Trump campaign sues key Iowa counties over absentee mailings
4 years, 4 months ago

Trump campaign sues key Iowa counties over absentee mailings

Associated Press  

IOWA CITY, Iowa — President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has sued two Democratic-leaning Iowa counties that are making it easy to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to invalidate tens of thousands of voters’ absentee ballot applications. At issue are absentee ballot request forms that the counties are sending to registered voters with personal information already filled in, including their names, dates of birth and voting pin numbers. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, last month told auditors in an emergency election directive that request forms mailed to voters must be blank in order “to ensure uniformity.” Pate’s office has not taken any legal action to block the two counties’ mailings but said Thursday it is investigating their actions. Pate said that sending forms pre-filled with personal identifying information will give critics of absentee voting “an opportunity to question the validity of election results in those counties.” The GOP lawsuits argue that the auditors are violating Pate’s directive by prepopulating the forms and that any ballots cast in response to the mailings may be subject to legal challenge.

Law Trump Democratic Republican Voters Democrat County Ballot Gop Counties Miller Absentee Trump Campaign Pate Request Lawsuits Forms Linn Linn County Key Iowa  sues  county  ballot  voting  request  counties  absentee  forms  law  campaign  key  iowa  lawsuits  voters  trump  mailings

History of this topic

Iowa sues Biden administration seeking citizenship status of over 2,000 registered voters
3 weeks, 1 day ago

Iowa sues Biden administration seeking citizenship status of over 2,000 registered voters

LA Times  

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, shown in 2020, is seeking information from the federal government about the citizenship status of more than 2,000 registered voters whose eligibility was challenged by state elections officials in the weeks leading up to the 2024 election. Iowa officials sued the Biden administration Tuesday for access to information on the citizenship status of more …

Iowa election officials sued by 4 naturalized citizens who say their right to vote was harmed
1 month, 3 weeks ago

Iowa election officials sued by 4 naturalized citizens who say their right to vote was harmed

LA Times  

Four voters and a Latino civil rights group sued Iowa’s top election official, alleging he infringed upon their rights when he directed election workers to challenge some voters’ ballots in an attempt to keep ineligible noncitizens from illegally voting. Pate’s office said last week that it provided county auditors with a list of 2,022 people who told the state’s Department …

GOP lawsuits about an obscure immigration database may set up election challenges
2 months ago

GOP lawsuits about an obscure immigration database may set up election challenges

NPR  

GOP lawsuits about an obscure immigration database may set up election challenges toggle caption Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP via Getty Images As former President Donald Trump and his allies spread baseless conspiracy theories about Democrats bringing in noncitizens to vote illegally, GOP state officials are escalating last-minute demands on the Biden administration to check the citizenship of voters on their …

Advocates urge Ohio to restore voter registrations removed in alleged violations of federal law
2 months, 2 weeks ago

Advocates urge Ohio to restore voter registrations removed in alleged violations of federal law

Associated Press  

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Voter advocacy organizations have put Ohio’s Republican elections chief on notice that voters are being systematically removed from the rolls in several counties in alleged violation of federal law. A letter sent Thursday to Secretary of State Frank LaRose, just days ahead of Ohio’s Monday registration deadline, said the manner in which batches of voters suspected of …

The first general election ballots are going in the mail as the presidential contest nears
3 months, 1 week ago

The first general election ballots are going in the mail as the presidential contest nears

Associated Press  

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The first general election ballots for the presidential race are going out Wednesday as Alabama officials begin mailing them to absentee voters with the Nov. 5 contest less than two months away. Long said her office received ballots on Tuesday and will begin mailing absentee ballots on Wednesday morning to voters who applied for them and to …

Restrictions on absentee ballot help in Alabama are being challenged in a lawsuit
8 months, 2 weeks ago

Restrictions on absentee ballot help in Alabama are being challenged in a lawsuit

Associated Press  

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama law that criminalizes certain types of assistance with absentee ballot applications is being challenged in court by groups who say it “turns civic and neighborly voter engagement into a serious crime.” The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and other groups are plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in federal court. …

Indiana Senate backs GOP bill tightening mail voter rules
1 year, 8 months ago

Indiana Senate backs GOP bill tightening mail voter rules

Associated Press  

INDIANAPOLIS — A Republican-backed proposal that would require Indiana voters to submit more identification information to obtain mail-in ballots was endorsed Monday by the state Senate despite objections from opponents that it would make voting more difficult for many people. Senators voted 36-12 in favor of the bill, which would require voters submitting a paper application for a mail ballot …

