November 2020

Arizona: In Ward v. Jackson, the plaintiff, who is the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, filed a statement of election contest in Maricopa County Superior Court alleging that election officials failed to allow observation of the voter signature verification process as required by Arizona law, and that she should be entitled to a reasonable inspection of signatures. The plaintiff asks the court to annul Arizona's election and declare the state's certification of Biden electors to have no legal effect. Georgia: In Pearson v. Kemp, a legal team led by Sidney...

Arizona: In Arizona Republican Party v. Fontes, a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge granted the defendant's motion to dismiss in a case involving the hand count sampling method Arizona law required the county recorder to use. Georgia: In Wood v. Raffensperger, a U.S. District Judge denied plaintiffs' motion for a temporary restraining order seeking to block the certification of Georgia's vote due to an allegedly unlawful settlement agreement earlier entered into by the Secretary of State. Michigan: In Donald J. Trump for President v. Boockvar, the Trump campaign voluntarily dismissed its complaint...

Litigation related to the Presidential election continued this week with a number of new cases filed. Election Law at Ohio State created a subset of these cases available at go.osu.edu/pec. See below for updates by state. Arizona: In Trump v. Hobbs, the plaintiffs filed a notice indicating that due to the statewide vote tabulation, their claims related to Presidential electors are now moot. In Arizona Republican Party v. Fontes, the plaintiffs challenge the Maricopa County Recorder's process for conducting statutorily-required hand count sampling. Georgia: Two new federal lawsuits were filed challenging the...

On Saturday, numerous news organizations including the Associated Press "called" the Presidential race, declaring that former Vice President Joe Biden had won. Nevertheless, election cases remain pending around the country, including cases filed by President Donald Trump's campaign. President Trump has not conceded and has expressed an intention to proceed with litigation. Many lawsuits were filed in the days around Election Day, including in the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Courts rather quickly dismissed a fair number of these lawsuits, though some cases remain active including the...

Minnesota: In Carson v. Simon, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the decision of a district judge who had ruled that Republican electors did not have standing to challenge the extension by the Minnesota Secretary of State of the mail-in ballot receipt deadline. The Eighth Circuit panel concluded that the electors did have standing and that preliminary relief on their constitutional challenge to the deadline extension was warranted. The Eighth Circuit blocked the extension of the deadline and ordered that mail-in ballots arriving after...