Democrats Versus the Vote

... In state after state, almost all the lawsuits filed over this year’s elections have been filed by Democrats and liberal or progressive organizations, seeking to change election rules by judicial fiat. Their objective: force all-mail elections or huge increases in absentee balloting while simultaneously eliminating safeguards against abuse and fraud....

... law professor Richard Pildes’s count of at least 160 lawsuits filed by “party organizations, campaigns and interest groups,” ...

The nature of the hundred-plus lawsuits filed by Democrats and these organizations make that clear. All of those lawsuits (and the COVID-19 response bills filed in the House by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats) have similar goals that will give these political actors the ability to game the system. This would be true of any actors trying to change the rules in this manner mid-game. They are trying to force states to mail absentee ballots to all registered voters, despite the known inaccuracies of state voter rolls. At the same time, they are trying to

• get rid of voter ID and witness signature or notarization requirements for absentee ballots;
• override state deadlines for absentee ballots to be either returned or postmarked by Election Day;
• void state laws banning vote harvesting by third parties;
• stop or erode signature comparison procedures; and
• require that voters be sent postage-prepaid envelopes for the return of completed absentee ballots.

What is clear from all of these lawsuits is that the Democrats and these organizations are trying to change the rules governing the administration of the November election, while it seems that the Republicans are trying to preserve the status quo....

While they are trying to void witness signature requirements on absentee ballots (because that is supposedly too dangerous and will lead to the spread of COVID-19), many of these same actors are also trying to override state laws banning vote harvesting....

The real problem with ballot harvesting is that it puts ballots, a very valuable commodity, into the hands of individuals who have a stake in the outcome of the election—candidates, campaign staffers, party activists, and political guns-for-hire (consultants). This leads to predictable results....

A federal judge has now ordered New York officials to count ballots that were rejected because they did not have a postmark or because they had a prepaid postmark, disregarding whether or not they were voted after Election Day...

For the first time in our nation’s history, a little-known federal statute (3 U.S.C. § 19) could then be applied. That statute provides that if the outcome of the election is still in doubt on January 20, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, currently Nancy Pelosi, shall upon her “resignation as Speaker and Representative” act as the president until a president or vice president has been determined.

Nancy Pelosi has publicly opposed almost every action taken by Trump through his executive authority. Yet this statute would put someone who has won neither the national popular vote nor the votes of the Electoral College—and therefore has no mandate to govern—the power of reversing all of Trump’s policy changes and trying to implement her golden wish list of progressive policies she has been unable to get through Congress....

Judge Napolitano explains if Pelosi could become acting president if election results are delayed past Jan. 20, Fox News, August 27, 2020: