Electionline Weekly 12-1-2022

Legislative Updates

Federal Legislation: The House Oversight and Reform Committee advanced a measure on November 17 to make it easier to track mail-in ballots for federal elections. The Vote by Mail Tracking Act requires that all mailed ballots include a U.S. Postal Service barcode that enables tracking of each individual ballot, as well as meeting other requirements for envelope design and bear an official election mail logo. “I can tell you that during the past election and in 2020 we got hundreds of phone calls from people trying to track their ballots, they wanted to make sure their ballots were cast, and recorded,” said oversight committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York). “Ensuring Election Officials and voters have the resources to track the status of their ballots would create even more peace of mind and confidence and further protect the sanctity of our elections,” she said. The bill had bipartisan support, though some Republicans on the panel were skeptical about its effectiveness.

Boston, Massachusetts: Boston City Council is set to weigh legislation that, if approved, would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections for mayor, City Council and city-specific ballot questions. The measure comes before the council as the issue of lowered voting age gains national steam, mostly through the efforts of progressive Democrats. The council, which has become increasingly left-leaning in recent years, is likely to pass the measure this week. But even if the council passes the measure, it has to also be approved at higher levels of government before taking effect. Back Bay Councilor Kenzie Bok is one of the local measure’s six co-sponsors. She said the proposal is meant to expand suffrage and address voter apathy. At 18, many young adults uproot their lives and move to unfamiliar communities. Allowing them to vote earlier, she said, could encourage them to become more civically engaged. The measure would need approval first from the council, then the mayor, then from the state Legislature.

Ohio: Lawmakers have introduced two pieces of elections-related legislation during the lame duck session. One is an initiative requiring citizen-led constitutional amendments gain a 60% supermajority at the ballot for passage, the other is a House bill aimed at rewriting the underlying infrastructure of how the state conducts elections. State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, joined Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose to introduce their plan that singles out the citizen-led process for amending the state constitution and raises threshold for passage to 60%. The signature threshold for making the ballot would remain unchanged. LaRose argued lifting that benchmark would give the same interest groups a relative advantage. The proposal itself, of course, will need to go to voters and get just 50% plus one to alter the Ohio Constitution. It will follow a different process, too. Stewart’s resolution would make the ballot through a General Assembly vote rather than the citizen signature-gathering process.

Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Green Township), proposed sweeping changes to an already sweeping elections bill. The biggest move involved nixing the automated voter registration language contained in the initial proposal. Those provisions would’ve leaned heavily on the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to help voters register or update their registration any time they interact with the agency. If voters’ registration is regularly updated, the thinking goes, there will be fewer names to purge. But Seitz said after months of negotiations, the Ohio Senate hasn’t budged. “If we’re going to get anything done,” Sietz said, “we’ve got to have an agreement between two chambers, and the Senate does not yet feel comfortable with automated voter registration, even though I am comfortable with it.” Among other changes, voters would be able to request absentee ballots online, but they’d have to submit paper requests on a specific form. The deadline for requesting one would be seven days before an election. The bill trims the deadline for absentee ballots to arrive post-election to seven days as well. Drop boxes would be available for the duration of early voting, but they’d be restricted — no more than three, all on board of elections premises and under 24/7 video surveillance. The bill eliminates the final day of early voting but distributes those hours in the week prior by extending weekday hours. Seitz also dropped a number of ID provisions from the original bill. He noted Senate legislation plans to offer free photo-ID to anyone — not just poor Ohioans as his bill envisioned.

A proposal to remove August primary elections in Ohio is supported by a prominent conservative group and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, with both pointing to low voter turnout and high costs. House Bill 458, which passed the Ohio House in 2021, seeks to get rid of August special elections except when a school district is in fiscal emergency or a special U.S. congressional election is necessary. Certain “local offices, questions or issues” can be placed on a ballot if a U.S. House of Representatives special election is required, according to the bill. At the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee, the Buckeye Institute put its support behind the bill, saying restricting the August special election would save taxpayers money and get rid of an event that historically has low turnout.

