David G. Savage | (TNS) Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — In a nail-biter election Nov. 5, expect the losing side to challenge the results in court.
After former President Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat, his supporters filed numerous of lawsuits nationwide raising questions about ballots, counting and deadlines. All were dismissed as lacking evidence or sufficient effect on the final tally.
In 2000, the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush vs. Gore essentially decided the close election.
Most election-law experts today are not predicting the winner of the 2024 election will be decided in the courts.
“But in this climate, with so many states where the outcome could be very close, you couldn’t absolutely rule it out,” said Jessica Marsden, a voting-rights attorney at the nonprofit organization Protect Democracy.
Here’s a look at some issues causing waves in key swing states that could end up at the Supreme Court if there is a razor thin margin separating Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.
Pennsylvania mail-ballot dates
In Pennsylvania, ballots sent by mail will go uncounted if voters do not write a date with their signature on the envelope, even if it arrives well before election day.
Officials in some counties say they will try to notify voters of their error so they can fix it in time.
Two weeks ago, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to rule on mail-ballot errors, leaving the state’s 67 counties to decide on how to proceed.
“It’s a confusing and evolving legal situation,” said Philip Hensley-Robin, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania could produce the most significant legal battle if only a few thousand votes separate the candidates.
Four years ago, more than 30,000 Pennsylvanians made ballot errors when the state turned to voting by mail because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the primary election in April, about 8,500 mail ballots, or slightly more than 1%, were rejected by counties because of an error on the envelope, according to state data.
State officials are confident the percentage of ballot errors this year will be lower — but not zero. “Pennsylvania is still the one to watch” because of the legal uncertainty, Marsden said.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania had gone to court this year arguing these otherwise valid votes should not be discarded. A state appeals court agreed in August and held that it violated the state Constitution to throw out ballots because of “meaningless and inconsequential paperwork errors.”
The Republican National Committee also had sued arguing the “notice and cure” policies adopted by some counties violated the state law on mail ballots adopted in 2020.
In a pair of rulings, the state Supreme Court rejected both claims and said it would not impose or allow “substantial alterations to existing laws or procedures” in the run-up to the election.
This decision to step back was widely seen as a reaction to what happened four years ago. Then, the Pennsylvania justices were sharply criticized by Republicans and the Supreme Court’s conservatives for having extended by three days the deadline for counting late-arriving mail ballots.
The state justices, siding with Democrats, pointed to delays in the mail caused by …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
