electionline Weekly

Voting Amid COVID-19

Voting Amid COVID-19
Bipartisan Policy Center and Cleveland Clinic provide guidance

Voting is an essential part of a functioning democracy. Although voting may look very different in 2020 than in past presidential elections, we can work together to ensure that voters can safely cast their ballots while limiting the spread of COVID-19.

The Bipartisan Policy Center partnered with the Cleveland Clinic to provide guidance on precautions voters, election officials, and poll workers can take to protect themselves, their loved ones and their community from further spread while exercising the right to vote.

The recommendations for voters include:

• Avoiding wearing gloves at the polls
• Leveraging early voting or vote by mail options to avoid crowded polling places, congestion and lines on election day
• Voting at off-peak times of day
• Bringing your own supplies, such as hand sanitizer, an ink pen for paper ballots, or a stylus for touchscreen machines. Verify with an election official before using your own supplies

The recommendations for election officials and poll workers include:

• Requiring cloth face coverings for poll workers
• Using engineered controls such as plexiglass partitions at check-in
• Minimizing the handoff of personal items like pens and driver’s licenses
• Avoiding communal foods for poll workers during breaks
• Disinfecting pens, touch screens, folders, headphones between voters

Voting in the middle of a pandemic will be unlike anything we’ve experienced in the past century. By understanding your rights and being prepared ahead of time, you can ensure your voice is heard.

Tips for Transparency

This week, the National Vote at Home Institute (NVAHI) and The Carter Center launched their guide for election officials to increase transparency and build voter trust throughout the election process, despite the unique challenges of the 2020 cycle.

The how-to paper draws on best practices across the United States, offering simple steps election officials can take as they prepare for November, followed by case studies of four counties implementing some of these practices.

NVAHI and The Carter Center are hosting an event Thursday, October 8, 2-3pm MT to walk through some of the key recommendations and hear firsthand from election officials in Boulder County, Colorado, Orange County, California and Weber County, Utah on transparency in action.

Top Tips for Transparency

1) Commit to transparent operations. Recognize that building trust through transparency requires commitment, resources and time.

2) Create and share content on social media and your website. Use videos, infographics and clear, simple messages about how to vote and what happens behind the scenes when ballots are printed, processed and counted.

3) Proactively engage the media. Issue frequent press releases and invite the media in to view different stages of the process, establishing your office as an accessible, trusted source of information.

4) Invite people in to see for themselves – this year, virtually. Host tours of ballot printing and processing facilities for the public and community groups, the media and candidates and campaigns. Broadcast tours on your website, and allow for both remote and physically distanced public observation of Election Day processes.

5) Be transparent, even when there are issues. Be accessible to the media and the public, and keep everyone informed.  What happened? Who is impacted? How is your office responding, and when will the issue be resolved?

6) Facilitate participation of authorized poll watchers and monitors. Authorized engagement by representatives of competing parties and nonpartisan civic groups increases access to how elections are conducted, and further builds trust.

Read the full report at https://voteathome.org/tips-for-transparency/.

Election News This Week

Early voting is now underway in numerous states and while it’s gone relatively smoothly so far with only a few reported issues, the biggest story is the number of people choosing to vote early. According to USA Today, more than 5.6 million people have already voted, far exceeding 2016 numbers at this time. Lines have formed at early voting locations from Arizona to  Illinois to South Carolina to Ohio. In Chicago, where voters lined up more than two hours before the Loop Super Site opened for the first time on Oct. 1 which is the only voting site open in Chicago until Oct. 14. While there were lines voters seemed pretty darn pleased with getting an actual “I Voted” sticker, something Chicago hasn’t handed in several election cycles. Lexington County, South Carolina saw record breaking numbers for the first day of early in-person absentee voting. “Today’s been crazy,” said Mary Brack, director of Registration and Elections for Lexington County. “This is normally like the last day of absentee voting, but this is the first day.” Voters in Lucas County, Ohio waited for two hours just to get inside the building where voting was happening. “People need to take the time out and understand that it’s not going to be a five-minute thing,” Lucas County Board of Elections director Lavera Scott said. “We have to follow certain protocols. So there may be a line. And the line may look longer than it is because, as you know, if you pull up somewhere and they have a six-foot line spacing outside, there may actually be only ten people standing outside.” In Indiana, counties set first-day records. “I pretty much always come on Day 1, but it’s never been like this before,” voter Steve Igleski said. “I was in the Army for six years, never seen a line like this.” In Marion County, Russell Hollis, deputy director of the county clerk’s office, said election officials adjusted midday to cut down on two chokepoints inside: the electronic poll books needed to sign in, and the staff required to sign out. The pandemic has slowed down the process. “That did contribute to longer lines because people were spaced further apart,” Hollis said. “We were cleaning voting equipment in between uses.”

According to multiple news sources and first reported by ProPublica, a memo to Justice Department prosecutors said that they could investigate suspicions of election fraud before votes are tabulated. According to The New York Times, that reversed a decades-long policy that largely forbade aggressively conducting such inquiries during campaigns to keep their existence from becoming public and possibly “chilling legitimate voting and campaign activities” or “interjecting the investigation itself as an issue” for voters. The memo creates “an exception to the general non-interference with elections policy” for suspicions of election fraud, particularly misconduct by federal government workers, including postal workers or military employees; both groups transport mail-in ballots. The exception allows investigators to take overt investigative steps, like questioning witnesses, that were previously off limits in such inquiries until after election results were certified. Justice Department spokesman Matt Lloyd told ProPublica in a statement: “Career prosecutors in the Public Integrity Section of the Department’s Criminal Division routinely send out guidance to the field during election season. This email was simply part of that ongoing process of providing routine guidance regarding election-related matters.” He added that “no political appointee had any role in directing, preparing or sending this email.” According to ProPublica, experts who reviewed the revision said they were concerned it could be exploited to help the DOJ bolster president’s campaign. “It’s unusual that they’re carving out this exception,” said Vanita Gupta, the former head of the DOJ Civil Rights Division under President Barack Obama. “It may be creating a predicate for the Justice Department to make inflated announcements about mail-in vote fraud and the like in the run-up to the election.”