Burlington, Vermont: Burlington City Council voted to put three charter changes on the 2023 Town Meeting Ballot, including resolutions that would implement ranked-choice voting for mayoral elections and all-citizen voting in all municipal elections. Charter changes in Vermont must first be approved by city voters and then passed through the state senate and house of representatives as well as receive approval from the governor. The city will have public hearings on the three charter changes before Town Meeting Day for residents. Two of charter changes received unanimously support from the City Council. The ranked-choice voting resolution was opposed by some councilors because of the inclusion of school commissioners and ward election officers. An all-resident voting charter change would allow non-U.S. citizens who reside in Burlington to vote in municipal elections. Voters would need to be legal U.S. residents, 18 or older, have taken the Voter’s Oath and be registered to vote to participate in elections. The resolution defines a legal resident as “any non-citizen who resides in the United States on a permanent or indefinite basis in compliance with federal immigration laws.” The Council voted 7 to 3 to put the question of whether to extend ranked-choice voting to more municipal elections, including mayoral elections, on the ballot in March. If passed, another charter change would allow City Council to determine polling locations at least 30 days before elections in consultation with the City Clerk’s Office and ward election officials. A ward’s polling place could be co-located with another ward’s polling place as long as each are separate and distinct. A polling place could also be outside ward lines as long as it is within close proximity to the ward.

Duxbury, Vermont: The Town of Duxbury held a special meeting with more than 100 residents in attendance to consider reforms to how Town Meeting Day will be conducted in March 2023. The changes approve include: Town officers will be elected by Australian ballot; Australian ballot will decide all budget articles and conduct all other business by Australian ballot. If unchallenged, the decisions will end the town’s long-standing tradition of holding an in-person town meeting on the first Tuesday in March where only those voters in attendance decide who is elected to various town offices, what the town budget will be for the coming year, and any other questions put forth for a vote. In order to change a town’s voting format, state law requires that a municipality hold a vote using the town meeting format in place. That’s how the in-person meeting came about.

Legal Updates

Arizona: Two GOP supervisors in Cochise County have withdrawn their lawsuit seeking a recount of the 2022 election, since the ballots appear heading that way anyhow thanks to an extremely close race for state attorney general. Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley signed an order withdrawing the complaint on November 17. Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd have for weeks fought to get a full hand recount of approximately 40,000 ballots in their county, even before Election Day, saying the effort was needed to calm fears from their constituents that elections are not legitimate. But McGinley said the county has to recount ballots as required by law, and state law doesn’t allow arbitrary 100% hand recounts. The recount advocates lost an appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court, and then filed a new suit even though they hadn’t yet taken a public vote on how to pay their lawyer.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ Office filed a lawsuit against the Cochise County Board of Supervisors for failing to meet the required deadline to canvass the election. The complaint states the board didn’t fulfill its duty to certify the election on November 28, which could potentially disenfranchise the voters of Cochise County. Republicans on the rural county board refused to certify the election regardless of no evidence of a count being incorrect. The secretary’s office states in the filing that special action relief was granted, which compels the Cochise County board to canvass the election by Thursday to give Hobbs time to meet the Dec. 5 deadline for the statewide canvass. Failure to do so would mean all votes from the county would be dropped. “The Board of Supervisors had all of the information they needed to certify this election and failed to uphold their responsibility for Cochise voters,” Sophia Solis, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, said in an email.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner dismissed a lawsuit filed by Republican attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh contesting the results of the Nov. 8 election, finding that the complaint was premature. While dismissed for now, Hamadeh still could file a complaint later, after the expected statewide certification of the election. “The merits of the lawsuit still stand. We will re-file the case after the statewide canvass,” said Hamadeh, who was joined in the complaint by the Republican National Committee. Dan Barr, attorney for Democrat Kris Mayes, commented after the complaint was dismissed: “Their major problem is they still don’t have any facts to support their lawsuit.” The judge’s decision comes a day after a court hearing in which Warner asked the various parties to discuss the timeliness of the lawsuit. While a lawsuit could be filed later, the scope of the complaint would be different.

Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has filed a lawsuit against elections officials in Maricopa County, claiming election laws were violated during the General Election earlier this month. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court. Lake was defeated in the election by Democrat Katie Hobbs, with Hobbs taking 50.3% of the vote while Lake received 49.7%. The suit is asking the county to produce records regarding the administration of Nov. 8th’s General Election. It cites urgency in requesting prompt disclosure regarding the requested information due to the amount of time remaining to “determine whether the county has violated their (Lake’s) rights or the law and to seek relief.” Listed as defendants in the Lake’s suit are Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, Maricopa County Director of Elections for Election Services and Early Voting Rey Valenzuela, Maricopa County Director of Elections for Election Day and Emergency Voting Scott Jarrett, members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Bill Gates, Clint Hickman, Jack Sellers, Thomas Galvin, and Steve Gallardo. Complaints listed in the suit include allegations of misprinted ballots that were not readable by voting machines, the mixing of counted and uncounted ballots, long lines at polling locations that discouraged voters from casting ballots, along with other conditions.

California: Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Eric Neff has been placed on administrative leave for his role in the questionable prosecution of a Michigan software executive that may have been sparked by conspiracy theorists who deny the validity of the 2020 presidential election. During his initial news conference Dist. Atty. George Gascón did not mention that his office’s investigation was sparked by a conversation with one of the founders of True the Vote, a Texas-based nonprofit that has fomented conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. According to the Los Angeles Times, The extent of True the Vote’s involvement in the investigation remains unclear. Co-founder Gregg Phillips initially claimed that he played a “small role” in the probe. Gascón did not acknowledge True the Vote’s involvement in the case at his initial news conference but days later issued a statement confirming that a “report” from Phillips had sparked the probe. In sworn testimony in the Texas defamation case, Phillips said he was first contacted by Neff in July. Phillips said a district attorney’s office investigator was present at an August event hosted by True the Vote.

Colorado: Sandra Brown, a former elections manager in the Mesa County clerk’s office pleaded guilty this week under a plea agreement that requires her to testify against her former boss. Brown is one of two employees accused of helping Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters allow a copy of a hard drive to be made during an update of election equipment last year in search of proof of the false conspiracy theories spun by former President Donald Trump. Brown, 45, pleaded guilty to attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, and official misconduct, a misdemeanor, but will not be sentenced until right after she testifies at Peters’ trial next year so her performance on the witness stand can be considered. “There were things going on that I should have questioned and I didn’t,” Brown told Judge Matthew Barrett. Brown’s deal, which Barrett will not decide whether to accept until sentencing, would allow her to serve up to 30 days in jail for the misdemeanor. It would allow the felony conviction to be erased after two years if she complies with conditions he sets, such as requiring community service, for those two years. If Barrett rejects the plea deal, Brown could withdraw her guilty pleas.

Florida: Statewide prosecutors have dropped charges against one of the 20 people accused by Gov. Ron DeSantis of voting illegally in 2020. In a court filing on November 21, prosecutors wrote that they were dropping charges against Tampa resident Tony Patterson, 44, because of “information received” from the Hillsborough County elections supervisor and because he was already being sentenced to prison in a separate case. The decision means state officials avoid potentially having a second voter fraud case thrown out by a judge in as many months.

Georgia: Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr. ruled on November 18 that early voting in the U.S. Senate runoff could take place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Cox found that Georgia’s election code “does not specifically prohibit counties from conducting advanced voting on Saturday, November 26, 2022, for a runoff election.” The state appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals which ultimately declined the request to stay the lower court’s ruling. The state argued in a court filing that the ruling was erroneous for procedural reasons but also that Cox was wrong to consider the runoff a separate type of election rather than a continuation of the general election. In a one-sentence order on November 21, the Georgia Court of Appeals declined to stay the lower court ruling. On November 22, three Republican party committees aske the Georgia Supreme Court to halt the Saturday voting.

Hawaii: Maui County Council candidate Noelani Ahia and 30 Maui County voters have filed a complaint with the Hawai’i Supreme Court seeking to void the results of the Wailuku-Waiheʻe-Waikapū County Council race, and hold a new election. On election day, the County Clerk deemed the return envelopes of more than 800 mail in ballots deficient. The County Clerk may deem a return identification envelope deficient if such an envelope is returned unsigned, the affirmation signature does not match the reference signature image or the envelope contains other conditions that would not allow the counting of the ballot. According to the complaint, voters are given five business days after the election to cure deficiencies, but the complaint alleges that the County Clerk did not mail out notices to the affected voters until four days after election day.

The Hawaii Republican Party is suing Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago over claims that the elections office did not properly audit the tally of votes cast during the November general election. Attorney William Dean, who is representing the Hawaii GOP, said the lawsuit is limited to auditing procedures and that it’s “not intended to be used as a vehicle to overturn the results of the election.” The lawsuit relies on statements from election observers who say that “hand tallies” and other auditing procedures were not followed during a recent audit of the election results. The state has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit.

