Judicial Watch’s Election Integrity Victories
Ginny Garner wrote:
Lew,
Judicial Watch, led by Tom Fitton, has had some important election integrity victories. Their report:
Judicial Watch Battles for Election Integrity
Micah Morrison, our chief investigative correspondent, summarizes our work to ensure fair elections across the country.
Democracy by its nature is a messy business and the fight for clean and honest elections never ends. Judicial Watch has risen to the vanguard of voting integrity and voter rights reform with legal actions that include endingdiscriminatory elections in Hawaii, stopping extreme partisan gerrymandering in Maryland, and cleaning four million and counting dirty names from voter rolls around the country. And there’s more to come.
In recent weeks, Judicial Watch notched three significant election integrity wins. In Mississippi, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sided with Judicial Watch, declining to revisit an earlier ruling that it was unlawful for the state to count ballots arriving after Election Day. In California, Judicial Watch filed a federal lawsuit to prevent state officials from extending Election Day for seven additional days. And in Maryland, following a separate Judicial Watch court victory opening voter rolls to public scrutiny, a federal judge struck down a state board of elections regulation criminalizing the use of voter registration lists for election integrity investigations.
This week, as well, President Trump signaled his support for election integrity action with a sweeping executive order that reinforces “a uniform Election Day across the nation,” requires “documentary proof of United States citizenship” to vote, and directs the attorney general to increase efforts to ensure state compliance with the National Voter Registration Act.
In the Mississippi case siding with Judicial Watch, the full Fifth Circuit court let stand an appellate panel ruling that ballots arriving after Election Day cannot be counted. The appellate panel had ruled that “Congress statutorily designated a singular ‘day for the election’ of members of Congress and the appointment of presidential electors. Text, precedent, and historical practice confirm that this ‘day for the election’ is the day by which ballots must be both cast by voters and received by state officials.”
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton hailed the full Fifth Circuit action as “a historic victory for honest elections,” noting that federal law “sets ‘Election Day’ not ‘Election Week.’”
Judicial Watch’s new lawsuit against California counting ballots up to seven days after Election Day “has even more urgency and strength,” Tom noted.
In the California case, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit on behalf of U.S. Representative Darrell Issa to prevent state election officials from extending Election Day for seven days beyond the date established by federal law. “Despite Congress’ unambiguous and longstanding statement regarding a single and uni
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