A bipartisan group of candidates has asked the North Carolina State Board of Elections to take immediate control of the Rockingham County board of elections. According to a local paper, the move comes six days after the county elections board voted 4-1 to oust senior deputy director Amy Simpson from the already short-staffed office. Hand-delivered to the Raleigh-based North Carolina State Board of Elections, the letter reads: “This letter serves as notice of our request for the NC State Board of Elections to take over the operations of the Rockingham County Board of Elections immediately. We ask that the NC State Board of Elections provide oversight and ensure that competent, experienced and qualified people will manage the office and the upcoming election. This is critical in order to provide for a fair and trusted election. We have lost trust in the current board to do so.” The candidates go on to explain how the move to terminate Simpson leaves an already-skeletal staff crippled less than two weeks before early voting begins on Oct. 15. The local office lost its director Tina Cardwell when she retired in April. With Simpson’s departure, a single deputy director, hired in June, remains.

So easy, even a sasquatch can do it. Benton County, Oregon will employ ranked choice voting for the first time this election cycle and the county has produced a how-to video featuring Sam Sasquatch. The video takes on a county council race in fictional Animal County and explains how ranked choice works with second place candidate Sally Salmon defeating initial first-place vote getter Frieda Tree Frog when no candidate gets 50 plus one. [We were SHOCKED that Olivia Otter got the least amount of votes and was the first candidate out of the race. SHOCKED!] In addition to the video, the Benton Better Ballot website allows visitors to practice voting with an interactive mock voting simulation. Mock voters receive a virtual “sticker” after submitting their online practice ballot. Benton County voters approved “Ranked Choice Voting” during the November 2016 election with the passage of ballot measure 2-100. It applies when at least three candidates run for the office of Benton County Commissioner.

Another week in the 2020 election cycle and more naked people. A group of Hollywood celebrities got naked in a new PSA to bring attention to “naked ballot” laws, which require voters in 16 states to place their mail-in ballots in two different envelopes — one inside of the other and in a specific order — for their votes to be counted. The ad (watch below) features a stripped-down-to-their-birthday-suits roster that includes Tiffany Haddish, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Chelsea Handler, Naomi Campbell, Mark Ruffalo, Sarah Silverman (and her father Donald), Josh Gad and Ryan Michelle Bathe, as well as a fully dressed Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen). In the spot, the celebs implore voters on the necessary steps they must take when voting by mail and urge voters to mail or drop off their ballots ASAP. The PSA was created by RepresentUs.

Personnel News: Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Deputy Director Scott Sistek has been fired. Kathleen Donovan has been appointed new Democratic elections commissioner for Albany County, New York. Karen Couillard, Waukesha, Wisconsin city clerk has resigned. Amy Simpson, senior deputy director of the Rockingham County, North Carolina board of elections has been fired. Wyatt “Tommy” Tucker Sr. of Union County has been appointed to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Kay Haag has resigned as the Stark County, North Dakota auditor.

In Memoriam: Hinds County, Mississippi Election Commissioner Wayne McDaniels, described as a champion for social justice in Jackson, died last week of natural causes. He was 64. According to the Clarion Ledger, McDaniels was the longtime president of the Jackson NAACP and minister. He was also a former recruiter and deputy with the Hinds County Sheriff Department. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the McDaniels family and the entire Hinds County community,” the Board of Supervisors said in a statement. “Mr. McDaniels was a dedicated public servant and an actively engaged member of our community for many years. He will be greatly missed.”

Former Tennessee Secretary of State Riley C. Darnell has died. He was 80. He served five two-year terms in the Tennessee House and in 1980, he was elected to the State Senate, where he rose to be Majority Leader. He served 12 years in that role. In 1992, Darnell was defeated for re-election to the State Senate.  In 1993, his former colleagues in the House and Senate selected Darnell to the position of Secretary of State. He served in that position until 2009.  Darnell was a 1962 graduate of Austin Peay State Univeristy and a 1965 graduate from Vanderbilt University’s School of Law. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a captain and judge advocate general between 1966-1969. “I and our entire office send our condolences to the family of former Tennessee Secretary of State Riley C. Darnell. In addition to serving as Secretary of State, he was a husband, father, veteran and member of the Tennessee General Assembly. Our state and nation are better for his service,” Secretary of State Tre Hargett said in a statement.

Election Security Updates

In a video message, senior national security officers provided new assurances about the integrity of the upcoming election. “I’m here to tell you that my confidence in the security of your vote has never been higher,” Chris Krebs, the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in the video message. “That’s because of an all-of-nation, unprecedented election security effort over the last several years.” According to The Associated Press, The video appeared to be aimed at soothing jangled nerves of voters ahead of an election made unique by an expected surge in mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic. Though Trump was not mentioned during the nine-minute video, the message from the speakers served as a tacit counter to his repeated efforts, including in last week’s presidential debate, to allege widespread fraud in the mail ballot process and to preemptively cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election. In addition to Krebs, William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center and FBI Director Chris Wray also appeared in the video. “No matter which method you choose, your voice is important,” said Wray. “Rest assured that the security of the election, and safeguarding your vote is, and will continue to be one of our highest priorities.”

