Those challenging no-excuse mail voting get day in court

Failed Republican officeseekers challenging last year’s pandemic-induced expansion of vote-by-mail will have to wait for a decision on whether their lawsuit against the state can proceed.

Former GOP congressional candidates John Paul Moran and Caroline Colarusso, state Senate hopeful Steven Hall, and state representative candidates Ingrid Centurion and Craig Valdez filed a lawsuit in Worcester Superior Court in late December challenging the constitutionality of the noexcuse mail-balloting system, which they say “encouraged unqualified individuals to vote, and did not ensure that the elections were either free or fair.”

They want the court to decertify the 2020 general election results, arrange a “re-vote” and prevent the state from using no-excuse mail-in and early voting again.

But in a hearing Thursday on the state’s motion to dismiss the complaint, Assistant Attorney General Adam Hornstine argued the suit is moot in part because the election has long been certified and the winners seated, and noted the candidates failed to raise objections to the system until after they lost the general election.

Hornstine also said the contested changes only applied to the 2020 elections, and that state lawmakers now have new bills about voting rules under consideration.

The fate of the lawsuit now rests in the hands of Judge Janet Kenton-Walker, who expressed skepticism Thursday about her authority to “set aside” the results of last November’s election.

“I could tell she was very skeptical of the re-vote idea,” Moran said afterward, however “there are many other aspects of the suit that are bulletproof violations of the (state) Constitution.”