ELECTION CHANGES
Please bookmark our litigation tracker for a complete summary of the latest developments in every lawsuit regarding changes to elections and voting procedures as a result of the coronavirus.
• Arizona: Members of the Navajo Nation have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to require Arizona to count ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and received up to 10 days afterward for tribal members living on reservations. The plaintiffs cited the long-running lack of postal service accessibility and timely delivery on reservations compared to the more urban parts of the state.
• New Jersey: Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has signed several voting-related bills into law, including provisions that will implement full voting-by-mail for November, require local officials to set up drop boxes for returning mail ballots, and require officials to notify voters and give them a chance to fix problems with their mail ballots such as the voter's signature supposedly not matching the one on file. While Murphy had previously issued an executive order to mail ballots to all registered voters this November, the Trump campaign and GOP organizations are waging a lawsuit over it in federal court, thus Democrats having passed the same measure legislatively could render that litigation moot.
Additionally, one other newly signed law extends the deadline by when ballots that are postmarked by Election Day must be received by election officials, pushing it back from two days after Election Day to up to six days afterward. Ballots that are missing postmarks but are received by officials up to two days after the polls close will be presumed valid and counted, too.
• Oklahoma: Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has issued an executive order extending voting provisions through November that had been in place for the primary that somewhat ease the requirements for voting absentee by mail. Stitt's order suspends a requirement that voters get their ballot signed by a notary, but it adds a requirement that voters include a photocopy of their ID, which may be especially burdensome for certain voters with limited transportation options amid social distancing. Stitt's order comes amid an ongoing Democratic lawsuit to suspend both the notary and photocopy ID requirements, which remains pending before a lower federal court.
• Virginia: Both chambers of Virginia's Democratic legislature have passed versions of bills to prepay the postage on absentee mail ballots, enable the use of drop boxes for returning them, and waive the witness requirement for casting a mail ballot. While a federal court recently approved an agreement to suspend the witness requirement due to the pandemic, passing this change legislatively could thwart the GOP's effort to continue fighting it in court. One chamber must pass the same version of the bills as the other before they go to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam for his expected signature.
