Election Help Desk: 11/24/20
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Tuesday's election result updates  Ballotpedia's 2020 Election Help DeskNov. 24, 2020Welcome to Ballotpedia's Election Help Desk Newsletter. We're following results for more than 9,000 elections held on Nov. 3. Today, we cover:
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Election Results ProgressClick here to read how Ballotpedia calls races. Click here for Ballotpedia's coverage scope. Ballotpedia is tracking results in 9,755 elections, including each state in the presidential election. Here's the status of these elections as of 5 p.m. on Nov. 24, subject to change as more results come in:
Presidential Election Update
Noteworthy DisputesHere's the latest on noteworthy recounts, lawsuits, and other election disputes. RecountsGeorgia: On Nov. 19, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) announced the results of Georgia's hand-count audit, which confirmed Biden's victory over Trump. The audit revealed a 0.1053 percent discrepancy in the statewide vote total, and a 0.0099 percent variation in the margin of victory, between the hand count and the initial machine count. The audit uncovered approximately 5,000 ballots that were not tallied during the initial machine count, which election officials attributed to human error. Of the newly tallied ballots, 3,032 were for Trump and 1,758 were for Biden, resulting in a net gain of 1,274 votes for Trump. On Nov. 21, the Trump campaign requested a recount. That recount will be conducted by rescanning ballots through tabulation machines, in contrast with the hand-count audit that ended Nov. 19. LawsuitsWe are tracking 50 post-election lawsuits, 20 of which directly involve at least one of the two major presidential campaigns. For complete details on all of the lawsuits we're tracking, click here. District of Columbia: On Nov. 20, the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and three Michigan residents sued Trump and his reelection campaign in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs allege that Trump and his campaign "are openly seeking to disenfranchise Black voters" by "pressuring state and local officials in Michigan not to count votes from Wayne County, Michigan (where Detroit is the county seat), and thereby disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters." The plaintiffs asked the court to bar Trump, his campaign, and anyone acting on their behalf "from continuing to exert pressure on state or local officials in Michigan, or in any other state, to disenfranchise plaintiffs or other Black voters by not certifying the results of the November 2020 election, or by appointing an unlawful slate of electors." As of Nov. 23, the case had yet to be assigned to a judge. Pennsylvania: On Nov. 21, Judge Matthew Brann of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania dismissed a lawsuit in which the Trump campaign had sought to omit from the final tally large numbers of allegedly invalid absentee and mail-in ballots. Brann, a Barack Obama (D) appointee, wrote in his opinion, "The Trump campaign and the individual plaintiffs seek to discard millions of votes legally cast by Pennsylvanians from all corners – from Green County to Pike County, and everywhere in between." Brann wrote, "This court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence." On Nov. 22, the Trump campaign appealed Brann's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, asking it to order Brann to consider the campaign's second amended complaint and issue a ruling on the merits (in his dismissal, Brann did not allow the campaign to file a second amended complaint). The Third Circuit set an expedited schedule for considering the appeal, directing the parties to submit briefs by 4 p.m. on Nov. 23. In its brief, the Trump campaign alleged that state and local election officials "mis-administered the 2020 presidential election in such a disastrous manner that they violated the Equal Protection Clause and structure guarantees of our Constitution." The campaign asked that the Third Circuit postpone the certification of election results, pending appeal. Also in Pennsylvania: On Nov. 23, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the Philadelphia County election board's decision to count 8,329 absentee and mail-in ballots that were missing handwritten names, street addresses, or dates on their accompanying return envelopes. The Trump campaign alleged these ballots were defective and invalid under state law. The election board rejected this argument, and the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas upheld that decision. The Trump campaign appealed to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, but the state supreme court took up the matter first at the request of the Philadelphia County election board. In the same ruling, the high court reversed a Commonwealth Court decision that had invalidated 2,349 Allegheny County absentee and mail-in ballots missing handwritten dates. These ballots, and the challenged ballots in Philadelphia County, were received before 8 p.m. on Election Day. Justice Christine Donohue (D) wrote the court's opinion, which Justices Max Baer (D) and Debra Todd (D) joined. Donohue said, "We conclude that the [Pennsylvania] Election Code does not require boards of elections to disqualify mail-in or absentee ballots submitted by qualified electors who signed the declaration on their ballot's outer envelope but did not handwrite their name, their address, and/or date, where no fraud or irregularity has been alleged." Justice David Wecht (D) concurred in the result of the court's decision, filing a separate opinion. Justice Kevin M. Dougherty (D) filed an opinion that concurred in part and dissented in part, which Chief Justice Thomas Saylor (R) and Justice Sallie Mundy (R) joined. Dougherty agreed with the court's judgment on ballots missing handwritten names and street addresses. However, he dissented on the matter of ballots missing handwritten dates: "[The] meaning of the terms 'date' and 'sign' – which were included by the legislature – are self-evident, they are not subject to interpretation, and the statutory language expressly requires that the elector provide them. … Accordingly, I do not view the absence of a date as a mere technical insufficiency we may overlook." Other developmentsMichigan: On Nov. 23, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers voted 3-0 to certify the state's election results. Republican Aaron Van Langevelde joined Democrats Jeannette Bradshaw and Julie Matuzak in voting to certify. Republican Norm Shinkle abstained from the vote, citing concerns over election administration issues in Detroit and elsewhere. With the statewide results certified, recounts and audits can proceed. State law provides only for post-certification recounts and audits. Presidential transition: On Nov. 23, the General Services Administration (GSA) ascertained the results of the presidential election, identifying Biden as the apparent winner and granting him access to resources and funding to aid with the transition. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy wrote in a letter, "Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts. I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official—including those who work at the White House or GSA—with regard to the substance or timing of my decision." Upcoming certification deadlinesFourteen states and the District of Columbia are scheduled to certify their election results between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1.
Twenty states have already certified their election results: Arkansas (Nov. 18), Delaware (Nov. 5), Florida (Nov. 17), Georgia (Nov. 20), Idaho (Nov. 18), Kentucky (Nov. 23), Louisiana (Nov. 10), Maine (Nov. 23), Massachusetts (Nov. 18), Michigan (Nov. 23), Mississippi (Nov. 13), North Dakota (Nov. 20), Oklahoma (Nov. 10), Pennsylvania (Nov. 23), South Carolina (Nov. 11), South Dakota (Nov. 10), Utah (Nov. 23), Vermont (Nov. 10), Virginia (originally Nov. 16; completed Nov. 18), and Wyoming (Nov. 11). And a Dose of Calm
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