The National Council on Election Integrity announced that it plans to spend $20 million on a public education campaign to stress the security of the election and that “all citizens’ votes must be counted, regardless of whom they vote for.” Part of the $20M includes a $4 million ad buy set to run in Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Digital ads will begin running in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Among the former officials behind the effort is the president’s one-time Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats. “The most urgent task American leaders face is to ensure that the election’s results are accepted as legitimate,” Coats, who served in the administration until last year, said in a statement. “Electoral legitimacy is the essential linchpin of our entire political culture.”

Legislative Updates

Connecticut: The Legislature  has approved and the governor has signed a bill that will give registrars the option to open the outer envelopes of absentee ballots as soon as 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30. Previously, they were not permitted to open the envelope until 6 a.m. on Election Day. The new rules would be optional and at the discretion of town clerks working in concert with registrars of voters. The bill did not give local officials the ability to begin tallying absentee votes early. The votes are contained in an inner envelope, which cannot be opened until Election Day.

Louisiana: Voting largely along party lines, the Louisiana Senate approved a bill sold as a way to streamline the bitterly partisan way of setting up elections in an emergency that opponents said would remove the governor’s power to veto the plan. enate Bill 20 would create an Emergency Election Commission to decide. The commission would be chaired by the Secretary of State and consist of nine other members including the chairs of the legislative committees overseeing such plans now, the Speaker of the House and Senate President plus the heads of the party delegations in each chamber and the governor. Under the current make-up, the Commission would have seven Republicans and three Democrats, including the governor. The plans would be approved by a majority vote, though the Secretary of State would only vote in a tie.

Michigan: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed a bill into law allowing clerks in cities or townships of at least 25,000 people to start processing absentee ballots a day before the general election. Election officials currently cannot remove ballots from outer envelopes until 7 a.m. on Election Day. The new law lets them be opened between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2.

Mississippi: The Legislature failed to take up bills that would have allowed people to vote early in-person to avoid crowded precincts on Election Day. Two bills filed by Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, and three members of the House would allow no-excuse early voting in circuit clerks offices for people who want to avoid going to what are expected to be crowded precincts on Election Day. The three House members jointly filing the legislation were Reps. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville; Kent McCarty, R-Hattiesburg; and Shanda Yates, D-Jackson. “This year’s election is incredibly important, and likely to be one of the highest turnout elections in the history of the state. With that said, we are also in the midst of an incredibly dangerous health crisis that is the COVID-19 pandemic,” Owen said. “This bill aims to reduce the number of voters at the precincts on Election Day, stymy the potential spread of the coronavirus, and allow voters the option to vote safely, while keeping the integrity of our election secure.”

New York: GOP legislators are pushing a package of bills that would, among other things, require a voter ID to vote and would expedite the process for striking deceased voters from the rolls. The bills would require photo identification for voters. Another measure is designed to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting illegally by requiring any application to vote made be through applying for a driver’s license, and including a Social Security number. They also want to do away with publicly financed campaigns and instead redirect the money to aid elections officials with expenses for personal protective equipment, poll worker wages, pre-paid postage for absentee ballots, and other measures to smooth absentee voting.

Legal Updates

Alabama: The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama’s mandatory religious oath for voter registration. Alabama is the only state in the country that requires voters to register on a form mandating they swear “so help me God,” without allowing any option of a secular affirmation, the Madison, Wisconsin-based group said. The foundation is filing on behalf of four Alabama citizens who have encountered and objected to the religious test when trying to register to vote. The defendant is Alabama Secretary of State John H. Merrill. “The Alabama secretary of state excludes Alabama citizens from being able to vote if they are unable to swear a religious oath,” the lawsuit states. “The secretary of state’s official policy is to hinder the registration of voters who are unable to swear ‘so help me God.’ This policy violates the rights of the plaintiffs and others under the First and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution.”

Alaska: Superior Court Judge Dani Crosby ruled enforcement of witness requirements for absentee ballots during a pandemic “impermissibly burdens the right to vote” but did not immediately put into effect an order eliminating the requirement for the general election. Crosby gave the parties until late Tuesday to propose how the Division of Elections should communicate the message and said she would later issue an order “specifying how to implement elimination” of the requirement for the Nov. 3 election. She noted the state might appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court. Maria Bahr, a Department of Law spokesperson, said Crosby’s decision “makes it clear that the injunction is not yet in effect – meaning the requirement for signature witnesses is still in place.” The department, in consultation with the division, “is evaluating the decision and considering possible options,” Bahr said by email. Natalie Landreth, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said what Crosby ordered “and what we have argued is the most practical, common sense way to make sure that everybody can vote in the pandemic. The case is really that simple.”

Arizona: The U.S. Supreme Court will review two provisions of an Arizona voting rights law that a federal appeals court said could have a discriminatory impact for American Indian, Hispanic and African Americans in violation of the Voting Rights Act. One provision concerns an “out of precinct policy” that does not count provisional ballots cast in person on Election Day outside of the voter’s designated precinct. Another concerns the “ballot collection law” which permits only certain persons — family and household members, caregivers, mail carriers and elections officials — to handle another person’s completed ballot. The dispute will not be resolved before the election because the argument calendar is already full through December.

