Litigating the election
President Donald Trump has shown nothing like systemic fraud in any of the lawsuitsthat his campaign and allies have filed since Election Day as they seek to block certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College. The suits include allegations of fraud or depend on the theory that differences among counties in verifying or including absentee ballots amount to a violation of a voter’s constitutional right to equal protection. Here is a rundown of the cases and their statuses.
MICHIGAN
Costantino v. Detroit
Filed : Nov. 9
Claim: The plaintiffs were two poll challengers— representatives of the Republican Party allowed to monitor the vote counting — who alleged fraud and misconduct during the vote count. The lawsuit asked the court to block certification of the election results inWayne County (which includes Detroit), where more than 867,000 people voted.
The plaintiffs claimed that election workers were instructed “to not verify signatures on absentee ballots, to backdate absentee ballots, and to process such ballots regardless of their validity.” Status: Chief Judge Timothy Kenny denied the petition Nov. 13. Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v. Benson
Filed : Nov. 11
Claim: This is a federal suit that repeats the claims in Costantino v. Detroit.
Status: On Thursday, the Trump campaign dropped the suit.
Bally v. Whitmer
Filed: Nov. 11
Claim: Four voters sought to exclude all of the votes cast in three counties fromMichigan’s total based on allegations of fraud and irregularities.
Context: This is one of the four suits brought by James Bopp, a conservative lawyer. The suits all claim that the unverified accounts of fraud amount to a violation of the plaintiffs’ right to equal protection, by “diluting” the power of their votes.
Status: On Monday, the suit was dropped.
Johnson v. Benson
Filed: Sunday
Claims: Two voters who were also poll challengers in Detroit made allegations about the counting process similar to the ones that Judge Kenny rejected in Costantino v. Detroit.
Status: The plaintiffs dropped their suitWednesday.
Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v. Benson
Filed: Nov. 4
Claim: During the ballot counting in Michigan, the Trump campaign sued to stop it. In an affidavit, one poll watcher said another told her that she was told by still other poll workers to change the date on which a ballot was received. Status: Judge Cynthia Stephens dismissed the suit on Nov. 5, characterizing it as hearsay. Stoddard, et.al. v City Election Commission of the City of Detroit Filed : Nov. 4
Claim: A Republican poll challenger and the Election Integrity Fund, a nonprofit organization, sued to stop election workers in Detroit fromhand-duplicating ballots that could not be read by a machine.
Status: Judge Kenny dismissed the suit on Nov. 6.
PENNSYLVANIA
In re: Canvass of Absentee and Mail-In Ballots of Nov. 3, 2020, General Election
Filed: Nov. 10
Claim: On behalf of a voter, the Trump campaign appealed the decision by the Philadelphia County Board of Elections to count five categories of mail-in ballots. Pennsylvania law provides that votersmust sign and “fill out” an outer envelope (as well as include an inner security envelope when they return their ballots). This suit challenges 8,349 ballots with minor errors on the outer envelopes.
Status: On Friday, Judge James Crumlish denied all of the challenges.
Pirkle v. Wolf
Filed : Nov. 10
Claim: Four voters sought to block all votes fromPhiladelphia, Montgomery, Delaware and Alle
gheny Counties from being included in the state total, claiming that the state violated the right to equal protection by allowing differing absentee balloting practices among counties.
Context: The election systemin the United States is highly decentralized and gives considerable authority to state and county officials over how to run elections. As a result, it is common for states to allow some variation in local election practices.
Status: On Monday, the case was dropped, along with the other three brought by Bopp.
Donald J. Trump for President v. Boockvar
Filed: Nov. 9
Claim: The Trump campaign is seeking to block the certification of the Pennsylvania election, alleging fraud in mail-in balloting, insufficient access for poll observers and varying procedures for curing ballots among different counties.
Context: On Election Day, Judge Paul Diamond granted a modest accommodation, ordering the city election commission to allow poll observers tomove closer to the counting.
Status: Pending.
Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v. Bucks County Board of Elections Filed : Nov. 9
Claim: The Trump campaign and others appealed the decision of the Bucks County Board of Elections to count 2,175 ballots with minor errors on the outer envelope. The suit also challenged 76 ballots that arrived in unsealed inner envelopes or with markings on them.
Status: Pending.
Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v. Montgomery County Board of Elections
Filed : Nov. 5
Claim: The Trump campaign and others sued the Montgomery County Board of Elections for notifying voters before Election Day to allow them to fill in missing information on ballot envelopes.
Status: On Nov. 13, Haaz denied the petition.
Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. et al v. Boockvar et al
Filed : Nov. 4
Claim: The Trump campaign and others challenged guidance that Boockvar provided to counties before the election, allowing them to tell absentee voters they had until Nov. 12 to providemissing proof of identification.
Context: Pennsylvania law normally sets a deadline for six days after the election, Nov. 9 this year, for providing missing voter ID. Boockvar, the secretary of state, extended the deadline to Nov. 12. The extension applied to only a small number of ballots with missing ID that arrived between Nov. 3 and Nov. 6.
Status: On Nov. 12, Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt ordered this narrow category of ballots to be excluded from the state count. This is the Trump campaign’s only win so far in postelection litigation.
Republican Party of Pennsylvania v. Boockvar
Filed : Nov. 6
Claim: The Pennsylvania Republican Party asked the Supreme Court to block the counting of ballots received between the end of Election Day and Nov. 6. Context: In September, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that these ballots could be counted if they were postmarked by Nov. 3. In October, in a 4-to-4 split, the U.S. Supreme Court let the state court ruling stand. The late-arriving ballots were segregated from the rest of the count.
In the end, there were fewer than 10,000 such votes. They have not been included in the reported state total.
Status: On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing. The Supreme Court has yet to say whether it will hear an appeal.
ARIZONA
Donald J. Trump for President Inc. v. Hobbs
Filed : Nov. 9
Claims: The Trump campaign claimed that some ballots in Maricopa County were filled out with bleeding Sharpie pens, causing an “overvote” on the other side.
Status: On Friday, the Trump campaign dropped the suit.
NEVADA
Stokke v. Cegavske
Filed : Nov. 5
Claims: Two voters, a poll observer and elected officials, backed by the Trump campaign, claimed there were problems with an automated signature verification machine in Clark County.
Status: Judge Andrew Gordon denied the plaintiff’s request on Nov. 6 for lack of evidence.
Law v. Whitmer
Filed: Tuesday
Claims: Without evidence, several voters, on behalf of the Trump campaign, alleged improprieties and fraud in the election system of Clark County. The plaintiffs objected to the use of a sorting and scanningmachine used for signature verification.
Status: Pending.
GEORGIA
Brooks v. Mahoney
Filed : Nov. 11
Claim: Four Republican voters sued over the process of absentee vote counting in several Georgia counties, seeking to exclude all of the votes cast in them fromthe state total.
Status: On Monday, the case was dropped, along with the other three brought by Bopp.
In re: enforcement of election laws Filed: Nov. 4
Claim: The Trump campaign sued to prevent ballots frombeing counted if they were received after 7 p.m. on Election Day. Status: Judge James Bass dismissed the case on Nov. 5 for lack of evidence.
WISCONSIN
Langenhorst v. Pecore
Filed: Nov. 12
Claim: Four voters sought to exclude all of the votes cast in three counties fromWisconsin’s total based on differences in absentee voting rules among the counties.
Status: On Monday, the case was dropped, along with the other three brought by Bopp.