Illinois: The Illinois Supreme Court, in an unsigned order November 21, rejected a request by the DuPage County clerk to lift a local judge’s ruling directing the clerk on how she should verify the authenticity of late-arriving mailed-in ballots. The ruling came as November 22 marked the final day ballots sent on or before Election Day on Nov. 8 could be verified and counted — with a close race between GOP state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi and Democratic challenger Jenn Ladisch Douglass, both of Elmhurst, hanging in the balance. As of November 22, unofficial vote totals showed Douglass had a 365 vote lead over Mazzochi in the district, which also includes a sliver of western Cook County, 21,960 to 21,595. At issue in the case is how the late-arriving, mail-in ballots were being verified and counted in DuPage County. DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek filed for an emergency supervisory order from the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s ruling, contending the court could not interfere in the vote counting and that Mazzochi’s actions were premature since she would have an opportunity to contest the election once all ballots were counted. Kaczmarek’s filing warned that Orel’s action “invites political agents of any political association to file unauthorized lawsuits in the midst of counting votes in ongoing elections hoping that an Illinois court will assume the role of an election official and will order the counting of votes in the manner they deem fit.” Kaczmarek has appealed the ruling.

Louisiana: Former Shreveport city council candidate James Carstensen filed suit contesting the results of the November 8 election. In his suit, Carstensen alleged that: the votes in the election for District B were very close and not determined until Nov. 9, a day after the election; the redistricting maps that were used were not the ones approved by city engineers; and, there were irregularities with the voting machines. The judge says the allegations listed in Carstensen’s petition to the court about voting machine irregularities and incorrect redistricting maps didn’t meet court standards and lacked required details.

Michigan: A Kent County election worker was looking for discrepancies with election results when he was allegedly caught tampering with a voting machine after the August primary, a detective testified in court. The man, James D. Holkeboer, went as far as inserting a thumb drive into an electronic poll book to obtain voter information and compare it to a public records request he filed. From there, he planned to look for any discrepancies, the detective told a judge Monday during a preliminary examination hearing. Holkeboer was bound over to Kent County Circuit Court for trial on charges of falsifying records/returns under election law and using a computer to commit a crime, a Grand Rapids judge ordered Nov. 28. “He’s a part of the problem of information going out that there’s election fraud,” Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Felix Tarango told District Judge Sara Smolenski during a preliminary examination hearing. A trial date was not immediately scheduled. As of Monday, Holkeboer remains free on bond.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Phillip Green rejected MyPillow founder Mike Lindell’s demand for Kent County election records as a costly “fishing expedition” in Lindell’s effort to defend a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems. Green granted a motion by Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons to quash Lindell’s subpoena. The judge said Lindell’s request was unduly burdensome and ordered Lindell to cover the county’s legal costs. “It is eminently demonstrated that the breadth of the subpoena could not be greater,” Green said in an hour-long hearing at the federal courthouse in Grand Rapids.

Missouri: Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller said he’s received more than a dozen records requests from people seeking cast vote records and he’s asking a judge to decide how he should proceed. Schoeller said he wants to be open and transparent but also doesn’t want to inadvertently reveal how any individual voted. He said his understanding is that the cast vote records print out in order, so if it was known who the first person was to vote at a specific location then the cast vote records would reveal how that person voted. “It’s important that we never compromise the secrecy of a ballot,” Schoeller said. To get clarity on his legal obligations, Schoeller filed a lawsuit in September against Laurie Huddleston — one of the people who requested the voting records. Schoeller’s lawsuit is assigned to Greene County Judge Jason Brown but will likely transfer to another judge when Brown retires at the end of the year. Roland said he anticipates it taking anywhere from nine months to more than two years to resolve the case.

Montana: Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen is appealing all four election-related laws that were struck down by a state district judge this year. In a notice of appeal filed November 22 with the Montana Supreme Court, Jacobsen indicated she would challenge Yellowstone County District Judge Michael Moses’ Sept. 30 order finding unconstitutional three laws passed by the GOP-dominated Legislature in 2021: imposing more restrictive voter ID requirements; moving the voter registration deadline back from Election Day to noon the day before; and outlawing paid ballot collection. The notice also appeals the judge’s previous orders in the case, including one that struck down a law barring anyone who turns 18 before Election Day from getting a ballot before their birthday. Jacobsen is the sole defendant in three separate lawsuits that challenged the four laws. They have been consolidated into a single case, with a dozen plaintiffs including the Democratic Party, Native American organizations and several groups that advocate for young Montanans. The Republican Secretary of State had not previously said definitively whether she’ll take the case to the state’s high court, but has vowed to continue fighting “to make Montana elections the most secure and accessible elections in the nation.”

