Election Day.
Four Republican-nominated judges voted to not take the appeal, saying it was the exclusive purview of the Legislature to change the rules. Three Democratic nominees dissented. One of them, Justice Richard Bernstein, wrote that he was "baffled and troubled" by the decision to rebuff the case. He pointed out that the Court of Appeals review resulted in three separate opinions, marking the case as a good candidate for the Supreme Court to take up.
Tuesday is primary day in Michigan and election officials already have seen a large increase in the number of absentee ballots compared to 2016. That's mainly because the state has dropped its excuse requirements in the interim, so anyone can vote remotely without explaining that preference.
President Trump is trailing in statewide polls after carrying the state's 16 electoral votes in 2016 by fewer than 11,000 votes. The League of Women Voters maintained that between 41,000 and 64,000 absentee ballots will arrive too late to be counted if the law stands.
Indiana
Common Cause Indiana and the NAACP sued to make the state count ballots postmarked by Election Day so long as they arrive within 10 days. The reliably red state now has one of the earliest deadlines: noon on Election Day, six hours before in-person voting ends.
The lawsuit was filed late Thursday in federal court in Indiana. It argues that even without the coronavirus pandemic, the noon deadline ends up disqualifying many ballots.
"Even in the best of times the Noon Election Day Receipt Deadline disenfranchises voters," the suit says, and "this is not the best of times."
The lawsuit says that in the June 2 primary, which was delayed a month because of the Covid-19 outbreak and during which the vote-by-mail excuse requirements were suspended, several thousand ballot envelopes were tossed for late arrival even though they were postmarked before election day.
Ohio
The two latest lawsuits in battleground Ohio, which has been in the electoral vote column of every Republcian who's won the White House, were filed Friday against GOP Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
In one, the Ohio Democratic Party is seeking to compel the state to allow non-paper applications for absentee ballots, an option that is widely available in fewer than a third of states. Now, the request must be sent by regular mail. The complaint, filed in state court, argues that email as well as faxed requests should be accepted as well —- and that state law already provides for that.
The other suit, brought in federal court by the League of Women Voters with help from the American Civil Liberties Union, seeks to overhaul and make uniform the system of matching signatures on absentee ballot forms with the ones on file at election offices — the main way that states weed out improper if not fraudulent requests. The suit argues there is an impermissible amount of inconsistency because the state's 88 counties have their own standards for evaluating signatures on requests and ballots
Election officials have no handwriting expertise, the suit points out, but counties are able to reject ballots or applications without notifying voters or giving them the chance for a do-over.
South Carolina
Two voters considered "high risk" if they were to contract the coronavirus asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to ease the state's election rules because of the pandemic. The suit asks the court to allow early voting, drop-box absentee returns, curbside voting, online absentee voting applications and more time for election officials to count absentee ballots in the solidly Republican state.
The reason they said they were asking the state's top court for help is that the General Assembly is not planning to reconvene until the middle of September, which the plaintiffs say is not enough time to legislate the changes they want.
"The rapidly approaching general election promises to be tumultuous and to place voters in certain high-risk cohorts, " the suit says, "in harm's way when casting the only ballot they are presently allowed to under South Carolina law: an in-person ballot on election day."
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."