Current GOP efforts to make it harder to vote: list from 538

Following on the Texas ruling, the Texas Supreme Court has stopped Harris County (Houston) from sending applications for mail-in ballots to all voters. They did mail them to all seniors, since they automatically qualify for mail-in voting. But since we don't know who the sick or disabled people are, they'll have to ask for the applications on their own.

essentialsaltes said:

In Pennsylvania, Republicans are suing to prevent the use of drop boxes,

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Another detail from that article: "This is the first year any Pennsylvania voter can vote by mail, meaning it’s the first time doing so for many voters. That lack of familiarity can lead to mistakes such as forgetting to sign the outside envelope of the mail ballot or forgetting to first place the ballot inside the blank “secrecy envelope” before placing it in the outer mailing envelope."

The Republican win in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is why those military write-in ballots for Trump were discarded in Pennsylvania. Congrats, you played yourself.

The Associated Press reported on that decision, writing that the court's extension of the period in which ballots could be returned was a win for Democrats.

“n wins for Republicans,” the report continued, the court “rejected requests to let voters who aren’t disabled give their mail-in ballot to someone else to deliver; to require counties to let voters fix disqualifying problems with their mail-in ballots, such as not signing their return envelope; and to require counties to count mailed-in ballots that arrive without a secrecy envelope.”

Wisconsin GOP lawmakers send cease-and-desist to Madison City Clerk regarding ballot collecting event in city parks.

The state’s two most powerful Republican lawmakers sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Madison City Clerk’s Office on Friday ahead of a ballot collection event to be held in city parks Saturday, calling the effort “illegal” and warning the ballots would be challenged in court and potentially invalidated.

City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl defended the program Friday... The cease-and-desist letter does not affect the event and it will continue as planned, she said.

She noted the program involves city poll workers, who are deputized to receive ballots. Ballot harvesting involves the illegal collection of ballots by non-poll workers to be delivered to election officials or ballot boxes. The event also does not amount to early voting because ballots will not be provided to voters who come out. The poll workers will be receiving ballots from those who requested and received absentee ballots.

A review by The Washington Post of nearly 90 state and federal voting lawsuits found that judges have been broadly skeptical as Republicans use claims of voter fraud to argue against such changes, declining to endorse the GOP’s arguments or dismissing them as they examined limits on mail voting. In no case did a judge back President Trump’s view — refuted by experts — that fraud is a problem significant enough to sway a presidential election.

Some of the Democrats’ wins have been preliminary. And in many cases, judges issued split decisions, granting some of the changes sought by liberal plaintiffs and otherwise maintaining the status quo as favored by Republicans.

But The Post found that judges appointed by Republicans and Democrats alike have been dubious of GOP arguments that lowering barriers to mail voting could lead to widespread fraud.

“Do you have any evidence of any voter fraud actually existent in Montana in the last 10 to 20 years?” District Judge Dana L. Christensen, an appointee of President Barack Obama, pressed a GOP lawyer in a Missoula courtroom last week.

“No,” said the lawyer, James Bopp Jr., who is representing Republicans in a suit challenging the state’s decision to allow counties to run all-mail elections this fall. “No. But it is, with all due respect, I understand your question, but, no, it’s irrelevant.”

So far, GOP lawyers have scored several defensive wins related to mail ballots, such as maintaining North Carolina’s witness requirement and keeping in place limitations on third parties collecting and returning ballots or applications, which Republicans deride as “harvesting,” in Florida, Minnesota and Michigan.

Two other high-profile voting cases have also gone for Republicans, at least for now: In Florida, a federal appeals court sided with GOP state leaders who passed a law requiring people convicted of felonies to pay off fines before they can vote. And in Texas, Republican officials have successfully fended off efforts to make absentee voting available to those who fear exposure to the coronavirus.

But when it comes to setting the rules for the election, the results of litigation so far show that Republicans have struggled to offer proof for their claims about the risk of widespread voter fraud, according to court filings and oral arguments reviewed by The Post. In several cases, GOP lawyers cited minor episodes of alleged fraud that occurred in other states in past years, prompting rebukes from judges. And the RNC, which initially trumpeted several lawsuits against individual states, dropped its legal fight in California after the state legislature approved the Democratic governor’s plan to proactively mail ballots to voters A similar RNC case in Nevada was dismissed last week by a federal judge.

In his order, Judge James C. Mahan of the District of Nevada, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, wrote that “the alleged injuries are speculative.”

“Not only have plaintiffs failed to allege a substantial risk of voter fraud, the State of Nevada has its own mechanisms for deterring and prosecuting voter fraud,” he added.

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A federal judge in Pennsylvania has denied the Trump campaign and Republican Party's bid to make ballot dropboxes in Pennsylvania unconstitutional, in a resounding defeat for the campaign's challenges to voting policy in a key battleground state.

Bonus victory condition: [Judge] Ranjan, who was appointed to the bench by Trump,

noted that Pennsylvania's state officials and state Supreme Court settled many of questions of voting already for the November election.

"The Court finds that the election regulations put in place by the General Assembly and implemented by Defendants do not significantly burden any right to vote. They are rational. They further important state interests. They align with the Commonwealth's elaborate election-security measures. They do not run afoul of the United States Constitution. They will not otherwise be second-guessed by this Court," he wrote.

RocksInMyHead said:

I don't know if this falls precisely under the "making it harder to vote" category, but the GOP in California has been putting out fake ballot collection boxes. California does allow "ballot harvesting," but that still requires a proper chain of custody. You have to put the name of the person you're giving the ballot to and their relationship to you, as well as have them sign the envelope in a specific location. Dropping it off in a random box is not the right way to do it.

https://twitter.com/inminivanhell/status/1315417056351670273

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WOW! It seems to have the same 'official' sign on it as the one at the Baptist Church in Castaic, which is far from Orange County. This appears to be bigger than one bad apple.

President Trump’s reelection campaign has again asked the Supreme Court to block North Carolina's absentee ballot plan after unsuccessfully attempting to have it struck down through a U.S. federal appeals court.

LAS VEGAS—The final weekend of early voting here was mostly sunny with orderly lines and most residents social distancing, but Clark County Registrar of Voters Joseph Gloria saw trouble on the horizon.

Gloria, whose office is in charge of ensuring an orderly vote and an accurate count in the craziest presidential election year in memory, calls the same scene part of “a perfect storm” riddled with poll observers flouting the rules and some voters refusing to wear a mask in the middle of a deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Stoked by surging COVID-19 infections, a fast-tracked statewide absentee ballot option and presidential prevarication on the potential for voter fraud, Gloria’s usual election anxieties are now complicated by multiple lawsuits filed by Team Trump that appear to be aimed at jamming up a voting process the registrar’s team has worked months to fine tune.

Speedwell said:

I fail to see how allowing the state more time to count ballots which were postmarked on election day is an invitation to voter fraud.

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Neither have the lower courts.