New Jersey: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that New Jersey’s limit on appropriate ballot slogans is legal, allowing election officials to prevent candidates from using other people’s names or slogans. The lawsuit came after Eugene Mazo, a constitutional law professor at Rutgers University, tested the state’s slogan law after a brief bids for the Democratic congressional nomination in New Jersey’s 10th district in 2020 and the 8th district in 2022. Last summer, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Freda Wolfson dismissed a lawsuit filed by Mazo arguing that a requirement to get the consent of a party organization to use their ballot slogan was unconstitutional. Wolfson said that Mazo couldn’t “plausibly” claim that the statute violated his First Amendment rights.

North Carolina: The Watauga County Board of Elections is facing a lawsuit after they denied holding a hearing related to challenges against absentee ballots. Nathan Miller filed the appeal complaint in Watauga County Superior Court on Nov. 21 on behalf of 12 plaintiffs, including himself. The complaint states the absentee ballot challenges were filed by 5 p.m. on Election Day and that “pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat.§ 163-189(e) “Hearing Procedure-All challenges filed under this section shall be heard by the county board of elections on the day set for canvass of the returns. All members of the board shall attend the canvass and all members shall be present for the hearing of challenges to absentee ballots.” The complaint asks the court for judicial relief and for the BOE to hold the absentee ballot hearings. A temporary restraining order was denied since the court found that because of recount requests for three races, the canvass was still open and the election couldn’t yet be certified.

Ohio: Conservative operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were sentenced to working 500 hours at a voter registration drive for sending out thousands of robocalls with false information in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. The Cleveland-area state court also sentenced them to two years’ probation and six months of electronic monitoring from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. each night, prosecutors said. The duo pleaded guilty last month to telecommunications fraud after being indicted in October 2020 for the robocalls, which promoted conspiracy theories about mail-in voting. “These two individuals attempted to disrupt the foundation of our democracy. Their sentence of two years’ probation and 500 hours of community work service at a voter registration drive is appropriate,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley (D) said in a statement. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R), who originally referred the case to O’Malley’s office, indicated in October 2020 that thousands of calls were sent to Ohio voters, with a total of 67,396 phone numbers receiving the message nationwide.

Oklahoma: Mykey Arthrell, the incumbent Tulsa City Councilor for District 5, is asking the Court for a new election. His opponent, Grant Miller, who won the Nov. 8th election by a margin of 24 votes, says the law is not on his side. Tulsa County District Judge Doug Drummond heard testimony from both parties and gave them until 5:00 p.m. on November 22 to submit further case law that would justify granting or denying a new election. Both Arthrell and Miller admit there isn’t a lot of case law that is an apples-to-apples comparison to this case. Arthrell filed a petition in Tulsa County Court alleging irregularities after poll workers at that precinct did not hand out city ballots to the first 30 or so voters that walked in the door at Precinct 77 on Election Day. Arthrell says those 33 votes that were not cast could have fallen to him and would have closed the 24-vote margin by which he lost. He is asking for a new election. Drummond denied the petition saying that Arthrell did not provide enough evidence to prove that the outcome of the election was affected by what happened at one precinct. br />
Pennsylvania: Commonwealth Court President Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer is recommending the state’s high court impose civil contempt penalties against the Republican-majority Fulton County government that let a third party copy data from voting machines used in the 2020 election lost by former President Donald Trump. Jubelirer’s 77-page report was issued late Friday. She says the secret July inspection and copying of computer data from machines rented by Fulton County was a willful violation of a court order designed to prevent evidence from being spoiled.

Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Barry Dozor on November 22 denied a petition to halt certification of the 2022 General Election, finding the plaintiffs failed to provide credible evidence of any wrongdoing by the Delaware County Board of Elections or Bureau of Elections. Later in the day, the election results were certified, and will be forwarded to the state. “The court finds the testimony offered at the Nov. 21, 2022, hearing confirmed the integrity of the ballot verification and identification process, the pre-canvassing efforts on election day, and ultimately ballot security,” Dozor wrote in his order. “…The chain of custody of ballot bags, ballots, v-drives and electronic paraphernalia to the Voter Services Center and the centralized counting center at the Wharf Building in the City of Chester is found to be safe and secure.” Dozor added that he found testimony from Election Bureau Chief Clerk Laureen Hagan and Director of Election Operations Jim Allen “candid, competent and credible,” and that the plaintiffs failed to provide credible evidence supporting allegations that ballots to unverified voters were counted; that at least 2,778 records of requests for mail-in ballots were deleted; that at least 194 voter registration records of individuals whose mail-ballots were counted were deleted after election day; or that “partisan third-parties” had tabulated the votes.

The Republican candidate in the 8th U.S. congressional district race is filing suit against Luzerne County’s Board of Elections. Jim Bognet filed suit after some Luzerne County polling places ran out of paper for voting machines. Voters were allowed to fill out provisional ballots instead, and a judge extended voting hours in the county. The 8th District covers most of Luzerne County and all or part of four other counties. Bognet trails Democratic incumbent Matt Cartwright overall. Bognet got more votes in Luzerne County.

Also in Luzerne County, Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pennsylvania) sued the elections board in Luzerne County after it did not certify its vote canvass over paper shortages at polling places. The board’s two Republicans opposed certification at Monday’s meeting, while two Democrats voted in favor and the other abstained. “Indeed, boards must certify the result of election returns regardless of any error or fraud that is discovered during the count or certification process,” the suit states, noting a Pennsylvania statute that instructs boards to instead file reports about fraudulent or erroneous returns to a district attorney.

Centre County’s President Judge Pamela Ruest issued a ruling in a case filed over the status of one single ballot in this month’s general election. The one single ballot court fight stemmed from a mail-in vote cast in the November 8th election. The voter is currently registered to vote in Centre County, with the original home address listed as being a Penn State dorm, but the dorm has been closed since august, and in their latest mail-in application, the voter listed two out of county addresses. Ruest ruled against the election board in ordering that the ballot shouldn’t be counted. Meanwhile, the legal status of dozens of other ballots remains unresolved.

Common Pleas Court Judge Harry Smail Jr. ordered machine recounts of election results from four voting precincts, but in doing so rejected requests to review by hand each ballot cast this month in the race for governor and U.S. senator. Voters in five of the county’s 307 voting precincts filed court documents alleging fraud and other misconduct related to the Nov. 8 election. It was part of a statewide effort to challenge the results that saw state Sen. Doug Mastriano and Mehmet Oz, both Republicans, lose their races for governor and U.S. senator, respectively. Smail said state law and a Commonwealth Court ruling from this year prohibited the authorization of hand recounts without evidence of fraud or other potential errors. Lawsuits asking for recounts were filed by voters in Lower Burrell, Hempfield, Ligonier Borough, Loyalhanna and Salem precincts, each alleging fraud. No evidence of impropriety was produced when they were questioned by the judge during Tuesday’s hearing. Smail refused to allow testimony based on unverified accounts relayed by third parties. The county commissioners, acting as Westmoreland’s election board, on Monday certified results from 302 of the county’s 307 voting precincts. The county opposed the hand recount requests.

Tennessee: The 6th U.S. Circuit Court Appeals ruled 2-1 ruled that state of Tennessee must pay more than $842,000 in legal fees to voting rights advocates who challenged curbs that the state imposed in 2019 on registration activities but later repealed while the case was pending. The three-judge panel ruled that the plaintiffs, including the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, were the “prevailing parties” under federal law and entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees. The panel rejected Tennessee’s argument that the groups had not actually won anything lasting since the state withdrew the disputed regulations. The rules imposed training and other requirements for people involved in voter registration initiatives. Writing in dissent, Circuit Judge John Nalbandian said the organizations that sued should not be entitled to fees in a scenario where “a state-defendant voluntarily repeals the statute before a merits decision.”

