Legislative Updates
Federal Legislation: Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) has introduced a bill that would change how the country conducts elections. The Verifiable, Orderly, & Timely Election Results (VOTER) Act would create standards for various vote-by-mail systems that exist across the country and would require all eligible ballots to be counted and reported within 24 hours after polls close on Election Day, according to a press release from Scott’s office.
U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are co-sponsoring a bill to ensure fair elections. Loeffler first introduced the Securing Our Elections Act in September. It would increase criminal penalties for interfering with the election system, including illegal voting, voter intimidation or ID theft. Under the measure, the current penalty of up to five years in prison would go up to 15 years and up to a $100,000 fine. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tom Cotton (R-AR.), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Mike Braun (R-IN) also have joined as co-sponsors.
Alabama: Rep. John Rogers (D) has announced that he will be pre-filling legislation to allow for early voting. “It’s a constitutional right to have the right to vote and we should make it easier. By early voting you make it easier for folks to get to the polls and vote,” Rogers said. His Republican colleague, Rep. Danny Garrett agrees. “I think you could have a process that works that allows people an opportunity to vote and we certainly want people to vote. We want them to exercise that right, and I think we should accommodate them just like we do accommodate people in other areas of life,” Garrett said.
California: Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, chair of the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting has introduced legislation require that all active registered California voters be mailed a ballot for all future elections following the successful implementation in the 2020 General Election. “Our democracy is strongest when everyone participates,” Berman said in a prepared statement. “This year we saw historic levels of voter participation following the passage of AB 860, which required every county to send vote-by-mail ballots to all active registered voters. More than 68% of eligible Californians voted in the General Election, which was the highest turnout since at least 1960. Now that we know these changes were successful, I will introduce a bill in the new session to make permanent the key provisions of AB 860.”
Kansas: Kansas State Senator Richard Hildebrand (R-13) is working to introduce a new election fraud protection bill. According to Hildebrand, at issue is what election officials refer to as DREs, or direct-recording electronic machines, which do not give individual paper record for each vote cast. He said despite national criticism and legal action, the machines are still being used in Kansas counties. He said his bill would make the use of DREs illegal in Kansas. “The fact that DRE’s are extremely vulnerable to fraud is not a question,” explains Hilderbrand, “Experts unilaterally agree they are bad practice, but Kansas is moving way too slowly in upgrading machines. Protecting our election process is understandably of the utmost importance to Kansas voters.”
New Jersey: Sen. Robert Singer and Assemblymen Sean Kean, Edward Thomson have introduced legislation that they say is needed to prevent the confusion and election result delays caused by the governor’s executive order to conduct this year’s election primarily by mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus crisis. Unveiled on November 5, the identical bills (SCR136/ACR197) propose a constitutional amendment to provide registered voters with right to cast ballots in person at polling places on Election Day and requires that mail-in ballots must be requested by voters before they receive them in the mail.
New York: Sen. David Carlucci (D) is planning to introduce a bill that would speed-up the ballot counting process in The Empire State. The bill, set to be introduced later this week, would allow absentee ballots to be processed and counted as they arrived. “We have to address the fact that now with absentee voting being over 25% of the vote, we are in a new world and have to update how we count mail-in ballots,” said Carlucci. “The fact that we cannot call local races until weeks after Election Day is obscure and confusing to the public. Now we need a political interpreter to tell us who might have won and who has a chance.”
Oklahoma: Rep. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa has said she will introduced legislation that would give voters an opportunity to cure their mail ballots if a problem is discovered. Goodwin said voters who cast ballots in person and spoil their ballot are given an opportunity to fix it. “I think the same should be true for people doing absentee ballots,” Goodwin said. About 1% of mail-in ballots received were rejected, said Tulsa County Election Board Secretary Gwen Freeman. Tulsa County Election Board member Bruce Niemi supports a route for those who have defective mail-in ballots to correct the errors and have the ballot counted. “There are a lot of hoops to jump through in order to have a correct affidavit and identification or notarization before that ballot is counted,” he said. The state has the computer technology now to identify and notify voters who sent in defective mail-in ballots, he said.
Texas: Lawmakers began pre-filling bills for the legislative session that begins in January 2021 and before noon on the first day to pre-file, nearly 30 pieces of elections-related legislation had already been proposed in both chambers. According the Texas Tribune, mail-in voting and voter registration emerged as two key focal points in bills filed by members of both parties. There was also legislation focused on countywide voting centers, voter identification, access for voters with disabilities, straight-ticket voting and designating any day an election is held statewide, including primaries, as a state holiday. One of those bills, House Bill 25, would prohibit elections officials from automatically sending mail ballot applications to voters.