Judge, Steven P. Logan issued a ruling on this week that extends the voter registration deadline for the November general election to Oct. 23 at 5 p.m. Mi Familia Vota and the Arizona Coalition for Change filed the lawsuit on Sept. 30, claiming the original Oct. 5 voter registration would violate their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The two nonprofits wanted to extend the voter registration to Oct. 27. However, with early ballots going out on Oct. 23, Logan, decided that day would have to be the deadline.  The two plaintiffs argued that because of the coronavirus pandemic, they couldn’t help register as many voters as they usually would. Also, the lack of internet access made it harder for potential voters to register. Logan noted in the court documents that 31 other states had later voter deadlines than Arizona. The defendant, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, said the Oct. 5 deadline was necessary to enforce the state’s 29-day residency rule. But Logan said that argument was “unpersuasive,” since voters need to have proof of residency at the polls. Hobbs indicated she will not appeal the court order extending voter registration deadline to Oct. 23. An appeal has been filed.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall H. Warner has ruled that election officials in Arizona can use videoconferencing to help some voters confined to hospitals, nursing homes or living with severe disabilities cast their ballots. Attorney General Mark Brnovich asked the court to strike down plans adopted by the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office and Arizona Secretary of State’s Office for limited “virtual” voting assistance, arguing that state law does not allow anyone to cast a ballot by video. Gov. Doug Ducey also opposed the policies, contending that state law requires officials provide such services in person. But in a ruling that reflected how unusual this election year is, found that videoconferencing may be necessary for some voters with very particular circumstances who would otherwise have to choose between protecting themselves from COVID-19 or forgoing their right to participate in the electoral process.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that would have given Arizona voters five days past Election Day to fix early ballots that were accidentally filed without a signature. The ruling means current law stands – for now – and any unsigned ballots not corrected by 7 p.m. on Election Day will be discarded. The circuit court Tuesday said that, with less than a month to Election Day, the public interest is best served by keeping current election laws instead of “sending the State scrambling to implement and to administer a new procedure for curing unsigned ballots at the eleventh hour.”

Arkansas: U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III has denied a motion to expedite the schedule in a case regarding absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 election. Holmes ruled that Secretary of State John Thurston and six members of the state Board of Election Commissioners have until Oct. 13 to respond to a motion for a preliminary injunction. The League of Women Voters of Arkansas and three other plaintiffs wanted the schedule fast-tracked to make sure county election commissioners begin the process of comparing absentee ballot signatures to registration signatures 15 days before the Nov. 3 election, said Susan Inman, a member of the League and former state election commissioner. The plaintiffs also want absentee voters to have the opportunity to correct any discrepancies before Election Day to make sure their ballots aren’t discarded over a technicality or poor penmanship.

Colorado: Judicial Watch, along with three voters from El Paso, Elbert and Adams counties filed suit this week in US District Court in Denver alleges the Colorado Secretary of State’s office failed to clean up its voter rolls in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act. The lawsuit contends that the counties removed comparatively low numbers of voters from the rolls even though the Census Bureau suggests a greater number of people had changed addresses. Additionally, the plaintiffs state that county clerks failed to send adequate numbers of address verification forms to voters as is required by the National Voter Registration Act. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office rebuffed the lawsuit as a partisan attempt to undermine the election and asserted that Judicial Watch relied on bad data.  “By misinterpreting data, this blatantly partisan group seeks to undermine the election,” Communications Director Betsy Hart said in a statement. “The claims made by this group are based solely on a comparison between real-time voter registration information and outdated census data. The population of our state has grown considerably over the last several years and the number of registered voters has predictably increased as well. We are confident the State of Colorado will win this lawsuit.”

Georgia: the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to reinstate  Georgia’s Election Day deadline for the receipt of mail-in ballots, staying a lower court ruling that had extended that deadline by three days for November’s general election. Georgia law says absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls on Election Day. U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross on Aug. 31 issued a preliminary injunction ordering that absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at county election offices by 7 p.m. three business days later be counted. The state appealed and a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to stay the injunction pending the outcome of the appeal.

Judge William M. Ray II has dismissed requests from a civil rights group to require Gwinnett County and the state to send absentee ballot applications in Spanish. Ray dismissed the case  saying that the secretary of state’s office and the Gwinnett elections board didn’t violate the federal Voting Rights Act, as the lawsuit claimed. “Nonetheless, this Court recognizes that Plaintiffs’ end goal of ensuring that Spanish-speaking Gwinnett voters receive bilingual absentee ballot applications is a reasonable and desirable outcome,” Ray wrote. He said, though, that GALEO and the other groups lacked the standing to make the case. Ray said in his order that the individuals who said they weren’t sent Spanish-language ballot applications were able to get them from the county, and did vote. He added that a Spanish-language ballot application was accessible on the county website.

Indiana: The Seventh Circuit has rejected a lawsuit that sought to give all Indiana voters the right to cast their ballots by mail in the November general election. The three-judge panel of Republican appointees handed down the decision late Tuesday, finding that the Hoosier State’s mail-in ballot rules do not violate the rights of voters. “Indiana’s absentee-voting regime does not affect plaintiffs’ right to vote and does not violate the Constitution. In the upcoming election, all Hoosiers, including plaintiffs, can vote on Election Day, or during the early-voting period, at polling places all over Indiana,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Kanne, a Ronald Reagan appointee.

Judge Sarah Evans Barker temporarily halted her ruling that would have forced Indiana to count mail-in ballots that were postmarked by Election Day. The temporary halt will give time for a federal appeals court to consider the case. In a new order, Barker said she doesn’t want Hoosier voters to have a “false sense of security” about getting their ballot in on time. The judge halted her ruling for seven days to give the appeals court time to consider the case. And she urged voters to get their ballots in well ahead of time.

