Dem
49
GOP
51
Although they won't say it in public, Republicans know that in fair elections, they would usually lose outside of deep-red states. So they are making a huge effort to jigger the rules in their favor. In three key states, the RNC is suing to get the rules changed in its favor, although the issues are different in all of them.
In Michigan, every voter has a legal right to request an absentee ballot without giving any reason for doing so. The return envelopes must be signed by the voter. The lawsuit here is about signature verification. The RNC is claiming that the local election officials are not putting enough effort into verifying the signatures on the envelopes and the guidelines from Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) do not emphasize the need for very careful verification. The underlying tone is that if the signature on the ballot envelope looks a little different from the one the voter used when registering, possibly 50 years ago, the ballot should be chucked.
In Nevada, the lawsuit claims that Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar (D) is insufficiently vigorous in verifying that every person registering to vote is a U.S. citizen. The lawsuit claims that thousands of noncitizens have managed to register in Nevada and will vote in November. It is a crime for noncitizens to register and the registration form requires anyone registering to certify under penalty of perjury that they are eligible to vote. Aguilar responded to the lawsuit by saying: "Any claims of a widespread problem are false and only create distrust in our elections."
In North Carolina, the RNC's current lawsuit against the Board of Elections is its fourth one. It is about voter ID. The University of North Carolina issues students digital student IDs they can store on their smartphones. To verify the ID, the student has to use a fingerprint or faceprint. If it matches the one stored in the ID app, a green checkmark appears on the screen. The RNC is arguing that only paper IDs, which the university no longer issues, are valid. If the RNC wins the cases, no UNC students will be able to vote unless they have some paper ID, such as a U.S. passport. The RNC would be overjoyed if this happened.
In Pennsylvania, a key voting case has now ended. On Friday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that absentee ballots with no date on the envelope or an obviously incorrect date should be rejected, even if they arrive before Election Day.
In reality, the dates have no value, but state law requires them. If a ballot is received on time, it was obviously filled out on time, even if the voter forgets to fill in the date on the envelope. If a ballot has a date before Election Day but arrives too long after Election Day, it doesn't count. In other words, what actually matters is when the ballot arrives. Nothing in the process requires election officials even looking at the date on the envelope. But the state Supreme Court nevertheless ruled that it must be included on the envelope because state law says the "date" box must be filled in correctly.
Republicans see this as a big win because more Democrats vote absentee than Republicans, so more of the disqualified ballots are likely to be Democratic ballots. In such a closely fought race, every ballot counts. The instructions tell the voters to sign and date the envelope, but some voters still forget. As a consequence of the new ruling, there will undoubtedly be some ballots thrown out, although local elections offices could potentially give those voters the opportunity to cure their ballots if there is time. (V)