Court rulings could impact 2020 election

<p>Two decisions recently handed down by the federal court in Indianapolis could affect the general election in Indiana. </p><p>While both cases are still pending a decision from the higher Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, if the rulings are upheld, the decisions would impact local voters.</p><p>In a decision issued Sept. 29, Senior U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker from the Southern District of Indiana ruled that all votes that are postmarked by Nov. 3 and are counted on or prior to Nov. 13 will be counted.</p><p>In her decision, Barker said the traditional noon Election Day deadline will cause voter disenfranchisement given the high number of mail ballots that will be cast this general election and the potential for slow mail delivery.</p><p>“Election Day is set by law as November 3 all day on November 3 until the polls officially close,” Barker wrote. “Any voter casting a ballot has the right to do so within that time frame. The noon Election Day receipt deadline disadvantages — indeed, disenfranchises — voters who vote by mail-in ballot by cutting short the time period within which they are permitted to exercise this right even though, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the timely delivery of their ballots is outside their control.”</p><p>On Tuesday, Barker issued a stay on the decision, allowing for two weeks for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to make a decision on the case.</p><p>During June’s primary election, 76 ballots in Johnson County were left sealed and uncounted because they arrived after the deadline, said Trena McLaughlin, county clerk.</p><p>Because the clerk’s office is not required to notify voters their vote was received late, voters who submitted their ballot late will never know if their vote truly counted. The 76 uncounted votes from the primary were filed away with other election materials, McLaughlin said.</p><p>McLaughlin, along with the county’s absentee voting board, made a plan to allow all votes to be counted for fewer extra tax-payer dollars, she said. Additional hassle for county clerks and additional expenses were a key argument against extending the deadline, the Associated Press reported.</p><p>“I’ve already talked to our absentee board, which is a bi-partisan team. They are aware of it,” McLaughlin said. “Unless we have an extreme amount of ballots delivered late we will just process everything on the 13th.”</p><p>The hope with this plan is to avoid requesting extra poll worker pay, in a year when extra poll workers have already been needed, McLaughlin said.</p><p>To avoid late ballots as much as possible, McLaughlin suggests voters who might miss the deadline hand-deliver their ballot.</p><p>Voters can drop off their ballot at the clerk’s office in the courthouse basement, at 5 E. Jefferson St., Franklin, up until Election Day. Or voters can take their ballot to the Franklin Post Office, at 1265 N Main St., where postal workers will deliver ballots directly to the clerk’s post office box.</p><p>To make sure ballots reach the clerk’s office by Election Day, McLaughlin recommends mailing it at least one week before the election, she said. Overall, McLaughlin said local post offices have been a good partner for her office so far in this unprecedented election cycle.</p><p>“There’s always a slim chance something could happen but I think our post offices here in Johnson County have been doing a great job,” she said.</p><p>In a separate lawsuit involving absentee ballots, Barker ruled on Aug. 21 that ballots cannot be rejected solely on the basis of non-matching signatures. Barker’s ruling requires voters to be notified if there is an issue with a signature and allowed a hearing. Whereas in previous elections, election officials were able to reject a ballot that did not look legit without notification.</p><p>Another federal judge for Southern District of Indiana, U.S. District Judge Richard Young, issued a preliminary injunction allowing voters and candidates to petition local courts to extend voting hours in response to issues at the polls on Election Day.</p><p>This injunction pulls back a 2019 state law that requires voters to ask their local election board to petition a local judge, adding a step that Common Cause Indiana argued in their lawsuit was essentially “shutting the courthouse doors to voters.”</p><p>Young agreed with Common Cause that the law puts too much burden on voters and rejected arguments from the state that the regulations are necessary to protect the integrity of elections.</p><p>“If the Challenged Amendments are enjoined, Indiana voters will be able to go directly to court to seek an extension of hours,” Young wrote. “Indiana courts will again be able to grant relief when disenfranchising conditions occur at polling locations on Election Day.”</p><p>McLaughlin doesn’t expect the decision will have much impact on voters locally, she said.</p><p>When voting machines malfunctioned in Johnson County in 2018, a voter was able to file a petition with a local judge but the petition was rejected due to the hour it was received.</p><p>For rare cases when difficulties happen on Election Day, McLaughlin, who was not the clerk in 2018, said it is best for a bi-partisan body like the Election Board to submit any requests to keep polls open.</p><p>Outgoing Attorney General Curtis Hill came out against Young’s decision last week and filed a stay on the injunction in an attempt to keep the 2019 law intact.</p><p>Hill, in a statement, speculated the lawsuit could throw the election into chaos if many voters file petitions to keep polls open.</p><p>“This is but one of many lawsuits designed to throw our election system into chaos on Election Day,” Hill said. “The U.S. Supreme Court has said that courts should not issue election-related injunctions at the eleventh hour, but here we go again, with various left-leaning groups urging federal district courts to re-write the election laws and micromanage election procedures.”</p><p>The Associated Press and the Statehouse File contributed to this report.</p>