Kansas: U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter has ruled a Kansas law that prohibits electioneering within a 250-foot buffer zone of a polling location is constitutional and does not infringe on the First Amendment. Teeter dismissed the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas against Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and the Johnson County election commissioner. In her ruling, Teeter cited a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Burson v. Freemen, that rejected a challenge to a similar Tennessee statute. Teeter noted the Kansas electioneering has also stood unchallenged for nearly 60 years, and that all 50 states have similar laws.

Louisiana: Attorney General Jeff Landry issued a warning to registrar of voters and clerks of court not to pursue money provided by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Landry  has also filed suit asking a court to declare the arrangement illegal and warning of the “corrosive influence of outside money on Louisiana election officials.” According to The Advocate,  Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, urged locals to apply for the grants after discovering the opportunity. Ardoin said in a statement he “encouraged all clerks to apply for that grant money” to ensure all parishes had the same opportunity. Ardoin is now backing legislation to outlaw the practice.

Iowa: Judge Robert Hanson blocked Iowa’s secretary of state Monday from enforcing an order that barred counties from sending absentee ballot applications to voters with their identification information already filled in. Hanson ruled in favor of state and national Democratic Party groups, who contended that Secretary of State Paul Pate exceeded his authority when he told counties that absentee ballot request forms must be blank when mailed to voters. Hanson ordered Pate to put enforcement of his directive on hold. Local elections officials said they were studying the ruling to determine the impact, including whether they could take steps to mail ballots to thousands of voters whose requests were previously invalidated based on Pate’s directive.

Maine: The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has rejected a request to suspend its earlier decision allowing ranked-choice voting to be used in the state’s fall presidential election. The legal issue raised by Republicans was whether Maine’s law on circulating petitions is constitutional, but the practical impact of any court-ordered stay would have been to block the use of ranked-choice voting in Maine this November. Assistant State Attorney General Phyllis Gardener’s argument before the law court, that thousands of votes have already been cast, was cited by the justices in their decision issued later in the day.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a plea by Republicans to block the state from using ranked-choice voting in the upcoming presidential election. Justice Stephen Breyer, who handles emergency appeals from the geographic area that includes Maine, turned down the request without comment and without referring the appeal to the full court, suggesting that Breyer did not regard it as a particularly close call.

Minnesota: U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz ruled against a Minnesota group that claimed that masks should not be required at polling places. Minnesota Voter Alliance and political activists filed the lawsuit, seeking a restraining order against Gov. Tim Walz to prevent enforcement of the statewide mask mandate at the polls on Nov. 3. An attorney for the group, Erick Kaardal, argued that the mask requirement violates constitutional free-speech rights. Kaardal also cited that the mandate conflicts with a state law created in 1963 that makes it illegal to wear a mask in a public place. However Schiltz said in a hearing last week that the rarely enforced law is only intended to prevent people from disguising themselves when committing a crime. In his order of denial, Schlitz cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that recommend face coverings be worn in public to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Schlitz added that the 1963 state law does not make wearing masks unlawful, but wearing disguises unlawful. Additionally, Schlitz said extending the law to this situation would mean that doctors, manicurists and construction workers could not wear masks while performing their jobs.

Missouri: Democratic state Auditor Nicole Galloway who is running against incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Pearson has filed suit in Cole County Circuit Court against Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft over a campaign finance investigation launched by his office. Galloway’s suit argues that Ashcroft’s office lacks the legal authority to issue a subpoena for documents relating to a probe involving campaign finance violations. “In less than 30 days before a major election, the Secretary of State is commencing an entirely unlawful investigation against another statewide elected official based upon a fatally flawed complaint from a dark money organization,” the complaint states. Ashcroft denies any such motivation. In a statement on his website, Ashcroft said the investigation is similar to the one his office launched against then Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley, who is now a U.S. Senator.

Montana: The plaintiff’s in the federal case, claiming Governor Bullock overstepped his authority by allowing counties to opt for all mail-in voting for the November 3rd general election have appealed their case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In their filing, the plaintiffs have asked the 9th Circuit to issue an emergency injunction, no later than October 8th to prevent mail-in ballots from being sent out to Montana voters on October 9th. The case is on appeal to the 9th Circuit follows Judge Dana Christensen’s ruling Wednesday in favor of the Governor Steve Bullock supporting his decision to issue the order allowing counties to conduct an all-mail in election. The plaintiffs argue that Montana law specifically does not allow for an all mail-in ballots for a general election and that the power to set election guidelines falls within the scope of the state legislature. The 9th Circuit denied an emergency injunction and plaintiffs have file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. The filing is for an emergency application for writ of injunction relief no later than Thursday, October 8, 2020.

New Hampshire: Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Will Delker dismissed most arguments in a lawsuit by the American Federation of Teachers that challenged New Hampshire’s voting procedures during the coronavirus pandemic, saying there was a lack of evidence. The union had sued to force New Hampshire to extend its deadline for accepting absentee ballots by mail; to cover absentee ballot postage costs; to allow wider use of absentee ballot dropboxes; and to permit third-party groups to return absentee ballots on voters’ behalf. Similar lawsuits have been filed in other states. Delker ruled that the union failed to demonstrate that the current rules actually prevented anyone from voting. Delker, however, did order the state to develop a process to accept requests for absentee voter registration forms.