Lawmakers hold public hearing on competing voter ID bills
1 year, 9 months ago

Lawmakers hold public hearing on competing voter ID bills

Associated Press  

— Nebraska lawmakers held a public hearing Wednesday on competing bills to address ways to enact a voter ID requirement approved by voters last November. It also proposes making primary and general election days state holidays to get more people to the polls, but Erdman testified Wednesday that he’s considering dumping that proposal as “it may be too cost prohibitive.” …

Republicans push plan tightening Indiana mail voting rules
1 year, 10 months ago

Republicans push plan tightening Indiana mail voting rules

Associated Press  

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Republicans endorsed a new attempt Wednesday to toughen laws on mail-in voting amid the national specter of voter fraud claims despite opponents arguing the steps would unnecessarily add hurdles for people seeking to legally cast election ballots. The House elections committee voted 9-4 along party lines to advance the proposal that would require voters submitting a paper …

Bogus ballot requests latest issue in Wisconsin elections
2 years, 4 months ago

Bogus ballot requests latest issue in Wisconsin elections

Associated Press  

MADISON, Wis. — Harry Wait was so determined to show Wisconsin’s election system is vulnerable to fraud that he logged onto the state website, requested an absentee ballot in the state Assembly speaker’s name and had it delivered to himself. No one was ultimately prosecuted and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul called Schmaling’s demands a “disgraceful publicity stunt.” Schmaling said …

House OKs banning online absentee applications, SOS mailings
2 years, 9 months ago

House OKs banning online absentee applications, SOS mailings

Associated Press  

LANSING, Mich. — The Republican-controlled Michigan House voted Thursday to prohibit digital signatures on absentee ballot applications and to ban unsolicited mailings of applications to voters, advancing more election bills that are unlikely to be signed by the Democratic governor. Republicans said they would increase voters’ confidence in elections and make voting more secure after the 2018 approval of a …

Michigan Republicans OK tougher voting rules; gov to veto
3 years, 2 months ago

Michigan Republicans OK tougher voting rules; gov to veto

Associated Press  

LANSING, Mich. — The Republican-led Michigan Legislature on Thursday approved tougher voter ID requirements and a ban against mass mailing of unsolicited absentee ballot applications, finalizing bills that will be vetoed by Democratic Gov. The legislation headed to Whitmer would require voters who request an absentee ballot to write their driver’s license number, state ID number or the last four …

Indiana panel drops contentious requirement from voting bill
3 years, 8 months ago

Indiana panel drops contentious requirement from voting bill

Associated Press  

INDIANAPOLIS — A legislative committee has overhauled a contentious proposal to require Indiana voters to submit identification numbers with mail-in ballot applications. Changes to the bill approved Thursday by the House elections committee will only require submission of a voter’s Indiana driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number with online mail ballot applications. Committee …

Proposed Indiana voting law change faces corporate criticism
3 years, 8 months ago

Proposed Indiana voting law change faces corporate criticism

Associated Press  

INDIANAPOLIS — One of Indiana’s most prominent corporations is criticizing an Indiana proposal that opponents maintain will make mail-in voting more difficult by requiring voters to submit identification numbers with their ballot applications. Stephen Fry, Eli Lilly and Co.’s senior vice president for human resources and diversity, told a legislative committee Tuesday that the company believed the bill wasn’t needed …

Republican claims lack of election confidence due to Trump's lies is the 'ultimate voter suppression'
3 years, 9 months ago

Republican claims lack of election confidence due to Trump's lies is the 'ultimate voter suppression'

Raw Story  

On March 8, Republican Iowa Gov. Republican state legislators in Iowa, embracing false and dangerous claims about voter fraud, are fast-tracking a bill that would add restrictions to early and absentee voting. While the exact proposals are still being debated, the legislation is expected to reduce the number of early voting days, limit when election officials can mail absentee ballot …

GOP bill would slash voting by mail and early voting in Iowa
3 years, 10 months ago

GOP bill would slash voting by mail and early voting in Iowa

Associated Press  

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa’s Republican-controlled Legislature advanced a bill Wednesday to significantly limit voting by mail and early voting, threaten criminal charges against county auditors who depart from state election guidance and remove many inactive voters from the rolls. It would bar counties from mailing absentee ballot applications to voters, tightly regulate how absentee ballots can be returned and …

Minnesota SOS: Too late to mail ballots -- but not to vote
4 years, 1 month ago

Minnesota SOS: Too late to mail ballots -- but not to vote

Associated Press  

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s secretary of state said Thursday it’s too late for voters to mail back their absentee ballots if they want to make sure their votes count, after an appeals court ruling indicated that mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day are at risk of being invalidated. Simon said voters who still have absentee ballots in hand may drop them …

Iowa Supreme Court sides with GOP over absentee ballot forms
4 years, 2 months ago

Iowa Supreme Court sides with GOP over absentee ballot forms

Associated Press  

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa’s highest court upheld a state directive Wednesday that was used to invalidate tens of thousands of absentee ballot requests mailed to voters pre-filled with their personal information. The Iowa Supreme Court issued its ruling in favor of President Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican groups as Trump held an evening rally in Des Moines. Pate instructed …

Iowa Supreme Court puts ruling on absentee forms on hold
4 years, 2 months ago

Iowa Supreme Court puts ruling on absentee forms on hold

Associated Press  

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court on Tuesday swiftly granted a request from Republican groups to stay a judge’s ruling that blocked enforcement of an order that has been used to invalidate tens of thousands of absentee ballot requests. At issue is Monday’s ruling by Judge Robert Hanson that would block Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate from …

Iowa Supreme Court urged to halt absentee ballot request law
4 years, 2 months ago

Iowa Supreme Court urged to halt absentee ballot request law

Associated Press  

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court is being urged by Democrats and a Latino civil rights group to block a new Republican-backed law that could leave thousands of requesters without absentee ballots. Majority Forward, a group aligned with Senate Democrats, and the League of Latino United Citizens have asked the high court to put the new law on …

Judge upholds GOP law making absentee voting harder in Iowa
4 years, 2 months ago

Judge upholds GOP law making absentee voting harder in Iowa

Associated Press  

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A judge is refusing to block a new Republican-backed Iowa law that makes it harder for county officials to process absentee ballot applications and more likely that incomplete requests won’t be fulfilled. The Trump campaign and Republican Party groups have already invalidated tens of thousands of absentee ballot applications returned by voters in three counties. At …

2 Republicans challenge Minnesota plan for late mail ballots
4 years, 3 months ago

2 Republicans challenge Minnesota plan for late mail ballots

Associated Press  

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Republican state representative and a GOP activist are challenging an agreement to accept mail-in ballots in Minnesota that arrive up to a week after the November election, adding to the nationwide legal fight over voting rules before the presidential election. The lawsuit states the agreement by Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, violates federal …

Iowa Supreme Court lets rulings on absentee requests stand
4 years, 3 months ago

Iowa Supreme Court lets rulings on absentee requests stand

Associated Press  

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court is refusing to review lower court decisions that invalidated tens of thousands of voters’ absentee ballot requests at the urging of President Trump’s reelection campaign. The counties sent absentee ballot requests to registered voters filled with their personal information, including names, addresses, dates of birth and voting pin numbers. Judges Ian Thornhill …

Appeals court: Mass mailing of absent ballot applications OK
4 years, 3 months ago

Appeals court: Mass mailing of absent ballot applications OK

Associated Press  

LANSING, Mich. — Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s mass mailing of unsolicited absentee ballot applications to millions of 2020 voters was deemed legal by Michigan’s appeals court, which ruled Wednesday she had “inherent” authority to act under a 2018 constitutional amendment expanding voting rights. Benson, a Democrat, began sending the applications in May to all voters in the battleground state …

Judge voids absentee ballot requests in Johnson County
4 years, 3 months ago

Judge voids absentee ballot requests in Johnson County

Associated Press  

IOWA CITY, Iowa — An Iowa judge has again sided with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and voided more than 90,000 absentee ballot requests in Johnson County. It’s the third county in Iowa to have the ballot request forms voided after Trump’s campaign and state and national Republican Party groups challenged county election officials who mailed the forms to voters with …

Wisconsin court sets up possible delay in absentee mailing
4 years, 3 months ago

Wisconsin court sets up possible delay in absentee mailing

Associated Press  

MADISON, Wis. — The conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a halt in the mailing of absentee ballots until it gives the go-ahead or makes any future ruling about who should be on the ballot in the critical battleground state. The ruling came in a lawsuit by Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins, who asked the state’s highest court …

Judge may void thousands more Iowa absentee ballot requests
4 years, 3 months ago

Judge may void thousands more Iowa absentee ballot requests

Associated Press  

IOWA CITY, Iowa — An Iowa judge who nullified 50,000 absentee ballot requests in Iowa’s second-largest county seems ready to void thousands more in a neighboring county at the urging of President Trump’s reelection campaign. Judge Ian Thornhill heard arguments Wednesday in Johnson County, the state’s most Democratic-leaning, in a similar request for an injunction sought by Trump’s campaign and …

2nd Iowa judge backs GOP, rules ballot requests invalid
4 years, 3 months ago

2nd Iowa judge backs GOP, rules ballot requests invalid

Associated Press  

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — A second Iowa judge has ruled in favor of President Donald Trump’s campaign and ordered a county to invalidate at least 14,000 absentee ballot requests. In his ruling issued Friday evening, Judge Patrick Tott found that Woodbury County elections commissioner Patrick Gill acted improperly when he sent absentee ballot request forms to 57,000 registered voters that …

Judge voids 50,000 absentee ballot requests in Iowa county
4 years, 3 months ago

Judge voids 50,000 absentee ballot requests in Iowa county

Associated Press  

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A judge ordered an Iowa county Thursday to invalidate 50,000 requests for absentee ballots, agreeing with President Donald Trump’s campaign that its elections commissioner overstepped his authority by pre-filling them with voters’ personal information. At issue was Miller’s decision to send absentee ballot request forms to 140,000 voters in July that were already filled with their …

Trump campaign sues 3rd Iowa county over absentee mailings
4 years, 4 months ago

Trump campaign sues 3rd Iowa county over absentee mailings

Associated Press  

IOWA CITY, Iowa — President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and Republican Party groups are suing a third Iowa county, seeking to invalidate thousands of absentee ballot request forms that have been returned by voters. The lawsuit against Woodbury County’s top elections official, made public Monday, expands the GOP’s efforts to make it harder for voters and local officials to handle …

Vote-by-mail worries: A ‘leaky pipeline’ in many states
4 years, 4 months ago

Vote-by-mail worries: A ‘leaky pipeline’ in many states

Associated Press  

BOSTON — Brace yourself for what’s expected to be the first U.S. presidential election conducted mostly by mail. That’s because processing absentee ballots is a complex, multi-step process in most states: Voter fills out application, mails it to local election office; local election office verifies voter’s eligibility, sends back ballot; voter completes ballot, signs envelope, returns it. In Georgia’s Fulton …

Fact check: Another Trump briefing, more Trump falsehoods on coronavirus and mail-in voting
4 years, 4 months ago

Fact check: Another Trump briefing, more Trump falsehoods on coronavirus and mail-in voting

CNN  

Washington CNN — President Donald Trump’s Monday afternoon appearance in the White House briefing room was replete with the now-familiar Trump fare: dishonestly upbeat assessments of the pandemic situation, a series of inaccurate claims related to mail-in ballots and exaggerations about his own accomplishments. He said a bit later that “there’s fraudulent ballots,” this time omitting the “I guess.” Facts …

Trump campaign sues over mail-in drop-off sites for ballots
4 years, 5 months ago

Trump campaign sues over mail-in drop-off sites for ballots

Associated Press  

HARRISBURG, Pa. — President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, the national Republican Party and four western Pennsylvania members of Congress sued Monday to force changes to how the state collects and counts mail-in ballots under revamped rules. The federal lawsuit filed in Pittsburgh claims that as voters jumped to make use of the greatly broadened eligibility for mail-in ballots during the …

Iowa governor signs bill limiting absentee ballot requests
4 years, 5 months ago

Iowa governor signs bill limiting absentee ballot requests

Associated Press  

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed into law a bill that limits the secretary of state’s ability to send absentee ballot requests to all registered voters, a move that followed a record turnout in this year’s primary election largely because of a surge in absentee voting. Senate Republicans pushed the measure through the legislature barely a …

Trump claims without evidence that mail voting leads to cheating: A guide to facts on absentee ballots
4 years, 6 months ago

Trump claims without evidence that mail voting leads to cheating: A guide to facts on absentee ballots

LA Times  

Mail-in ballots are sorted before being tallied at the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office on Nov. 7, 2018, in Norwalk, Calif. President Trump escalated his unsubstantiated attacks on mail voting Monday, claiming with no evidence that expanding the practice would lead to foreign governments printing counterfeit ballots and cause the “election disaster of our times.” “Because of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, 2020 …

Trump: Mail-in voting presents ‘biggest risk’ to reelection
4 years, 6 months ago

Trump: Mail-in voting presents ‘biggest risk’ to reelection

Associated Press  

ATLANTA — President Donald Trump on Friday said the growing use of mail-in ballots is the “biggest risk” to his reelection, and his chances may hinge on whether he can successfully block efforts to make voting by mail easier during the pandemic. Wisconsin, a state that swung to Trump in 2016, decided this week to send absentee ballot requests to …

Minnesota waives absentee ballot witness signature mandate
4 years, 6 months ago

Minnesota waives absentee ballot witness signature mandate

Associated Press  

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota will waive its witness requirements for absentee ballots for the statewide primary election in August under the settlement of two lawsuits sparked by the health threat from the coronavirus pandemic. Under the settlements, Simon agreed that mailed-in absentee ballots for the primary will be accepted even if they don’t have witness signatures, and that ballots received within …

Discover Related