The Vote And Voting Problems, Pre-Election Day 2020

One of the last unresolved election-law questions is over Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order that limited the number of absentee ballot dropoff sites to one per county. This afternoon, a state court upheld a lower court ruling that struck down the Republican governor’s order. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean large counties like Harris and Travis can now open as many drop sites as they want. The state is expected to quickly appeal this decision to the Texas Supreme Court.

Mississippi is one of only five states that are not allowing anyone who wants to vote by mail. But the state has reached an agreement with voting-rights groups to make voting a bit easier: Curbside voting will now be available for people with symptoms of COVID-19, and absentee voters will be allowed to fix problems with signatures on their ballots.

A couple of decisions out of Pennsylvania Friday and some not-great news for the Trump reelection campaign. First, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania rejected a bid by the Trump campaign to have poll watchers at new satellite election offices in Philadelphia where voters can request and return mail-in ballots in person. The campaign had argued that the offices were operating as de facto polling places, but in a 2-1 decision, the court ruled to uphold an earlier rejection from a trial court. Meanwhile, in a unanimous decision, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled that counties cannot reject mail-in ballots solely due to a signature mismatch, a response to a lawsuit brought by voter-rights groups.

In New Jersey Thursday, another challenge from the Trump campaign seeking to stop the state’s mail-in ballot program was tossed out by a federal court judge.