Washington: State Sen. Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale) is preparing legislation to return Washington state to in-person voting, require voter ID at the polls and invalidate most absentee ballots that arrive by mail after Election Day. “Nothing is more secure than the neighborhood voting booth, with poll workers checking to make sure every voter is entitled to cast a ballot,” Ericksen said in a statement Tuesday, Nov. 10. “Washington has gotten off lucky for a decade. But the disarray in other states this year ought to teach us that we are vulnerable, too.”
Legal Updates
Arizona: Judge Margaret Mahoney of the Maricopa County Superior Court ordered the president’s re-election campaign and Maricopa county officials to propose a joint scheduling plan by Friday morning to handle a dispute over the use of Sharpie pens to fill out ballots. Mahoney dismissed a suggestion by a lawyer for the president’s re-election campaign to postpone legal arguments in the case for more than two weeks – a timeline that a lawyer for the Arizona Democratic Party argued could delay the final vote tally for Arizona. Thomas Liddy, a lawyer for Maricopa County, asked the judge to move swiftly to restore confidence in the system. “The voters have a right to know that the allegations flying around the internet about Sharpies being dropped from black helicopters to cheat people out of their votes is fake. It’s not true but it’s really scaring people.”
Illinois: White County judge issued a temporary injunction last month that forces the White County Commissioners to pay for outside attorneys that provided guidance for the county clerk and elections board during the primary and general election cycles. A petition filed Oct. 1 in White County Circuit Court asks for a preliminary and permanent injunction against the White County Commissioners – John Heimlich, David Diener and Steve Burton – to approve, appropriate and pay the expenses of White County Clerk Laura Cosgray and the White County Elections Board already incurred, and to be incurred, “under exigent circumstances” in connection with the 2020 Primary and 2020 General elections during the COVID-19 health emergency. At issue, according to court documents obtained by the Herald Journal, is whether White County Clerk Laura Cosgray and the White County Elections Board had the authority to hire two outside law firms for services rendered during the June 5 primary election and whether the White County Commissioners should pay the bill for those services.
Michigan: A new lawsuit seeks a judge’s order blocking certification of election results from Wayne County, citing a range of allegations from Republican poll watchers and a city of Detroit election worker. The allegations include workers coaching people on how to vote, peeking at ballots to see how people voted before processing them and preventing Republican poll inspectors from being able to effectively watch the counting process. The lawsuit cites six sworn affidavits, but does not include or reference any additional evidence or proof of misconduct. David Fink, an attorney for the city of Detroit, dismissed the case as “another belated lawsuit, raising baseless allegations, trying to undermine confidence in a well-run election.” The lawsuit was formally filed Monday afternoon against the city of Detroit, Detroit Election Commission, Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey, Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett and the Wayne County Board of Canvassers. Reached Monday afternoon, Winfrey said she is not doing any media interviews. The city of Detroit, Wayne County and the Michigan Democratic Party responded to voter fraud allegations on Wednesday, Nov. 11, submitting more than 230 pages to retort the claims made in Wayne County Circuit Court by Republican poll challengers.
In a separate suit filed in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Michigan seeks a judge to stop the certification of Michigan election results that contain “fraudulent or unlawfully cast ballots.” The lawsuit relies heavily on anecdotes from the affidavits to support the claim that fraud occurred. The most common complaints cited in the affidavits relate to challengers allegedly being obstructed by or feeling intimidated by election workers at the TCF Center in Detroit, where absentee ballots cast in the city were counted. Some people say this obstruction made it difficult or impossible to observe the counting.
The Michigan Court of Appeals warned the president’s re-election campaign Monday that his appeal seeking a stop to the counting and certification of Michigan’s election results would be dismissed because of a failure to attach necessary filings. Lawyer Mark “Thor” Hearne told The Detroit News he plans to file the additional documents Monday afternoon. He had filed an appeal with the court on Friday after state Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens denied a preliminary injunction seeking to stop the counting of ballots. But Hearne’s filing lacked copies of Stephens’ order, the lower court docket or register of actions, a transcript of the lower court hearing and additional copies of a brief, according to a Monday letter from the appellate court.
