CNN
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After mail-in and absentee voting reached new ranges within the 2020 election through the Covid-19 pandemic, a wave of lawsuits over the favored vote-casting strategies this yr is laying the groundwork for potential challenges to the end result of the November presidential election.
Key swing states like North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Michigan are nonetheless experiencing a excessive quantity of mail-in and absentee voting. That has prompted a number of lawsuits in battleground states the place Republicans are suing to problem every thing from whether or not mail-in poll envelopes are correctly sealed as to whether they’re postmarked accurately.
Democrats, for his or her half, have embraced mail-in and absentee balloting, and are waging their very own authorized fights to make sure these votes are counted. Democrats championed access to the sort of voting in 2020 to ease issues of residents who felt unsafe going to polling websites in-person through the pandemic, and it’s nonetheless a significant focus of their get-out-the-vote efforts.
Republicans, alternatively, have been extra skeptical. Former President Donald Trump has given blended indicators on the marketing campaign path. After his 2020 loss, he has railed in opposition to mail-in voting, saying this summer season it “isn’t working, it’s corrupt.” However he additionally emphasizes that each vote issues, together with early voting and absentee ballots.
“We want every one in all you to make a plan to vote early and vote absentee. Do no matter you need,” Trump mentioned at a rally final month in Erie, Pennsylvania.
With absentee and mail-in voting already underway in a number of states, and the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as shut as ever, the end result of litigation over these ballots may assist determine the election.
“We’re at a stage now the place voting is already occurring,” Paul Cox, common counsel for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, advised CNN in an interview. “We’re aware that in shut elections, there’s at all times going to be the temptation or the curiosity of 1 celebration or one other to problem the outcomes.”
In North Carolina, state and nationwide Republican Social gathering associates sued the North Carolina State Board of Elections in September in an try to invalidate absentee ballots that aren’t correctly sealed of their envelopes.
Beginning on October 1, North Carolina counties started qualifying their absentee ballots. Each Tuesday, county election officers convene to course of absentee ballots. The conferences are open to the general public.
In Wake County, North Carolina, the county Board of Elections is a bipartisan group of 5 members: two Democrats, two Republicans and one chair appointed by the governor. The board members take turns rigorously analyzing every poll to ensure it’s signed and dated correctly, the envelope is sealed accurately, and to seek for another flaw that will disqualify the poll.
“Generally there’s lacking witness data, or lacking notary data, or the voter didn’t signal. So, these are issues that we catch,” board member Greg Flynn mentioned after their first assembly for this election.
Within the 2020 election, absentee voting appeared to favor Joe Biden in North Carolina, as greater than 260,000 extra Democrats requested absentee ballots in comparison with Republicans, although he didn’t win the state. There may be at the moment no clear frontrunner between Harris and Trump in the important thing state.
Cox famous that in North Carolina, state legislation permits election staff to start getting ready for Election Day early. That permits them to start out the vote counting early on “so we don’t have every thing crushing in on the final second.”
In Pennsylvania, the place the presidential race is also tight and may very well be contested, there are a number of ongoing lawsuits concerning mail-in ballots and absentee ballots.
The Republican Nationwide Committee and Republican Social gathering of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit to the state’s Supreme Courtroom, searching for to finish the mail-in poll “notice-and-cure” procedures. These permit voters in some counties to repair points discovered on their poll, similar to a mistaken date or lacking signature on the envelope, in order that they will nonetheless be counted.
In a separate case, Democrats sued to strike down a state legislation that disqualifies a mail-in poll if the envelope is lacking the date or has the wrong date listed.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Courtroom declined to listen to each instances over the weekend. However the RNC may deliver instances after the election coping with comparable points.
Some state officers try to deal with any issues earlier than a poll is forged. In Pennsylvania, officers have created academic movies for voters in regards to the mail-in and absentee poll course of with step-by-step directions to make sure fewer ballots get disqualified.
In Nevada, an attraction earlier than the ninth US Circuit Courtroom of Appeals that was introduced by the RNC is difficult Nevada’s Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar over postmarked receipts on mail-in ballots. Nevada state legislation permits ballots to be counted if they’re obtained as much as 4 enterprise days previous Election Day.
The RNC argues that Nevada legislation is detrimental to Republican candidates as a result of, Republicans contend, Democratic candidates usually tend to prevail with mail-in ballots counted after Election Day.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson can also be dealing with a lawsuit from the RNC, alleging the state has not given full steering on how absentee ballots ought to be verified, significantly on the subject of verifying voter signatures.
“Regardless of this clear statutory framework, it seems that native clerks is probably not complying with the requirement to mark absent voter poll envelopes with a press release that the voter’s signature has been verified,” the grievance mentioned.
In a separate case, Republicans challenged steering from Benson saying that mail ballots that aren’t matched with their corresponding envelope ought to be famous as “challenged,” with choices for curing, as an alternative of “rejected” outright. Benson’s workplace says this has been the steering within the state since 1996 and has been issued by Republican and Democratic officers.
A judge recently ordered Benson to replace the steering to make it clear that election staff “should” – not “ought to” – confirm that the quantity on the poll matches the quantity on the envelope.
Whatever the RNC submitting authorized challenges in Michigan to disqualify absentee ballots, the Chairman of the Michigan Republican Social gathering, Pete Hoekstra, on Monday posted a photo of him voting via an absentee ballot on X.
CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.