The Vote And Voting Problems, Pre-Election Day 2020

Happy Monday! Only eight days remain until Election Day 2020 — and thanks to ongoing litigation, the exact rules of the election are still up in the air in a handful of states. Here are the major court cases yet to be resolved:

• Republicans are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a legal settlement reached by North Carolina to extend the absentee-ballot receipt deadline to Nov. 12.
• The Supreme Court already allowed Pennsylvania’s new absentee-ballot deadline (postmarked by Nov. 3, received by Nov. 6) to stand, but Republicans have initiated a new lawsuit against it — possibly with the goal of having the Supreme Court reconsider the matter after Amy Coney Barrett has been sworn in.
• Voting-rights groups are also asking the Supreme Court to allow Wisconsin to count ballots that arrive after Nov. 3 as long as they are postmarked by then.
• Republicans are appealing a court ruling that affirmed Minnesota’s new rule that absentee ballots can count if they’re received as late as Nov. 10 (assuming they’re postmarked by Nov. 3).
• The Texas Supreme Court is considering whether to overturn Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order that counties can have no more than one ballot drop site each.
• And New Orleans is suing the state of Louisiana to allow absentee ballots to be dropped off at sites other than local election offices.

We should get a final word on these questions very soon.

Apologies for interrupting everyone’s Saturday, but one quick update from Maine: It hasn’t been getting as much attention as other states, but there had also been a lawsuit pending in Maine to extend the deadline for absentee ballots to be received from Nov. 3 to Nov. 13. Late yesterday, however, the Maine Supreme Court upheld the state’s requirement that all ballots must be received by Election Day. That’s likely to be the final say on the matter.

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.