New York: In New York, at least 26 lawsuits have been filed to have the courts supervise any disputes in counting many of the record-shattering 1.5 million absentee ballots returned amid the coronavirus pandemic that could decide more than a dozen congressional and state legislative races, according to The New York Post. Suits have been filed all over the state from New York City to upstate and the Hudson Valley. As is custom, the state, city or county boards of elections are listed as defendants in the suits since they count or invalidate ballots and certify the results.
North Carolina: Allen v. City of Graham was filed Nov. 2 on behalf of three people and a group called Future Alamance at the now notorious police crackdown on the Oct. 31 “I am Change” march in downtown Graham. Allen v. Graham was filed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Covington and Burling law firm representing Sylvester Allen Jr., Dejuana Bigelow, Tabatha Davis, and a group called Future Alamance. It is not focused on the organizer of the “I am Change” march Oct. 31, Drumwright, but on participants who in some cases missed their chance to register and vote on the last day of same-day registration. Other plaintiffs missed the a last chance at early voting but still had the opportunity to vote on Election Day and others just got pepper sprayed participating in a peaceful demonstration and march to the polls. The suit also names the county, city and 30 unidentified police officers and sheriff’s deputies as defendants as well as Cole and Johnson.
Pennsylvania: Bucks County Judge Gary Gilman dismissed a lawsuit filed against the county that sought to prohibit disclosure to observers watching the ballot county whose ballots were being challenged. County Commissioner Bob Harvie and County Solicitor Joseph Khan said that some observers took the information to try to alert the voters so they could then go to the polls to cast a provisional ballot. “We were successful. The case was thrown out and the county’s practices continued through the day,” County Solicitor Joseph Khan said Wednesday during the county commissioners meeting.
The U.S. Supreme Court directed Pennsylvania election offices to comply with a state ruling to segregate mail-in ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Day because of pending legal challenges from Republicans. The ruling was moot however PA Sec. of State Kathy Boockvar issued the same over one month prior to Election Day and there are no counties that are not complying.
Commonwealth Court Judge P. Kevin Brobson rejected an eleventh-hour request by Republicans to block counties from counting provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail ballots contained mistakes and were going to be disqualified. Brobson ordered those ballots be separated, but said they could be counted if they are found to be eligible through the normal process counties use to verify provisional ballots.
The president’s re-election campaign filed in the United States District Court against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and several county elections boards including Allegheny, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Northampton, and Philadelphia seeking to stop the Pennsylvania results from being certified. The lawsuit claims, “defendants, the very officials charged with ensuring the integrity of the election in Pennsylvania, have so mismanaged the election process that no one, not the voters and not President Trump’s campaign, can have any faith that their most sacred and basic rights under the United States Constitution are being protected.” The suit goes on to say the election was “shrouded in secrecy” and also charges that “Democratic-heavy counties violated the law by identifying mail-in ballots before Election Day that had defects and allowed the voter to fix it to ensure their vote counted.”
Claiming they have verified evidence of illegalities, three Centre County residents and one Montour County resident want a federal judge to invalidate the results of the presidential election in certain Pennsylvania counties. On Wednesday, they asked Judge Matthew W. Brann to consolidate their complaint with that of Donald J. Trump for President Inc. and two individuals that raises similar issues. The new complaint contends there is evidence illegal ballots were included in the vote totals to change or place in doubt the result of the presidential election in Pa. Former Vice President Joe Biden was declared the winner of the election by most major media outlets on Nov. 14. Pirkle, Dannerth, Danks and Flynn do not allege any voter fraud in their counties but cite unsubstantiated allegations in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware and Allegheny counties.
Texas: Kelly Reagan Brunner a social worker in the Mexia State Supported Living Center has been charged with 134 felony counts in an election fraud investigation. Brunner allegedly submitted voter registration applications for 67 residents without their signature or effective consent, while purporting to act as their agent. If convicted, Brunner faces up to 10 years in prison for the alleged offenses.
The Texas Supreme Court declined a request from the Travis County Republican Party to intervene in a case that alleges the county’s central counting station is violating state law by forcing poll watchers to observe ballot counting from a “media room.” The court denied the party’s petition for a writ of mandamus five to four late Sunday. In a Nov. 8 filing, Attorney General Ken Paxton had argued that poll watchers must be permitted to observe ballot counting by election officials, under the Texas Election Code. Holding watchers in a separate room “violates the Election Code,” the AG’s office wrote in the filing.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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