New Jersey: Federal Judge Michael Shipp has rejected an attempt by the president’s re-election campaign to curtain part of the state’s vote-by-mail plan. The campaign had asked the court to stop the state from allowing election officials to process ballots received by mail 10 days before Election Day and those received two days after Election Day even if those ballots don’t have a postmark. Shipp said those provisions were legal and sound, rejecting the Trump campaign’s premise that they violated federal law. “Federal law establishing a national uniform election day does not prevent New Jersey from canvassing ballots before Election Day so long as the election is not consummated and the results reported before the polls close on Election Day,” the federal judge wrote.

New York: Judge J. Machelle Sweeting has denied a preliminary injunction that sought to prevent election officials from enforcing a 25-day voter registration deadline. Sweeting ruled against the League of Women Voters of New York State, which argued that tens of thousands of people would miss the voter registration deadline for the November general election if the court didn’t step in. “There is simply no showing here that the failure to grant the injunction would necessarily deprive any eligible voter of the right to vote, as any eligible voter could simply register to vote by the legal deadline,” Sweeting wrote in the ruling.

North Carolina: Wake County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt has denied a temporary restraining order that would have halted plans for an election polling site at the Appalachian State University Plemmons Student Union. The complaint was filed against the North Carolina State Board of Elections by two Watauga County Board of Elections members, Republicans Eric Eller and Nancy Owen. Holt filed the order denying the restraining order request on Sept. 30 after a Sept. 29 virtual hearing. “After consideration of the arguments and materials presented, the court finds that the plaintiffs have failed to persuade the court that they would suffer immediate and irreparable harm justifying the imposition of a temporary restraining order,” Holt’s order stated.

On Oct. 2, Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins approved the settlement of a lawsuit that would change how absentee ballots are handled in North Carolina for the 2020 election. Collins said the settlement was fair and reasonable and not illegal or a product of collusion. But a federal judge held a hearing later Friday in a lawsuit seeking to block the settlement, and he said he’ll issue a ruling “in due course.” Collins said the agreement was a compromise between two parties — the State Board of Elections and a political group representing retirees that filed suit Aug. 18 over the state’s various rules for mail-in voting. The agreement would allow the board of elections to accept mail-in ballots up to nine days after the general election, as long as they are postmarked before 5 p.m. Election Day, Nov. 3.  The settlement also would allow North Carolina voters who are missing a witness signature or address on their mail-in ballot to fix the problem without filling out a new ballot. Judge James Dever placed a temporary restraining order on the Settlement on Oct. 3. The restraining order is in place until Oct. 16 and the case will be transferred to U.S. District Court Judge William Osteen in the Middle District of North Carolina.

Ohio: A three-judge panel on the Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals ruled that Secretary of State Frank LaRose can legally require counties to offer multiple drop boxes per county.  The judges disagreed somewhat on the particulars — but a majority said it was within LaRose’s discretion to allow multiple drop boxes, while overturning a lower court decision from a Franklin County judge that said LaRose was legally required to do so. On balance, the judges in their Friday ruling agreed that LaRose could allow multiple drop boxes if he wanted, but only one said he should be legally required to. Judges Julia L. Dorrian, a Democrat, and Judge Betsy Luper Schuster, a Republican, wrote Friday that LaRose’s interpretation that only one drop box is allowed was “unreasonable.” But Luper Schuster said LaRose shouldn’t be required to allow more than one, while Dorrian said he should be. Judge Susan Brown, a Republican, meanwhile said LaRose’s opinion wasn’t unreasonable, but agreed with Dorrian and Luper Schuster that multiple drop boxes were allowed under state law.

Pennsylvania: The president’s re-election campaign has sued the city of Philadelphia over city officials preventing campaign representatives from watching people registering to vote or filling out mail-in ballots in election offices there. The 14-page lawsuit, filed in a state court in Philadelphia, revolves around the question of what rights there are for campaign representatives to watch people in election offices where they can register to vote, apply for mail-in ballots, fill them out or turn them in. The campaign is asking to be able to assign representatives to observe inside satellite election offices that Philadelphia began opening Tuesday around the city to help collect what is expected to be an avalanche of mail-in ballots in the Nov. 3 presidential election.  But election lawyers, city officials and the state’s top elections official all say that there is no right under Pennsylvania law, even for a certified poll watcher, to watch people do things like register to vote or fill out a mail-in ballot. Those rights, they say, are limited to certified campaign representatives to observe voting at a polling place on Election Day or the opening of absentee and mail-in ballots in an election office.

Luzerne County Director of Elections Shelby Watchilla has sued county Councilman Walter Griffith for defamation in a suit that also names the county as a defendant. The suit alleges that Griffith repeatedly made defamatory statements against Watchilla and criticized her qualifications and job performance, even though county council has no supervisory role over the election bureau or its director. Griffith made “knowingly false” statements about Watchilla and violated county regulations that forbid council members from interfering in personnel matters, which are the purview of county administration, the suit alleges.

South Carolina: The legal back and forth over South Carolina’s absentee ballot witness signature requirement finally (maybe?!) came to an end this week when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the requirement other than for ballots cast before it acted and received by election officials within two days of its order. The court’s most conservative members, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch, said they would have reinstated the requirement for all ballots. Only one member of the court provided reasons. In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote that the majority’s approach was warranted because state election laws should not ordinarily be second-guessed by federal judges and because the Supreme Court frowns on changes to election procedures made close to Election Day.

Also in South Carolina, the SC Progressive Network Education Fund has sued to extend the state’s voter registration deadline. The complaint notes that the State Election Commission (SEC) in the past has supported moving the registration period closer to the elections, citing extensions the SEC has provided due to hurricanes. “There is no doubt that pandemic safety measures and government restrictions have prevented some citizens from registering and participating in the next election,” Network Director Brett Bursey said. A hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis that could have extended the deadline was cancelled Tuesday morning and had not been rescheduled at press time.

