It’s always something
It’s the last day of early voting here and Friday was a gangbusters day for it. It’s hard to know what Nov. 8 will bring, but Marc Elias has a few small victories from Nov. 3 to celebrate. It’s the small stuff far from the Beltway that can have big impact:
The day began with a 5-2 decision from the Michigan Supreme Court pausing a lower court’s decision that blocked rules regulating the behavior of partisan election challengers and poll watchers, which means that the rules are back in effect for the midterm elections. The rules, put forth by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D), are commonsense guidelines aimed at ensuring partisan election challengers can observe the voting and vote-counting process without becoming disruptive. The court’s decision will undoubtedly mean a more orderly, less chaotic Election Day, which can only serve to increase voter participation and confidence.
Next came a decision from Nevada rejecting a Republican motion to insert partisan election workers into the signature verification process for mail-in ballots. The Republican Party sued Clark County, Nevada’s largest county, to require its election office to hire Republicans to review the signatures on mail-in ballot return envelopes. As far back as 2020, Republicans in the Silver State have complained, without evidence, that the signature verification process used by the state fails to reject ballots with signatures that do not match voters’ signatures on file. The GOP’s proposed solution in this lawsuit was to require the county to intentionally hire Republican partisan workers who — the party hopes — would reject more ballots in the predominantly Democratic county. One week after Republicans filed their request, the court rejected it. An appeal is likely.
Republicans are trying to break the system to say it’s broken, observes Chris Hayes.
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, a federal district court granted a joint motion that addressed shortcomings in York County, Pennsylvania’s provision of election materials and assistance to its Spanish-speaking population. According to the complaint, York County has a large Puerto Rican community that was not receiving election materials in their native language. Under the terms of the order, York County agreed to remedy this by providing Spanish-language assistance and materials in the upcoming elections.
Finally, late in the day, a mere two days after a lawsuit was filed, a New York state court ordered Duchess County to designate a polling location on Vassar College’s campus for the 2022 midterm elections. Under New York law, counties are required to provide on-campus polling locations at any college with more than 300 registered voters. Even though Vassar easily exceeds this threshold, the Republican member of the county’s election board refused to allow the county to meet its obligation. While this decision was appealed by the Republican commissioner, as of now Vassar students, faculty, staff and families will now have access to a convenient polling location in compliance with state law.
Every year it’s something else, and the something elses are multiplying. I once sat through an hour of T-partiers arguing with the board of elections what election law wasn’t but should be (in their opinion). Quote them the Supreme Court ruling? Quote them statute chapter and verse? Doesn’t matter.
Glad to have Elias out there fighting.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Please go vote and take family and friends.