Texas: The Texas Supreme Court ordered Harris County to include in its certified election results 2,073 ballots cast during an extra hour of Election Day voting. But the state’s highest civil court also ordered Harris County to determine whether those late-cast ballots would affect the outcome of any races — and kept alive Attorney General Ken Paxton’s challenge to counting them. Shortly after the court ruling Tuesday, Harris County commissioners certified the results just in time for the state’s canvassing deadline. The court’s ruling was a win, at least temporarily, for local leaders in a fight against Paxton’s attempt to discard thousands of midterm ballots. Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee said the provisional ballots cast after 7 p.m. Election Day should be counted. Those ballots were cast after a district court judge ordered Harris County polling places to remain open an extra hour because many locations had opened late that morning. “The votes that were cast during that time period pursuant to a court order are still perfectly legal. And there’s nothing in the law that prohibits them from being counted,” Menefee said. “So our perspective is that those provisional ballots are no different than any other provisional ballots — they are to be counted.” Harris County officials argued as much in a filing to the Texas Supreme Court on November 22. That came one day after Paxton petitioned the Supreme Court to toss the late-cast ballots.

U.S. District Judge Charles Eskridge kept the League of Women Voters from attending a naturalization ceremony in November. The chief U.S. District Judge of the region, Lee H. Rosenthal, confirmed that for the November ceremony the voting rights group was not present. She and other judges in the Southern District of Texas said they’ve included the League of Women Voters at previous ceremonies. Eskridge said in an email to the Houston Chronicle that the situation may have been a “misunderstanding.” He emphasized that having only been appointed in 2019, months before the COVID-19 outbreak suspended in-person naturalization ceremonies, he was unfamiliar with such a tradition. He said he would “certainly consider that going forward.” While judges are not legally obligated to allow the League of Women Voters into naturalization ceremonies, granting their request for participation is considered a formality. The League has had volunteer registrars on hand at such ceremonies for over 20 years, according to Annie Johnson-Benifield, president of the League of Women Voters of Houston.

Washington: During every election in Washington, tens of thousands of ballots are rejected because ballot envelope signatures are flagged as not matching how they’ve looked in the past. In the Nov. 8 midterm alone, nearly 27,000 ballots were challenged based on signature comparisons by election workers, according to the secretary of state’s office. A new lawsuit seeks to ban such signature rejections as unconstitutional, pointing to data suggesting they’re subjective, error-plagued and disproportionately disenfranchise young people, people with disabilities and people of color. The lawsuit was filed in King County Superior Court by three nonprofit groups that work to boost voter turnout: Vet Voice Foundation, Washington Bus and El Centro de la Raza. Three King County voters whose ballots were rejected because of signature challenges also are plaintiffs. The 39-page complaint names as defendants Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, King County Elections Director Julie Wise and two members of the King County canvassing board. Washington state law requires county elections offices to scrutinize signatures on ballots and verify that they match the signature on file for the voter. The complaint notes documented cases of voter fraud are “extremely rare” in Washington and that “few, if any” such cases have been caught and prosecuted based on signature matching. “Therefore, Washington’s Signature Matching Procedure has disenfranchised tens of thousands of lawful voters for no discernible benefit,” states the complaint filed by Kevin Hamilton, a Seattle attorney and election law expert who has represented the Democratic Party in election disputes across the country, along with three other attorneys at the law firm Perkins Coie.

Wisconsin: The City of Green Bay wants dismissed a lawsuit challenging the access election observers had during early voting. The Republican National Committee, along with four non-Green Bay residents, filed the lawsuit Nov. 1 accusing Green Bay city clerk Celestine Jeffreys of violating the law by not allowing people to observe all public aspects of in-person absentee voting at city hall. A judge had a hearing Nov. 2, and ordered the city to make changes for the remaining days of absentee voting before the Nov. 8 election. Although the election is over, the lawsuit continues. In a 10-page response filed November 22, City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys asks for the case to be dismissed, in part referencing the changes made. “Plaintiffs have failed to comply with a mandatory administrative review process and have failed to exhaust administrative remedies,” the reply states. “Some or all of Plaintiffs’ claims are moot, do not present a justiciable controversy, and this Court therefore lacks competency to adjudicate such claims.” No hearings have been scheduled in the case.

Michael Miecielica, 38, the man accused of bringing a knife to a West Bend polling location on Election Day appeared in court this week. Miecielica faces charges for that incident and another that happened days before. Miecielica waived his right to a preliminary hearing for both cases: one where he’s accused of sending racist and threatening flyers and emails around town and to candidates and the other for bringing a knife to a polling place. No one was physically hurt in either incident. Miecielica is held on a $50,000 cash bond. Miecielica will be arraigned on both cases in January.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker