Recent news
Here are the changes made to election dates and rules since our last edition, including legal decisions, executive actions, and legislation.
Roundup
Texas: On Oct. 14, Travis County District Court Judge Tim Sulak ruled against Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) order restricting the number of absentee/mail-in ballot return locations to one per county.
Sulak, a Democrat, said, "The limitation to a single drop-off location for mail ballots would likely needlessly and unreasonably increase risks of exposure to COVID-19 infections, and needlessly and unreasonably substantially burden potential voters’ constitutionally protected rights to vote, as a consequence of increased travel and delays, among other things."
Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) appealed Sulak's decision to the Third District Court of Appeals. This blocked Sulak's decision from taking effect, leaving Abbott's order in force.
Sulak's Oct. 14 ruling is the latest in a series of court actions involving Abbott's order. Most recently, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously upheld the directive, reversing a lower court's decision. For more information about these rulings, see our Oct. 12 edition.
Lawsuits
To date, we have tracked 398 lawsuits and/or court orders involving election policy issues and the COVID-19 outbreak. Click here to view the complete list of lawsuits and court orders.
Here's the latest on noteworthy litigation. Examples of noteworthy litigation include, but are not limited to, lawsuits filed by presidential campaigns and major political parties, and cases decided by state supreme courts.
Alabama: On Oct. 15, Secretary of State John Merrill (R) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block an appellate court's order lifting the state's prohibition against curbside voting.
On Sept. 30, U.S. District Court Judge Abdul Kallon, a Barack Obama (D) appointee, issued a ruling allowing for curbside voting in Alabama. On Oct. 13, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld that order. The panel included Judges Adalberto Jordan, Jill Pryor, and Barbara Lagoa. Jordan and Pryor are Obama appointees. Lagoa is a Donald Trump (R) appointee.
In their filing with the Supreme Court, Alabama officials argued, "The [lower court's order] flouts both principles this Court has repeated in recent months – first, that a State's decision 'either to keep or to make changes to election rules to address COVID-19 ordinarily should not be subject to second-guessing by an unelected federal judiciary, and second, that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election."
Merrill filed his petition with Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, the circuit justice for the Eleventh Circuit. Each justice is assigned to at least one of the thirteen circuit courts of appeals to field emergency requests. Thomas, a George H.W. Bush (R) appointee, can respond to the petition himself or refer it to the full court for consideration.
Tennessee: On Oct. 15, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected a challenge to Tennessee's verification procedures for absentee/mail-in ballots.
Tennessee law requires election administrators to verify a voter's signature on an absentee/mail-in ballot affidavit against the voter's registration record signature. If an election administrator determines that the signatures do not match, the ballot will not be counted. Election officials will notify the voter in writing of the ballot's rejection. A voter cannot fix the signature mismatch on the original ballot but can submit a new absentee/mail-in ballot or vote a provisional ballot in person.
The plaintiffs, which include the Memphis and West Tennessee AFL-CIO Central Labor Council and the Tennessee state conference of the NAACP, allege the verification procedure violates their Fourteenth Amendment rights.
On Aug. 28, Judge Eli Richardson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee rejected these arguments, finding that the plaintiffs "had failed to establish a likelihood of success on the merits or that they would suffer irreparable harm if the district court" declined to block the verification procedure. Richardson is a Trump appointee.
The Sixth Circuit panel voted 2-1 to affirm the lower court's decision. Writing for the majority, Judge Julia Gibbons, a George W. Bush (R) appointee, said, "The plaintiffs have not presented any evidence that demonstrates that members of their organizations are likely to have their ballots erroneously rejected under the current procedures. And the plaintiffs have not demonstrated that anyone whose ballot may be erroneously rejected will ultimately be unable to cast a ballot, either [by] absentee or by provisional ballot. Therefore, there is no evidence that anyone’s constitutional rights are likely to be infringed by the Tennessee procedures." Judge Chad Readler, a Trump appointee, joined Gibbons' opinion. Judge Karen Moore, a Bill Clinton (D) appointee, dissented.
Today: Absentee/mail-in ballot return deadlines
The Help Desk daily feature will answer one frequently asked question or provide a summary of key election dates and policies each day. Today we take a look at absentee/mail-in ballot return deadlines.
States may have up to two separate deadlines for the return of absentee/mail-in ballots. Voters may return these ballots either in-person or by mail. For mail returns, the deadline can be either a postmark deadline (when the request was delivered to a mail service) or a received deadline (when the request arrived at the election office). Three states (Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.) do not allow voters to return these ballots in person.
- Seven states require voters to return ballots in person by Nov. 2. The other 41 states that accept in-person returns have a deadline of Nov. 3.
- For mail returns:
- Six states have a postmark deadline of Nov. 2.
- One state has a received deadline of Nov. 2.
- Nineteen states have a postmark deadline of Nov. 3.
- Twenty-five states have a received deadline of Nov. 3.
For more information on absentee/mail-in voting in the November 2020 elections, click here.
What we’re reading today
Upcoming dates and deadlines
Here are the key deadlines for voter registration, early voting, and absentee/mail-in voting coming up in the next seven days. For coverage of all dates, deadlines, and requirements, click here.
- Voter registration deadlines:
- October 18:
- October 19:
- Alabama (in-person, mail-in received, online)
- California (mail-in postmarked, online)
- Maine (mail-in received)
- Michigan (mail-in postmarked, online)
- Pennsylvania (in-person, mail-in received, online)
- South Dakota (in-person, mail-in received)
- Wyoming (in-person, mail-in received)
- October 23:
- Nebraska (in-person)
- Utah (in-person, mail-in received, online)
- Early voting begins:
- October 16:
- October 17:
- Massachusetts
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- October 19:
- Idaho
- Florida
- Alaska
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- North Dakota
- October 20:
- October 21:
- Absentee/mail-in voting request deadline:
- October 20:
- Maryland (in-person, mail-in received, online)
- Nevada (in-person, mail-in received)
- New Mexico (in-person, mail-in received, online)
- October 21:
- Missouri (in-person, mail-in received)
- October 22:
- Indiana (in-person, mail-in received, online)
- October 23:
- Arizona (in-person, mail-in received, online)
- Idaho (in-person, mail-in received, online)
- Nebraska (in-person, mail-in received)
- Texas (mail-in received)
- Virginia (in-person, mail-in received, online)
- Absentee/mail-in voting return deadline:
And a dose of calm
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