Texas: In two separate federal lawsuits filed on behalf of older voters, groups including the Texas and National Leagues of United Latin American Citizens, the League of Women Voters of Texas and the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans asked that the federal courts overturn the governor’s order, which forced Travis and Harris counties — two of the state’s most important Democratic strongholds — to shutter a number of drop-off sites they had already opened this week. “The impact of this eleventh-hour decisions is momentous, targets Texas’ most vulnerable voters—older voters, and voters with disabilities—and results in wild variations in access to absentee voting drop-off locations depending on the county a voter resides in,” attorneys in the LULAC suit argued. “It also results in predictable disproportionate impacts on minority communities that already hit hardest by the COVID-19 crisis.” Attorneys in both cases also pointed out that Abbott was making a major change to election procedures just weeks away from an election — an action the state and its attorneys argued was improper in a separate federal lawsuit over straight-ticket voting.

MOVE Texas and The Texas Organizing Project sued the Bexar County Elections Department in state court over the number of Election Day polling sites. Bexar County has 284 polling sites reserved for Election Day. asked a judge to increase the number of voting sites to handle anticipated record turnout expected on Nov. 3. The lawsuit also included a claim that Bexar County did not accept additional deputy voter registrars who could help people register to vote within the few remaining days before the voter registration deadline. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs asked a judge to order the county to open at least 311 polling sites on Election Day, an increase of 27 sites.

The Texas Supreme Court handed down two elections-related rulings this week. In one ruling, the court ruled that Harris County may not send out mail ballot applications to all registered voters. The court ruled that County Clerk Chris Hollins may not put the applications in the mail. The documents can be accessed online and are often distributed by political campaigns, parties and other private organizations. But for a government official to proactively send them oversteps his authority, the court ruled. “We conclude that the Election Code does not authorize the mailing proposed by the Harris County Clerk,” the court wrote in an unsigned per curiam opinion. The Republican justices sent the case back to a lower court in Harris County to issue an injunction blocking Hollins from sending the mailers. In the other ruling the state’s high court rejected a request from several top Texas Republicans to limit the number of days for early voting. In July, Gov. Gregg Abbot ordered that early voting begin six days earlier on October 13. The high court cited the timing of the suit. “To disrupt the long-planned election procedures as relators would have us do would threaten voter confusion,” Chief Justice Nathan Hecht  wrote in the court’s majority opinion.

Wisconsin: Five voters have asked Dane County Circuit Judge Mario White to declare that the Democracy in the Park events were a valid way for voters to return their ballots. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl scheduled the events to help deal with a flood of absentee ballots that voters have requested because of the coronavirus pandemic. An attorney for Republican lawmakers raised objections to the events, claimed they were illegal and argued absentee ballots submitted at them could be invalidated. The voters who brought Wednesday’s lawsuit dispute those claims and want the judge to assure voters that their absentee ballots will be counted.  More than 10,000 absentee ballots were returned at the first event, according to the city. During  hearing last week, White questioned whether he can rule since no one involved in the suit opposes the collection program. He asked the voters to file briefs on whether a controversy exists by Oct. 9.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court told federal judges this week that Republican lawmakers have the power to pursue an appeal as they try to prevent an expanded absentee voting counting period.  The 4-3 ruling is a victory for Republicans, but they still face obstacles as they try to undo a court order that would allow the counting of absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day if they are postmarked by then.  The decision sends the case back to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, which must decide whether the lawmakers can continue the appeal and, if so, whether to throw out the absentee balloting extension.

Tech Thursday

Online Voter Registration: With voter registration deadlines eminent, both Pennsylvania and Florida suffered outages to their online voter registration systems. In Pennsylvania, an outage of several state online services affected the state’s online voter registration system from about 5:30pm on Saturday till early Monday, which was also the voter registration deadline. In Florida, the state was forced to extend the midnight Monday voter registration deadline to 7p.m. on Tuesday after the state online voter registration system crashed. Secretary of State Laurel Lee suggested the site was overwhelmed by requests but did say in a statement that after speaking to federal and state law enforcement that there was no evidence of interference or malicious activity impacting the site. Allegedly it was a server configuration, but maybe it was just Ariana Grande?

Louisiana: Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin has announced the launching of a new way for voters to get election information immediately. GeauxBot, a virtual voter assistant created in partnership with IBM, gives voters access to pertinent election information such as registration deadlines, election dates, polling locations and hours. GeauxBot is accessible by visiting  voterportal.sos.la.gov or by selecting Elections and Voting on the secretary of state website. It is an additional resource, along with the GeauxVote mobile app and GeauxVote.com, to quickly obtain the most accurate election information available. “I am excited about this new feature which will help answer voters’ questions 24/7,” Ardoin said. “This is yet another way Louisiana is at the forefront of voter outreach and assistance”.

