GOP Sues to Block Hundreds of Ballots in Key States
This story initially appeared in Widespread Goals on Nov. 7, 2022. It’s shared right here below a Artistic Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Nationwide and state-level Republicans are engaged in a coordinated authorized effort to disqualify hundreds of absentee and mail-in ballots in key battleground states forward of Election Day, a mass voter suppression marketing campaign that—if profitable—might swing the outcomes of shut races.
In states akin to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, right-wing organizations and Republican teams animated by former President Donald Trump’s “Huge Lie” have filed lawsuits in search of to toss ballots on technical grounds, doubtlessly disenfranchising hundreds of voters for failing to place a date on the outer envelope of a poll or different small errors.
Final week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket sided with GOP teams in ruling that mail-in and absentee ballots missing an accurate date on the outer envelope can’t be counted.
Moreover, Republicans in Pennsylvania sued in an unsuccessful try to dam counties from notifying voters about technical errors on their ballots.
Final week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court docket sided with GOP teams in ruling that mail-in and absentee ballots missing an accurate date on the outer envelope can’t be counted. Voting rights organizations are preventing again, and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) mentioned in a assertion Sunday that “no voter needs to be disenfranchised just because they made a minor error in filling out their poll.”
“This was not a controversial idea in our nation or our commonwealth till lately, with the rise of the Huge Lie and the efforts to unfold mis- and disinformation within the days main as much as the overall election,” Wolf added. “I urge counties to proceed to make sure that each vote counts.”
In Georgia, dwelling to a razor-close US Senate race that would resolve management of the higher chamber, right-wingers have challenged the eligibility of tens of hundreds of particular person voters, making use of a GOP-crafted regulation permitting state residents to file an limitless variety of challenges.
Republican teams in a number of states—together with Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada—have additionally filed lawsuits geared toward requiring the appointment of extra Republican ballot staff.
“They’re searching for each benefit they’ll get, and so they’ve calculated that it is a approach that they’ll win extra seats,” Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for the democracy watchdog group Widespread Trigger, advised The Washington Submit, which reported Monday that “the potential for chaos is very excessive in Pennsylvania, the place the authorized struggle is ongoing and will affect or postpone the result in a number of the state’s tightest races.”
Albert went on to notice that “analysis has proven that absentee ballots usually tend to be discarded if they’re voted by younger folks and other people of colour, which aren’t usually seen because the Republican base.”
Greater than 40 million ballots have been solid to this point forward of Election Day, however Republican candidates and former President Donald Trump have baselessly sowed doubt about mail-in voting and urged their supporters to solid their ballots in particular person on Nov. 8.
“If sufficient voters are dissuaded from casting ballots early,” the Related Press lately famous, “it might result in lengthy traces on Election Day and would push again processing of these late-arriving mailed ballots. These ballots seemingly wouldn’t get counted till the following day or later.”
Authorized fights might delay poll counting even additional, which means it might take weeks to find out the ultimate election final result in each state.
Citing knowledge from Democracy Docket, Bloomberg reported Monday that “extra lawsuits have been filed this 12 months than in all of 2020 by Democrats and Republicans difficult every part from who can vote to the place ballots are collected and monitored.”
“Thus far, not less than 157 fits have been filed by partisans, and extra are seemingly after Election Day,” the outlet famous. “In 2020, there have been about 150, together with dozens of failed makes an attempt by Republicans to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.”
Whereas voting rights teams have filed lawsuits designed to protect the franchise and develop poll entry, Republican authorized challenges intention to do the other within the title of “election integrity.”
“This isn’t about stopping fraud,” Clifford Levine, a Pittsburgh-based election lawyer for Democrats, advised the Submit. “It’s about discounting mail ballots. There’s simply no query.”