How Courts Across the Nation are Deciding Pivotal Mail-In Voting Cases

The 11th Circle Court of Appeals is just one of several Federal Courts which will be deciding pivotal cases on voting this week. The conglomerate of their decisions could very well swing the election. Source.

While many Americans are voting for the candidates they wish to see in office, the procedures for how their votes are casted and counted are being litigated in almost every level of the courts. The outcome of these cases could affect who can vote and how many votes are counted. Therefore, Courts may be in the position to affect the outcome of the election as a whole. 

Two cases centered on election practices have been appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court recently reached a decision on one of them, Pennsylvania Republican Party v. Boockvar. This case was regarding the time frame during which ballots can be counted after November 3 in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had granted three extra days to count mail-in ballots that had been postmarked on or before election day. The ruling was then challenged by the Pennsylvania Republican Party. The United States Supreme Court upheld the date extension with a 4-4 tie vote and no written explanation. 

The other case recently added to the docket is Moore v. Circosta, a case that began here in North Carolina and also centered around a new deadline for counting mail in ballots. The deadline under litigation was to allow for mail-in ballots to be counted until November 12 in North Carolina as long as they were postmarked on or before election day. This extension originated from a settlement that occurred in late September over a complaint filed by the North Carolina Allegiance for Retired Americans et al. The complaint also proposed a few additional ballot protection policies like eliminating the requirement for a witness signature on an absentee ballot and allowing voters to “cure” (fix) the errors on their ballots. The Court decided to uphold the provisions that allowed voters to fix ballot errors and the extension of ballot counting, and they struck the elimination of a witness signature. Litigation on the ballot collection deadline continued into federal district court, where the extension was reaffirmed. An appeal on the Federal Court decision was filed to the Supreme Court, which upheld it as well. 

These deadlines are important because they could determine how many votes and whose votes end up being counted in the upcoming election. Amid concerns about health and safety in the Coronavirus pandemic, more voters than usual are voting by mail. This comes at a time when the US Postal Service is largely underfunded. They have even sent warnings about being behind on delivering mail and the disenfranchising effect this could have one voters who send their ballot by mail. The effect of this slowdown could be two-fold. First, there is a potential threat of injunctions or lawsuits on counting extensions. Without these extensions, legitimate votes would likely be discarded due to timing. Secondly, extensions or lack thereof could advantage the Republican party. In a recent study about the 2020 election, half of Democratic voters said they would most likely vote by mail, while only 25 percent of Republicans said the same. This means that Democratic ballots would have a higher chance of not being counted in the popular vote without this extension. 

In swing states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina, these decisions could have a sizable effect on the Electoral College, and may even decide the Presidency. So far there has been a mixed bag, and the only certainty is that there will be irregularities. Whatever happens this election week, it is clear that the courts will be squarely in the spotlight.