COVID-Related Election Litigation Tracker

Case Details

This database consolidates and tracks litigation concerning the effect of the pandemic on election law. The purpose of this tool is to provide an interactive list of relevant cases that can be searched by issue, court, status, and jurisdiction.

Case Details

 

Texas v. Hollins

Closed

Texas v. Hollins, No. 2020-52383 (Tex. Dist. Ct., Harris Cnty.)

  Case Summary Texas, through its Attorney General, seeks to prevent the Harris County Clerk from mailing applications for mail ballots to every registered voter in the counting. Texas claims that doing so will increase fraud and exceeds the clerk's statutory authority. Texas seeks a temporary restraining order, temporary injunction, and permanent injunction restraining the action.
Filed 08/31/2020
State Texas
Type of Court State
Status Closed ()
Last Updated 11/19/2020
Issue Tag(s) Vote-by-Mail (Claim that Mail Voting Leads to Fraud and/or Vote Dilution)
Authority To Act (Other)
Claim that county clerk does not have the power to send out unsolicited mail voting applications
Complaint(s) 08/31/2020: Complaint filed.
Dispositive Ruling(s) 09/11/2020: Order/Ruling, The court determined that the actions at issue were not performed ultra vires and did not impede voting rights. It therefore denied Plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order.
11/02/2020: Order/Ruling, The court denied plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction, finding that the plaintiffs do not have standing, effectively denying plaintiff's claims that nearly 127,000 votes cast via drive-through voting during the early voting period in Harris County, Texas, violate state election laws and should be invalidated. The judge noted, however, that even if the plantiffs had standing, the court would deny their request based on merit.

Texas v. Hollins, NO. 14-20-00627-CV (Tex. Ct. App.)

  Case Summary Texas through its Attorney General sought to prevent Hollins, the Harris County Clerk, from sending mail-in ballots to all voters in the election. Below, the court rejected the state's motion for a temporary injunction. Texas appealed.
Filed 09/14/2020
State Texas
Type of Court State
Status Closed ()
Last Updated 10/31/2020
Issue Tag(s) Vote-by-Mail (Claim that Mail Voting Leads to Fraud and/or Vote Dilution)
Authority To Act (Other)
Claim that county clerk does not have the power to send out unsollicited mail voting applications
Dispositive Ruling(s) 09/18/2020: Other, Finding that the state had failed to present adequate evidence of irreperable injury, the appellarte court affirmed the lower courts decision denying a temporary injunction.
11/02/2020: Order/Ruling, The US Court of Appeals denied the appellants request for emergency order to block Harris County from using drive-thru voting sites on election day. The Harris County Clerk, however, closed 9 of 10 drive-thru voting sites on election day as a precautionary measure.

Texas v. Hollins, Nos. 20-0715, 20-0729 (Tex. Sup. Ct.)

  Case Summary Texas through its Attorney General sought to prevent Hollins, the Harris County Clerk, from sending mail-in ballots to all voters in the election. Below, the court rejected the state's motion for a temporary injunction. Texas appealed and the state appellate court affirmed the lower court's denial of the injunction. Texas then filed a petition for review in the state supreme court.
Filed 09/22/2020
State Texas
Type of Court State
Status Closed ()
Last Updated 10/17/2020
Issue Tag(s) Vote-by-Mail (Claim that Mail Voting Leads to Fraud and/or Vote Dilution)
Authority To Act (Other)
Claim that county clerk does not have the power to send out unsollicited mail voting applications
Complaint(s) 09/22/2020: Complaint filed.
Dispositive Ruling(s) 10/07/2020: Other, The Texas Supreme court determined that the Election Code does not authorize a county clerk to send mail-in ballots to voters who have not requested them andt that the clerk doing so anyway would result in an irreparable injury to the state. It therefore ordered that the opinions of the trial and appellate courts denying the temporary injunction be reversed and remanded the case to the trial court for entry of a temporary injunction.
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