Major Pending Election Cases

Mecinas v. Hobbs

Filing Date:

November 1, 2019

Status:

resolved

State:

Arizona

Topic:

Ballot Design

Most Recent Court:

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (20-16301)

Issue(s):

Whether Arizona's ballot design, which features the candidate's name vertically with the order determined based on political party, is valid under law.

S.P.S. ex rel. Short v. Raffensperger

Filing Date:

November 1, 2019

Status:

resolved

State:

Georgia

Topic:

Ballot Design

Most Recent Court:

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Case 1:19-cv-04960)

Issue(s):

Plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of a Georgia law mandating that candidates be listed on the ballot in “descending order” based on the number of votes cast for the candidates of the political parties for Governor in the last gubernatorial election.

Gilby (TX Democratic Party) v. Hughs

Filing Date:

October 30, 2019

Status:

resolved

State:

Texas

Topics:

Early Voting, Improper Election Administration

Most Recent Court:

U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit (Case 20-50683)

Issue(s):

Plaintiffs challenge HB 1888, which they argue effectively bans temporary or "mobile" early voting sites by requiring that every early voting location operate for eight hours each weekday and stay open for the same number of weekdays as the main early voting location in the county. Plaintiffs argue that this is a violation of the First, Fourteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments.

Priorities USA v. Benson

Filing Date:

October 30, 2019

Status:

resolved

State:

Michigan

Topic:

Absentee Ballots

Most Recent Court:

U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (Case 19-cv-13188)

Issue(s):

Case concerns a constitutional challenge to Michigan's signature match laws, which require election officials to reject absentee applications and ballots if they determine that the signature provided with the applications or ballots does not match the voter's signature on file with election authorities.

Jones v. DeSantis

Filing Date:

June 28, 2019

Status:

resolved

State:

Florida

Topics:

Felon Voting Rights, Voter Suppression, Voting Rights Act

Most Recent Court:

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (Case 20-12003)

Issue(s):

Plaintiffs challenge Florida's requirement that payment of all restitution, fees, or fines ordered by the court as part of the sentence is a condition of voting rights restoration, arguing that the requirement violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Voting Rights Act, and Article VI, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution.

Fair Fight Action v. Raffensperger

Filing Date:

November 27, 2018

Status:

resolved

State:

Georgia

Topic:

Voter Suppression

Most Recent Court:

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Case 1:18-cv-05391)

Issue(s):

Whether the Secretary of State's office and the state election board systematically blocked minority voters from the polls in the Nov. 6th, 2018 election.

Secretary, State of Georgia v. Common Cause Georgia

Filing Date:

November 5, 2018

Status:

resolved

State:

Georgia

Topic:

State Voter Registration Databases

Most Recent Court:

U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit (Case 20-12388)

Issue(s):

Whether Georgia's maintenance of an allegedly unsecure voter registration database violates the 14th Amendment, the Help America Vote Act, the Georgia Constitution, and Georgia statutory law.

Georgia Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda v. Raffensperger

Filing Date:

October 11, 2018

Status:

resolved

State:

Georgia

Topic:

Voter Registration

Most Recent Court:

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Case 1:18-cv-04727)

Issue(s):

Whether Georgia's exact-match voter registration protocol violates the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act, as well as the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Jacobson v. Lee

Filing Date:

May 24, 2018

Status:

resolved

State:

Florida

Topic:

Ballot Design

Most Recent Court:

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (Case 19-14552)

Issue(s):

Plaintiffs challenge Florida's law mandating that candidates of the political party of the Governor be listed first on the ballot, alleging that it gives an unfair advantage.

Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee

SCOTUS Watchlist:

Yes

Filing Date:

April 15, 2016

Status:

resolved

State:

Arizona

Topics:

Absentee Ballots, Provisional Ballots, Voter Suppression

Most Recent Court:

U.S. Supreme Court (Case 19-1258 and 19-1257)

Issue(s):

Whether Arizona's policy of not counting out-of-precinct provisional ballots violates section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Whether an Arizona law prohibiting individuals from collecting the early ballots of others (aka "ballot harvesting") violates section 2 the Voting Rights Act because it disproportionately and adversely impacts minorities and unjustifiably burdens the right to vote.

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