Tag Archives: voter suppression

PBS reports: A federal judge in Pennsylvania has rejected a suit from President Donald Trump’s campaign that sought to bar use of mail ballot drop boxes across the state. The boxes were first used in this year’s primary and were deployed to keep up with unprecedented demand for mail-in voting. But in June, the Trump campaign sued the state of …

Reuters reports: A U.S. federal judge blocked on Friday an order from Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott limiting the number of drop-off sites allowed for absentee ballots statewide to just one per county, a constraint Democrats denounced as blatant voter suppression. Abbott’s Oct. 1 absentee voter proclamation, which he said was aimed at preventing election fraud, required the closure of …

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports: Ohio county boards of elections can offer off-site drop boxes and collection of voters’ absentee ballots, a federal judge ruled today. U.S. District Judge Dan Polster blocked Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s order, which prohibited off-site drop boxes. But the Republican elections chief will appeal. Democrats and voting right advocates pushed for more drop box …

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge has denied a motion to extend voter registration in Florida even though a computer meltdown on the final day of registration might have prevented thousands of potential voters from taking part in November’s presidential election. In a 29-page ruling on Friday morning, U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker said his decision was …

Politico reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his chief election official said the state has no reason to extend a voter registration deadline and that doing so would undermine the public’s faith in the upcoming presidential election. The argument was made late Wednesday in a filing with the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, where civil rights groups are suing after …

The Texas Tribune reports: The elections administrator of the state’s most populous county, an important Democratic stronghold, may not send out applications for mail-in ballots to all 2.4 million of the county’s registered voters, the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a rebuke of County Clerk Chris Hollins, whose office has worked to expand voting options beyond what is …

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court on Monday mostly reinstated a South Carolina law that requires absentee ballots to be accompanied by a witness’s signature. Lower courts had blocked the law, saying it interfered with the right to vote during a pandemic. The Supreme Court made an exception for ballots cast before it acted and received by election …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Civil-rights and voter-advocacy groups have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block an order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that dramatically reduced the number of drop-off locations for mail ballots. The lawsuit filed late Thursday could be the first of many legal challenges against Mr. Abbott’s order that assigns just one drop-off location in each …

The Washington Post reports: South Carolina Republicans asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to reinstate the witness signature requirement for mail ballots ahead of the November election, extending the legal turmoil over the rule even as tens of thousands of ballots have been sent to voters across the state. The request to the high court comes after the U.S. Court …

The Austin Statesman reports: Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order Thursday requiring counties to close multiple locations where voters can drop off completed mail-in ballots. As an election security measure, counties will be limited to one dropoff site where poll watchers — designated by political parties and candidates — must be allowed to observe ballot deliveries by voters, Abbott said. …

The Washington Post reports: Pennsylvania’s Republican legislative leaders asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to stop a decision by the state’s high court to count mail-in ballots received up to three days after Election Day. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Democrats’ favor on a number of mail-voting rules: permitting voters to turn in ballots via drop box in …

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: A conservative group has asked a federal judge to block Wisconsin’s five largest cities from accepting $6.3 million in grants to help stage November’s elections, calling the money bribes to increase turnout in Democratic strongholds. The nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life announced the grants in July. But in a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal …

The New York Daily News reports: President Trump refused to promise Thursday that he’ll accept the results of November’s election despite bipartisan outrage over his declining a day earlier to commit to a peaceful transition of power if Joe Biden wins. Speaking on the South Lawn of the White House before a trip to North Carolina, Trump reiterated his debunked …

The Charleston Post & Courier reports: South Carolina voters will need to get a witness signature for absentee ballots after a federal appeals court on Thursday put a halt on a lower court ruling that lifted the requirement. When the General Assembly temporarily allowed all South Carolina voters to cast absentee ballots for any reason this year because of the …

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: Voting-rights advocates say it could take some Cuyahoga County residents as long as 90 minutes in travel time to cast an absentee ballot at the county’s only drop box. Attorneys for the League of Women Voters and the NAACP of Ohio this week cited the difficulties of low-income residents as part of a filing in …

The New York Times reports: A group of Trump supporters waving campaign flags disrupted the second day of early voting in Fairfax, Va., on Saturday, chanting “four more years” as voters entered a polling location and, at one point, forming a line that voters had to walk around outside the site. County election officials eventually were forced to open up …

The Associated Press reports: A directive that restricted Ohio counties to one ballot drop box in November was arbitrary and unreasonable, a county judge ruled Tuesday, delivering the Republican secretary of state in the presidential battleground another in a series of blows to his policies. The office of Secretary of State Frank LaRose [photo] said he would soon appeal the …

The Washington Post reports: A federal appeals court on Friday blocked hundreds of thousands of felons in Florida who still owe fines and fees from registering to vote, putting a halt to what was potentially the nation’s largest re-enfranchisement of voters in more than 50 years. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta agreed with Florida …

The Texas Tribune reports: A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled late Thursday that Texas can keep its strict eligibility rules for voting by mail. Siding with the state’s Republican leadership, the appellate judges rejected the Texas Democratic Party’s effort to expand eligibility for voting by mail to all registered voters based on their argument …

The Associated Press reports: Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris says foreign interference, doubt cast about the election by President Donald Trump and voter suppression could potentially cost her and Joe Biden the White House in November. “We have classic voter suppression, we have what happened in 2016, which is foreign interference. We have a president who is trying to …