The Vote And Voting Problems, Pre-Election Day 2020

On Tuesday night, a federal appeals court voted 12-3 to deny a request from North Carolina Republicans, who wanted the court to impose an emergency stay on a state voting rule allowing state officials to count ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and received up to nine days later. However, this may not be the last we’ve heard of this case. The three dissenting judges — none of whom, notably, were Trump’s recent appointees to this appellate court — urged the GOP officials who had asked for the stay to take the case to the Supreme Court “immediately.”

Jason from Fort Lauderdale, Florida: How many states are allowed to open and prepare ballots before Election Day? Have there been any recent changes related to this in any swing states?

There are only eight states that require ballot processing to begin on Election Day this year. Of those, two are swing states: Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The remaining states, plus Washington, D.C., allow processing to begin earlier, ranging from the day a ballot is received to Nov. 2.

Nine of these 42 states changed their guidelines for 2020 to allow for more time to process ballots, including potential swing states like Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire. I’d also add Arizona, which passed a law in 2019 allowing counties to start counting early ballots up to two weeks ahead of Election Day (previously, counties could start only one week before).

Here’s where the caveats come in: First, “processing” a ballot means different things in different states. In some jurisdictions, officials can only check voter signatures; in others, they’re allowed to check signatures, open ballots and prepare them for tabulation. Second, some states have limitations on the types of ballots that can be processed early. In Michigan, for example, only cities with at least 25,000 residents can start pre-processing ballots on Nov. 2 (and according to the Detroit Free Press, not all of the qualifying cities intend to do so). So while we can expect many of these states to make some headway before Election Day, it’s hard to know how much of the pre-Election Day vote will be counted on Nov. 3.

Dave Peterson from Milford, Connecticut: Does the Supreme Court decision for South Carolina requiring witness signatures on envelopes also now apply to Connecticut and other states?

Good question, Dave, but no. As you alluded to, the Supreme Court overrode a lower court ruling and reinstated South Carolina’s requirement that absentee ballots be signed by a witness — but it didn’t impose that rule nationwide. As Maya mentioned here the other day, each state sets its own election laws, and most states do not require anyone other than you to sign your absentee ballot. The states that do require witness signatures are Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wisconsin. In addition, Alaska, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Virginia normally require witness signatures, but either the state waived that rule due to the pandemic or a court struck it down.