The 2020 election between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden is shaping up to be the most litigated in U.S. history, as changes to balloting prompted by the coronavirus pandemic spur lawsuits that could leave the outcome in suspense for days or even weeks.
A recent count by Loyola Marymount University law professor Justin Levitt found 154 cases already filed across 41 states and the District of Columbia. Many more are expected in the months ahead as Republicans, Democrats and advocacy groups battle over how to vote during a pandemic.
“Everybody is suing about everything,” Levitt said.
Many of the lawsuits center on the use of mail-in ballots, which is expected to surge to historic highs given concern about catching the virus while voting in person.
Trump, who’s lagging Biden by double digits in some polls and reorganized his campaign staff last week, frequently claims without evidence that vote-by-mail is rife with fraud and vulnerable to foreign forgeries. These attacks have fueled a broader effort by some Republicans to prevent voting by mail, including millions of dollars earmarked for lawsuits and advertising.
But lawsuits have also been filed seeking to halt other coronavirus-related voting measures that aim to consolidate polling places, ease signature requirements for those seeking to put initiatives or third-party candidates on the ballot, and allow more poll-watchers.
Levitt said each decision could end up affecting thousands of voters, and the combined effect could be enough to swing a closely fought contest.
Here’s a look at some of the major arguments in courtrooms across the country:
Consolidating Polling Places
What’s at stake: Elections officials say they need to reduce in-person voting, but voting-rights groups argue that could disenfranchise voters who don’t want to cast absentee ballots or can’t make it to early voting centers, the operation of which various from state to state.
The coronavirus forced many states to dramatically limit polling places during recent primaries. In Wisconsin there were just five polling places in Milwaukee, a city of about 600,000 people, down from 182 in 2016. Louisville’s residents, who also number about 600,000, had just a single polling place in Kentucky’s primary. Lawsuits have already been filed in six states and in Washington D.C. that sought to limit precinct closures, and legal experts say more are likely to be filed.