American voters are called upon to decide who should have the majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives in the midterm elections this Tuesday. But the decision could not be made by voters alone, but also by the judiciary, if some politicians and activists have their way. More lawsuits have already been filed by Republicans and Democrats this year than in all of 2020.
So far there have been at least 157 lawsuits from partisans, and after election day there will probably be more Democracy Docket, a left-wing website that follows such cases. In 2020, there were about 150, including dozens of failed attempts by Republicans to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.
The lawsuits, currently filed in nearly three dozen states, raise questions about virtually every aspect of voting, from sanitizing voter rolls to counting absentee ballots with missing information. Other lawsuits aim to limit the use of polling stations and allow private groups to monitor people voting. The US Constitution allows each state to conduct its own elections, so legal challenges depend on how the courts interpret each state’s electoral laws and constitutions.
The “swing states” are decisive
This wave of lawsuits can be decisive for elections, especially in the particularly hard-fought states, the so-called “swing states”. As the Washington Post reports, Republican candidates and party officials in at least three such states are pushing to have thousands of absentee votes disallowed. In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court has already agreed with the Republican National Committee that election officials cannot count ballots on which the voter failed to write a date on the outer envelope — even in cases where the ballots arrive before Election Day . Thousands of ballots were subsequently voided – enough to decide what could have been a close race.
In Michigan, Kristina Karamo, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, last month sued Detroit’s top election official, seeking to have absentee ballots not cast in person with ID invalidated, despite state regulations . At a recent court hearing, Karamo’s lawyer declined to say why the lawsuit is directed against Detroit, a heavily democratic, majority-black city, and not against the state as a whole.
In Wisconsin, on the other hand, Republicans obtained a court ruling that absentee votes cannot be counted if the required witness address is not complete.
Disqualifying absentee ballots because of formalities may have some basis in state law. But according to others, this violates the principle enshrined in federal law that voters cannot be incapacitated for minor errors.
Apparently, Democrats vote more often by mail
The lawsuits coincide with a systematic attempt by Republicans — led by former President Donald Trump — to induce GOP voters (short for “Grand Old Party”) to vote only on Election Day. Critics argue that the overriding goal is to separate Republicans and Democrats by voting method, and then use lawsuits to invalidate absentee ballots allegedly disproportionately cast by Democrats.
“They’re looking for every advantage they can get, and they figured they could win more seats that way,” says Sylvia Albert, director of elections and voting common cause, a non-partisan organization that advocates for democracy. Albert believes that litigation over the permissibility of absentee ballots has the potential to delay and even alter outcomes. In some cases, disputes could end up in the US Supreme Court.
Voting rights groups, meanwhile, have launched campaigns in some states to notify voters whose ballots have been rejected and need to be corrected or replaced. According to the Pennsylvania Department of State At least 7,000 such ballots have been rejected across the country for a variety of reasons, including a missing date. Activists say the number is likely much higher because many counties have refused to release the information.
In Philadelphia, the state’s largest city and a Democratic stronghold, more than 2,000 such ballots were rejected. The electoral authorities have posted lists of voters online with instructions to come to City Hall by election day to cast a replacement ballot.
“It’s a shame”
“This election situation is terrible,” she quotes Washington Post 95-year-old voter Jean Terrizzi, without naming her political affiliation. “It’s a shame.”
According to the constitutional lawyer Gregory Magarian from Washington University in St. Louis, the outcome of the congressional elections on November 8 in the USA may only be known after several days or even weeks. “So it wouldn’t surprise me if it took weeks or at least days for some of the close elections to be decided and for us to know the result in the Senate,” he said German press agency.