Republicans, Republican candidates and voters, and advocacy groups have filed 93 anti-voter lawsuits in 2022. Most of them lost, but the trend highlights right-wing attacks on access to ballots and election administration in courts as well as states. national parliament.
according to report It was published on Monday by Democracy Docket, a progressive platform that tracks ballot lawsuit, 175 “democracy-related lawsuits” were filed in 31 states last year. The Democracy Docket has excluded 58 ongoing redistricting lawsuits from its report to focus on cases related to voting rights and election oversight.
Of the 175 democracy-related lawsuits filed last year, 93 were deemed “vote against” and 82 “for”. The Democracy Docket has called 2022 another “election year for lawsuits” after 150 democracy-related lawsuits in 2020, with 95 of them voting in favor versus 95 was deemed to have voted against.
“A year after Republicans filed an alarming array of lawsuits in an attempt to dismantle mail-in voting, overturn election administration and undermine democracy, courts have all but dismissed this strategy.”
Twenty-three of the 93 anti-vote lawsuits filed in 2022 were filed against Republican bureaucracies (defined as the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senate Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and state or county Republicans). ), the researchers found.
In contrast, the Democratic Senate Election Commission, the Democratic Congressional Election Commission, and state or county Democrats filed just six of last year’s 82 voter lawsuits.
“Obviously, the establishment of the Republican Party is more litigation than ever It also looks to the courts to achieve its anti-voting and anti-democratic ends,” the report said. It also achieves an upvote result. ”
Another 25 of last year’s 93 anti-vote lawsuits were “filed by individual Republican candidates who have no official Republican committee or party endorsement,” the report notes. “These Republican candidates, many of them electoral deniers, filed lawsuits just before and after the 2022 midterm elections. Statewide list of far-right candidates Arizona filed a lawsuit without party help challenging the results of the 2022 midterm elections after Election Day. ”
Known as a Republican voter right wing legal group It also filed quite a few anti-voting lawsuits.
According to the report, there was a “notable number of lawsuits filled with unsubstantiated conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated claims.”
We call this narrow subset of anti-vote litigation “fringes” and define them as litigation brought by individuals or groups that promote “big lies” and/or have scant evidence to support their claims. In many cases, lawsuits of this kind were filed years after the relevant issues were filed. While it might be fair to assume that these types of lawsuits are an anomaly, Democracy Docket tracked a total of 23 “fringe” lawsuits in a larger dataset of lawsuits filed last year. In addition to radical lawsuits challenging electronic voting machines, 2022 saw several more intriguing lawsuits. Arizona, KansasWhen Michigan— it sought to decertify the results of the 2020 election two years after it took place.
Arizona (35th), Pennsylvania (21st) and Wisconsin (16th) will have the most democracy-related lawsuits in 2022.
“Naturally, these were all competitive and consequent battleground states. state and federal races Especially for Republicans, they will be subject to lawsuits around Election Day,” the report notes.
Moreover, all three of these states were hotbeds of the epidemic election denialArizona and Pennsylvania have Republican counties that ignore state law in the areas of election administration and authentication. In Arizona, Cochise County was targeted. lawsuit centered on counting ballots by hand county as well Refused to prove 2022 midterm election resultsSimilarly, in Pennsylvania, Burks, Fayette, and Lancaster counties sued For refusing to count certain mail-in ballots in the 2022 primary election totals.
Additionally, throughout 2022, all three states played integral roles in Republican litigation strategies aimed at undermining mail-in voting. In Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, aggressive Republican lawsuits drop boxproviding voters with a secure and accessible 24/7 option to return their mail-in ballots, disqualifying their mail-in ballots in case of error. incomplete address or Missing/Incorrect Date— it doesn’t matter to voter eligibility.
As the Democracy Docket noted, “the number of new lawsuits filed each month leading up to Election Day is steadily increasing.”
Democracy Dockett also observed a surge in lawsuits related to election results, authentication, vote tallying, and similar topics in the wake of the midterm elections, identifying more than 20 lawsuits filed since November 8. bottom.
However, throughout the year, “attacks on mail-in ballots and election administration are the focus of 2022,” with 51 and 47 lawsuits filed, respectively, the report notes.
The good news is that when the dispute over voting rights moved from the Legislative Yuan to the courts this year, the courts overwhelmingly protected voting rights, especially ahead of the midterm elections.
The Democracy Docket estimates that of the 175 democracy-related court orders issued in 28 states in 2022, 116 will be voter wins, 35 will be voter losses, and 24 will be voter-neutral orders. found to be influential.
“Democrats and progressives won two-thirds of the ballot and election cases they were involved in last year,” said Mark Elias, founder of the Democracy Docket and voting rights attorney. murmured“Republicans and Conservatives won just 20%.”
But last year’s court-based victory for democracy came amid an ongoing and multifaceted right-wing attack on the franchise, with GOP lawmakers and operatives at the state and federal levels for the past two years. I have been doing it with great intensity.
Since former President Donald Trump launched a deadly coup attempt after losing the 2020 presidential election, Republican-controlled states have enacted dozens of laws. voter suppression law and redraw Congress and state legislatures are charting the map in ways that disenfranchise pro-Democratic communities of color and give the Republican Party far more representation.
In addition to trying to make voting harder, Republican lawmakers in 33 states according to States United Action has introduced at least 244 bills. interfere in election administration by taking away control over the outcome; calling for a partisan or non-professional election “audit”; Take control of election responsibilities. Establishes a cumbersome burden for administrators. or impose harsh criminal or other penalties. At least 24 of these bills have been signed into law in 17 states.
Right-wingers are also increasingly targeting electoral officials in an attempt to undermine future elections. according to A study conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice found that one in six election officials experienced threats related to their jobs, and 77% felt such threats had increased in recent years. said. His 20% of election officials intend to step down by her 2024 election, many citing ongoing threats and intimidation.
Additionally, some of the previous attacks on voting rights have gone to the U.S. Supreme Court. dominated By the overwhelming majority of the far right.
The High Court is currently considering two cases.Merrill vs MilliganWhen moore vs harper— which each exacerbates map manipulation and threatens to give state legislators virtually unchecked powers to oversee and possibly distort federal elections.
After conservative Democratic senators refused to repeal the anti-democratic 60-vote filibuster rule, the party will use congressional unity to protect voting rights in 2021 and 2022. Failed to enact federal law. Following the midterm elections, Republicans took control of the House last week.
