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The Supreme Court may tip the 2020 elections
From https://www.economist.com/united-states/2020/08/31/the-supreme-court-may-tip-the-2020-elections
The Supreme Court may tip the 2020 elections
Its rulings on a rush of deceptively low-profile cases could prove decisiveand divisive
United States
Aug 31st 2020
NEW YORK
TWENTY YEARS after Bush v Gore, the Supreme Court is again poised to influence a presidential election. Whether this involves the drama of another clinching verdict after a close result is to be seen. But the nine justices are already shaping the race through small decisions on voting rules, reached without a hearing and often with little written explanation.
Litigation over voting always increases before elections, but 2020 is setting records. The rival campaigns are funding a raft of lawsuits, including at least 226 related to the pandemic across 43 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Most involve Democratic moves to expand voting opportunities or Republican efforts to quash them (wider access to the ballot typically helps Democrats). In Pennsylvania, for instance, the Democratic governor and Republican legislature are locked in a battle over how to handle an expected deluge of ballots sent by mail. The Trump campaign is suing there, as well as in Nevada and New Jersey. Mr Trump claims, with little evidence, that these states plans to expand postal ballotingincluding the use of drop boxesinvite voter fraud.
In the Nevada case, his lawyers also oppose an increase in the number of polling stations in more populous counties. They say this violates a principle in Bush v Gorethe 5-4 decision halting a recount in Floridathat requires states to provide uniform treatment for all voters. But by its own lights, Bush v Gore was limited to the present circumstances of the 2000 election since the duty of treating voters even-handedly presents many complexities.
Many of this years voting quarrels are bound to end up at the Supreme Court, where the conservative majority has shown little interest in expanding voter participation. In Republican National Committee v Democratic National Committee, the justices split 5-4 in April on whether to make absentee voting easier in the Wisconsin primary. The coronavirus had prompted many Wisconsinites to opt to vote by mail, but as many as 12,000 ballots had not yet reached their mailboxes on the eve of election day. A lower court said that, given the circumstances, absentee ballots could be counted as long as they arrived at counting stations no more than six days later. But the Supreme Court blocked that fix; it said changing the rules so close to an election would inspire judicially created confusion. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was unimpressed. It boggles the mind, she wrote in her dissent, that the court would risk massive disenfranchisement by treating voting during a pandemic as no different from an ordinary election.
[...]
Its rulings on a rush of deceptively low-profile cases could prove decisiveand divisive
United States
Aug 31st 2020
NEW YORK
TWENTY YEARS after Bush v Gore, the Supreme Court is again poised to influence a presidential election. Whether this involves the drama of another clinching verdict after a close result is to be seen. But the nine justices are already shaping the race through small decisions on voting rules, reached without a hearing and often with little written explanation.
Litigation over voting always increases before elections, but 2020 is setting records. The rival campaigns are funding a raft of lawsuits, including at least 226 related to the pandemic across 43 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Most involve Democratic moves to expand voting opportunities or Republican efforts to quash them (wider access to the ballot typically helps Democrats). In Pennsylvania, for instance, the Democratic governor and Republican legislature are locked in a battle over how to handle an expected deluge of ballots sent by mail. The Trump campaign is suing there, as well as in Nevada and New Jersey. Mr Trump claims, with little evidence, that these states plans to expand postal ballotingincluding the use of drop boxesinvite voter fraud.
In the Nevada case, his lawyers also oppose an increase in the number of polling stations in more populous counties. They say this violates a principle in Bush v Gorethe 5-4 decision halting a recount in Floridathat requires states to provide uniform treatment for all voters. But by its own lights, Bush v Gore was limited to the present circumstances of the 2000 election since the duty of treating voters even-handedly presents many complexities.
Many of this years voting quarrels are bound to end up at the Supreme Court, where the conservative majority has shown little interest in expanding voter participation. In Republican National Committee v Democratic National Committee, the justices split 5-4 in April on whether to make absentee voting easier in the Wisconsin primary. The coronavirus had prompted many Wisconsinites to opt to vote by mail, but as many as 12,000 ballots had not yet reached their mailboxes on the eve of election day. A lower court said that, given the circumstances, absentee ballots could be counted as long as they arrived at counting stations no more than six days later. But the Supreme Court blocked that fix; it said changing the rules so close to an election would inspire judicially created confusion. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was unimpressed. It boggles the mind, she wrote in her dissent, that the court would risk massive disenfranchisement by treating voting during a pandemic as no different from an ordinary election.
[...]
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The Supreme Court may tip the 2020 elections (Original Post)
sl8
Sep 2020
OP
Democracy and the future of the world may depend upon the solitary vote of one Justice.
no_hypocrisy
Sep 2020
#1
no_hypocrisy
(46,020 posts)1. Democracy and the future of the world may depend upon the solitary vote of one Justice.
OMG.
Chipper Chat
(9,672 posts)2. Three words
Sandra day O'Conner
sl8
(13,665 posts)3. Counting on the unelected branch to save democracy. Ironic. n/t