Opinions This Week

National Opinions: Election security, II | Voter fraud claims | Election uniformity | Election integrity | Election fraud | Ranked choice voting, II | In-person voting | Vendors | Media’s role |Election doomsday | U.S. Supreme Court | Ballot harvesting | Legal battles | Poll watching II |  Voter intimidation | Ballot measures | Ballot rejection

Alaska: Ranked choice voting, II

Arizona: Pima County

California: Election integrity

Florida: Early voting | Ex-felon voting rights, II | Past troubles | Pinellas County supervisor of elections race | Broward County supervisor of elections race | Online voter registration

Indiana: Vote centers

Kentucky: Voting system

Maine: Ranked choice voting

Massachusetts: Ranked choice voting, II

New York: Noncitizen voting | Vote by mail | Guns at polling places

Ohio: Election security

Pennsylvania: Election integrity

Rhode Island: Election security

Texas: Drop sites, II, III, IV, V | Voting protocols | Voting | Voting lawsuits | Voter suppression

Virginia: Election security | Expanded access

Upcoming Events

Tips for Transparency: How Local Election Officials Can Strengthen Voter Trust in Elections: The National Vote at Home Institute and The Carter Center are supporting election officials across the country as they work to prepare successful, high-confidence elections, despite the challenges of the 2020 cycle. Join us as we launch our guide for election officials to increase transparency and build voter trust throughout the election process. We will discuss best practices for transparent operations and ways to engage the public and the media in the process, highlighting how election officials in Boulder County, Colorado, Orange County, California and Weber County, Utah have implemented some of these practices. Moderators: Amber McReynolds, CEO, National Vote at Home Institute and David Carroll, director, Democracy Program, The Carter Center. Panelists: Molly Fitzpatrick, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder, Ricky Hatch, Weber County Clerk/Auditor, and Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters. When: Oct. 8 2pm MT. Where: Online.

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Job Postings This Week

electionlineWeekly publishes election administration job postings each week as a free service to our readers. To have your job listed in the newsletter, please send a copy of the job description, including a web link to mmoretti@electionline.org.  Job postings must be received by 5pm on Wednesday in order to appear in the Thursday newsletter. Listings will run for three weeks or till the deadline listed in the posting.

Chief Counsel, California Citizens Redistricting Commission— The California Citizens Redistricting Commission (Commission) seeks a Chief Counsel with demonstrated experience and expertise in implementation and enforcement of federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 combined with the background and knowledge to support the Commission’s redistricting mission. The applicant should be a creative problem-solver with strong communication, negotiation, and relationship building skills. A strong candidate for this position will have a background in the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act requirements and experience advising public commissions, boards, agencies or departments. The Commission is a 14-member body created by the passage of the Voters FIRST Act, in 2008. It is charged with redrawing the California State Senate and Assembly, State Board of Equalization, and Congressional districts based on information gathered during the 2020 census. The Commission must draw the districts in conformity with strict, nonpartisan rules designed to create districts of reasonably equal population that will provide fair representation for all Californians. It is a further mandate that this process be conducted in an open and transparent manner, allowing for participation by the public. The commission is required to approve final maps by December 15, 2021. Salary: $12,824-$14,800 per month. Deadline: Interviews begin 10/13 and the job is open until filled. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Clerk, Douglas County, Colorado— This position (4 openings) serves as office support for the Elections Division of the Clerk and Recorder’s Office.  The Election Clerk provides customer service, assists with clerical functions, and performs data entry for voter registration.  Other duties in support of the conduct of elections or mail ballot processing may be assigned. Must be detail oriented, well organized, productive, and able to adapt in a high change environment. This role requires both independent judgment and the ability to work well as a part of a team. Professional representation of the Clerk and Recorder’s Office to the public is required to include standards outlined in the Vision, Mission, and Core Values of the Office. Provides daily customer service; answers phones; greets and serves in person customers; Performs general scanning, typing, filing, and collating functions; Performs complex data entry for new, changed, and canceled voter registrations; Performs verification and tracking of data entry; Assists with election judge coordination; Assists with processing incoming and outgoing mail; Administers state election laws and rules, and federal election laws to provide successful voting experience to staff and public; Maintains confidentiality of information consistent with applicable federal, state and county rules, and regulations; Provides support to election coordination, including deployment of materials to coordinating entities and Voter Service and Polling Center. This task may require operation of a motor vehicle; Assists with various special projects; Lives out the Vision, Mission, and Core Values of the Clerk and Recorder’s Office, maintains a supportive environment conducive to teamwork. Salary: 13.50 – 16.90 per hour. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Customer Success Manager, Dominion Voting Systems, Denver— The Customer Success Manager role started on a simple promise of transforming customer engagement from ‘reactive’ to ‘proactive’. Our CSM’s know that when our elections customers purchase Dominion Voting products that this is only the start of a meaningful exchange between Dominion Voting and our customers. Our CSM’s build value over time by balancing customer benefits and company profits. As the CSM, you will be the first voice of the customer and you will be responsible for the customer’s overall success, as defined by the customer. You will be successful in this role if you have superb people leadership skills, customer empathy, elections knowledge and experience, Dominion Voting product knowledge, and excellent project management skills. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

HAVA Administrator, Nevada Secretary of State— The Nevada secretary of state’s office is seeking a HAVA Administrator. The incumbent in this position will manage the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grant and in this capacity will work with members of the State Elections Division, county registrar of voters, and other elections related positions in the federal, state, and county governments to manage the application of the HAVA grant and support the conduct of state and federal elections. This position will be a key member of the State elections team and will be primarily responsible for the analysis and interpretation of federal and state elections law. This position will supervise up to six other elections-related employees. State employee Benefits – Medical, dental, vision care, life and disability insurance programs are available; eleven paid holidays per year; three weeks of annual leave; three weeks of sick leave; state defined benefit retirement plan; tax-sheltered deferred compensation plan available. State employees do not contribute to Social Security; however, a small Medicare deduction is required. Salary: $66,628.08 – $100,161.36. The Secretary of State’s Office is located in downtown Carson City, near beautiful Lake Tahoe in Northern Nevada, which offers a destination location to live, work and play. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

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