With just over two months left in the 2022 term, Republicans and their allies have inundated the nation’s courts with election-related lawsuits, with more than half of the legal actions related to mail-in voting.
As of September 16, Republican-affiliated groups had filed 41 lawsuits, compared to seven last year and 13 at the same point in 2020, according to a modern report By Document of democracya group headed by a Democratic election lawyer Mark Elias.
The analysis found that the number of lawsuits filed by Democrats and their allies has remained relatively stable, with 35 lawsuits filed so far this year and 52 in 2021.
However, “there was a jump in the total number of voting-related cases between the years (76 so far in 2022 and 52 in 2021),” the analysis notes, adding that “the difference could be explained by an increase in GOP activity in the courts (41 lawsuits so far in 2022 and seven in 2021).”
Although Republicans and their allies actively filed lawsuits in only seven cases last year, they did not remain idle. Eighteen states passed restrictive voting laws in 2021, prompting immediate litigation from civil rights and voting rights groups, the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party. US Department of Justice. National and state Republican organizations have responded requests for intervention in almost every case– the analysis showed.
Until September 16 Documents of democracy analysts say they have tracked 76 lawsuits related to voting and elections. Of those cases, more than half (41) were brought by Republicans and their allies, representing “a 486 percent increase in the number of new lawsuits filed by GOP-affiliated groups from 2021 to 2022,” the report’s authors wrote.
Half of the lawsuits (22) filed this year include complaints about mail-in voting, which is legal in Pennsylvania and has been the subject of repeated legal attacks by the Republican Party and its allies.
Legal actions brought this year include cases challenging the deadlines for postal voting, the apply of the so-called drop boxessignature matching rules i voting hardening procedures, The report says they allow voters to correct errors on their ballots.
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“Some [Associated Press] questionnaire recently confirmed that even during the 2020 election year, when drop box apply increased due to a significant raise in the number of drop boxes due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there were no widespread drop box problems,” the report authors wrote.
According to the report, more than a dozen Republican-led lawsuits filed this year focused on the logistical aspects of running the election. This includes activities based on a conspiracy challenges against vote machines– results from the analysis.
“Among other lawsuits filed this year, one successfully blocked a pro-voting initiative from appearing on Arizona ballots this fall, two focused on post-election results, and four sought to limit voter registration opportunities,” the report authors wrote.
The analysis found that as the midterms approached, Republicans changed tactics away from attacking based on who can vote and what votes are counted for.
For example, September 1st Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit defiant “Pennsylvania county clerks have the authority to notify voters of technical errors related to mailed ballots and allow voters to correct simple errors to ensure their ballots are counted, a routine process known as ballot checking,” the report said.
Based on the proceedings so far, analysts say they expect “even more” legal actions to be filed in the run-up to Election Day on November 8.
“Even though the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic created a unique legal environment in which litigation on a range of voting laws continued ahead of the general election, the number of GOP lawsuits filed in 2022 already far outweighs the number of lawsuits filed in 2020.” ” – wrote the authors of the report.
