Focus on 7 Battleground States
"Concerns Over Increased Election Distrust Due to Mass Lawsuits"
With about three weeks remaining until the U.S. presidential election, a tight race continues, leading to a flood of election-related lawsuits. Bloomberg News reported on the 15th (local time) that over the past two years, more than 165 lawsuits related to the 2024 U.S. presidential election have been filed in 37 states.
More than half of these lawsuits have been concentrated in seven battleground states. Additionally, about one-third were filed intensively during August and September.
Vice President Kamala Harris (left), U.S. presidential candidate, and former President Donald Trump [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]
The Republican Party has been more active than the Democratic Party in filing election lawsuits. Approximately 55% of the lawsuits were initiated by the Republican Party and conservative groups. Bloomberg noted that the Republican National Committee has adopted an aggressive legal strategy, including filing lawsuits.
A nationwide poll conducted by U.S. public broadcasters NPR and PBS from September 27 to October 1 (local time) surveyed 1,628 adults, with 58% of respondents expressing concern about "voter fraud" occurring in this year's election. Notably, 86% of Republican voters expressed such concerns.
About one-third of the election lawsuits focus on voter eligibility. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has raised legal challenges, arguing that efforts to prevent illegal voting are insufficient, concentrating on disenfranchising voters likely to support the Democratic Party. For example, the RNC filed a lawsuit to prevent students and faculty at the University of North Carolina from using digital IDs issued by the school as proof of identity when voting.
On the other hand, the Democratic side is challenging the creation of barriers that hinder voting in Republican-leaning states, focusing on expanding voting accessibility. In Alabama, civic groups filed lawsuits against measures that exclude more than 3,000 foreigners registered in the federal database from voting. Some of these individuals have already obtained citizenship, and some were registered incorrectly.
Most of these lawsuits were filed after July, and since it is unlikely they will be resolved by November, they have been criticized for aiming more to sow distrust in the election rather than securing substantive outcomes.
The filing of election-related lawsuits surged during the 2020 election due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, the Republican Party opposed the sudden expansion of absentee voting, while the Democratic Party supported it.
Following the previous election, fierce disputes continue over mail-in and absentee voting in this election as well. In the 2020 election, absentee and mail-in votes were counted later than in-person votes, leading to a scenario where former President Donald Trump initially took the lead but was later overtaken by President Joe Biden. Trump’s camp raised allegations of voter fraud in response.
Former President Trump stated in May that he might not accept the election results in Wisconsin for this election either. He refused to accept his 20,000-vote loss to President Biden in Wisconsin during the 2020 election, claiming "voter fraud."
Bloomberg pointed out, "New lawsuits continue to be filed, fueling the anticipated storm of legal challenges following the November election," adding, "Even if courts do not play a decisive role in the election results, lawsuits can amplify the belief that vote counts cannot be trusted."
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