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
Barnette v. Lawrence
Closed
Barnette v. Lawrence, No. 2:20-cv-05477-PBT (E.D. Pa.) |
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| Case Summary | Plaintiff, a Republican congressional candidate, sought injunctive relief from Montgomery County, PA. He alleged the County illegally pre-canvassed mail-in ballots and contacted some voters whose mail ballots had defects (such as a missing signature) to give them a chance to correct the problem. Plaintiff, whose district includes Montgomery County, argued that since not all Pennsylvania counties were doing this, under the Supreme Court’s Bush v. Gore decision, it was a federal equal protection violation for some voters to be notified about curing their ballots and others not. He asked the court to order the Montgomery County election officials to stop the practice of reaching out to voters and not count the ballots that have been cured. Plaintiff also alleged that the County is restricting the ability of "Canvass Watchers" to monitor the process. | |
| Filed | 11/03/2020 | |
| State | Pennsylvania | |
| Type of Court | Federal | |
| Circuit | Third Circuit | |
| Status | Closed | |
| Last Updated | 05/14/2021 | |
| Issue Tag(s) | Vote-by-Mail (Restriction on Assistance or Collection of Mail Ballots for Return, Notice/Cure for Mismatches Missing Signature or Mistakes) Poll Observers of Canvass Process |
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| Complaint(s) | 11/03/2020: Complaint filed. | |
| Dispositive Ruling(s) | 11/06/2020: Order/Ruling, The Court denied the motion for the TRO. The court will not order the county to toss ballots that initially contained errors that were later cured. | |
| 11/11/2020: Order/Ruling, Voluntary Dismissal. | ||
