Last-Minute Court Wrangling Settles Fates Of Thousands Of Ballots
President Donald Trump criticized the Supreme Court's decision Monday allowing Pennsylvania to count mail-in votes postmarked today. And lawsuits in Texas and Nevada were also decided. Meanwhile, state election officials brace for record absentee ballots sent in by voters concerned for their safety during a pandemic.
Politico:
‘Something Must Be Done’: Trump Lashes Supreme Court For Ruling On Pennsylvania Ballots
President Donald Trump railed against the Supreme Court on Monday for its decision to allow an extended count of Pennsylvania mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, tweeting that doing so would lead to violent unrest in the country. “The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one,” Trump tweeted on Monday evening, only hours before Election Day. “It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!” (Choi, 11/2)
USA Today:
Twitter Posts Warning On President Trump’s Election Eve Supreme Court Tweet
Twitter posted a warning label on an election-eve tweet from President Donald Trump on Monday, noting that his assertion that a recent Supreme Court decision could lead to problems in the election is misleading. Trump has repeatedly slammed a Supreme Court decision last week that will allow some absentee ballots to be received after Election Day in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. In a tweet Monday, Trump took the complaint a step farther, arguing it would prompt “rampant” cheating and “violence in the streets.” There is no evidence that either outcome is likely and the court's decision was far more limited than Trump’s portrayal. (Fritze and Subramanian, 11/2)
The New York Times:
‘It’s Just Crazy’ In Pennsylvania: Mail Voting And The Anxiety That Followed
“Hello, Elections.” “Hello, Elections.” “Hello, Elections.” The rapid-fire calls were pouring in to Marybeth Kuznik, the one-woman Elections Department of Armstrong County, a few days before Election Day. “This is crazy,” she told an anxious caller. “Crazy, crazy, crazy. It’s a good thing because everybody should vote,” she added, “but it’s just crazy.” Armstrong County, northeast of Pittsburgh, is one of Pennsylvania’s smaller counties with 44,829 registered voters. But it is a microcosm of the high tension, confusion and deep uncertainty that have accompanied the broad expansion of mail-in voting this year, during an election of passionate intensity. (Gabriel, 11/2)
Squabbling continues over mail-in or drive-in ballots —
NPR:
Texas Drive-Through Ballots To Be Counted After Federal Court's Ruling
U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen on Monday threw out a suit challenging the legality of some 127,000 votes cast at drive-through voting sites in the Houston area. He ruled the plaintiffs don't have legal standing to sue. Harris County, Texas' most populous county and majority-Democratic, erected 10 drive-through sites, mostly tents, to expedite the early voting process as a way of allowing people to cast ballots safely during the coronavirus pandemic. They were also in place this summer before the state's primary. Noting that point, Hanen, a George W. Bush appointee, asked plaintiffs, "Why am I just getting this case?" He later said that the suit was not timely and that "this has been going on all summer." (Naylor, 11/2)
NPR:
Nevada Judge Blocks Republican Lawsuit Over Mail-In Ballot Count
A Nevada judge has rejected a lawsuit by President Trump's reelection campaign and state Republican officials seeking to halt mail-in ballot counting in Clark County. The county, home to Las Vegas, is by far the state's most populous. About 70% of Nevada's voters live in the county, which is "heavily Democratic," CNN reports. (Wamsley, 11/2)
The Washington Post:
As Election Day Arrives, A Fight About Military Ballots Takes Center Stage
Voting by U.S. troops has been thrust into the spotlight as a bitter election campaign comes to a close, with opponents of President Trump alleging that his efforts to limit mail-in voting could disenfranchise military families. Democrats have raised the issue repeatedly after the president said last week that it would be “very proper and very nice” if a winner was declared on Election Day. Trump added that it was “totally inappropriate” for ballots that arrive later to be included, even though the votes of hundreds of thousands of service members that are sent by mail have been counted afterward for years. (Lamothe and Sonne, 11/2)
The New York Times:
As Voting Nears End, Battle Intensifies Over Which Ballots Will Count
With the election coming to a close, the Trump and Biden campaigns, voting rights organizations and conservative groups are raising money and dispatching armies of lawyers for what could become a state-by-state, county-by-county legal battle over which ballots will ultimately be counted. The deployments — involving hundreds of lawyers on both sides — go well beyond what has become normal since the disputed outcome in 2000, and are the result of the open efforts of President Trump and the Republicans to disqualify votes on technicalities and baseless charges of fraud at the end of a campaign in which the voting system has been severely tested by the coronavirus pandemic. (Rutenberg, Schmidt, Corasaniti and Baker, 11/2)
The New York Times:
Fewer Ballots Rejected By Election Officials This Election
With absentee ballots flooding election offices nationwide, the officials processing them are tentatively reporting some surprising news: The share of ballots being rejected because of flawed signatures and other errors appears lower — sometimes much lower — than in the past. Should that trend hold, it could prove significant in an election in which the bulk of absentee voters has been Democratic, and Republicans have fought furiously, in court and on the stump, to discard mail ballots as fraudulent. (Wines, 11/2)
