RNC, election integrity advocates secure legal victories in election cases across several states

The Republican National Committee and election integrity advocates have won court cases this month across five states regarding elections, from GOP-led Georgia to the Democratic-led state of Washington.

Legal victories for election integrity have been secured in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, New York and Washington in March, ranging from a clash between state and federal regulations on voter-roll information to non-citizens voting in New York City elections.

Arizona

The RNC, Arizona GOP and the Yavapai County Republican Party sued Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) in February 2024, alleging that he violated state law when he adopted the 2023 Elections Procedures Manual (EPM).

Some of the rules in the EPM that the GOP claimed were unlawful included allowing federal-only voters to vote in presidential elections and by mail without proof of citizenship, preventing county recorders from verifying voters' citizenship with national databases, and prohibiting challenges to early ballots before they are returned.

The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled on March 6th in the GOP’s favor by finding that Fontes didn’t follow procedures outlined by state law regarding the EPM because he cut the period for public comment in half. The court didn’t address the provisions in the EPM that the GOP alleged were unlawful but required Fontes to follow state law procedures for the EPM.

Georgia

A labor union, represented by Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias, filed a federal lawsuit in October 2023 against the Fulton County Registration and Elections Board and the Georgia State Election Board, challenging the state’s deadline for requesting absentee ballots. Georgia requires absentee ballot applications to be submitted no later than 11 days before an election, so that the state can process them in a timely manner. However, the union argued that the deadline violated voting rights. The RNC and Georgia Republican Party intervened in the case, arguing in support of the state law. Elias lost when the federal court dismissed the challenge on March 7th.

Maryland

Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) sued the Maryland State Board of Elections in January 2024 over a regulation that prevented two citizen activists from conducting investigations into whether the state was removing registrations for non-residents, dead voters and duplicates. The lawsuit alleged that the state law violated the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which requires states to make records publicly accessible that reveal whether they are maintaining their voter rolls.

The two activists had found anomalies in the state’s voter rolls and the elections board responded by enacting a regulation that restricted access to and use of voter history information, according to the lawsuit.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland found on March 4th that the state elections board violated the NVRA through the regulation and the activists must be allowed to access the voter history records.

“RITE’s win today is a significant victory for election transparency and the rule of law. RITE warned Maryland that its regulation limiting public access to key registration records was illegal – and it is,” RITE’s President and CEO Derek Lyons said in a statement after the ruling. “Today’s ruling enables citizens across the country, and in Maryland in particular, to conduct important investigative work that promotes clean voter rolls and safe, secure, and accurate elections.” 

New York

A New York City law that allowed non-citizens to vote in local elections was declared unconstitutional by New York's highest court last Thursday. The proposal, approved by the New York City Council in 2021, allowed green card holders and others living in the city with federal work authorization to vote in local elections for offices such as mayor and city council.

The RNC, the New York Republican State Committee, and a group of voters and elected officials filed a lawsuit against the statute in 2022. New York's highest court, The New York Court of Appeals, ruled 6-1 in Republicans’ favor.

"Americans have fought over the meaning of citizenship and the right to vote since the earliest days of our Republic," Chief Judge Rowan Wilson wrote in the majority ruling. "Whatever the future may bring, the New York Constitution as it stands today draws a firm line restricting voting to citizens."

The only dissenter, Associate Judge Jenny Rivera, argued that the state's home-rule law allows cities to determine who gets to vote in local elections and that the state Constitution "does not prohibit localities from exercising their home-rule authority to enfranchise non-citizens." She added that the law should be subject to a referendum.

Washington

Democratic law firm Perkins Coie filed a lawsuit in November 2022 on behalf of the Vet Voice Foundation, The Washington Bus, El Centro de la Raza, and three voters against the Washington secretary of state, the King County elections director, and members of the King County Canvassing Board over the state’s signature verification process for mail-in ballots.

The plaintiffs argued that the signature verification law leads to the disenfranchisement of voters when signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes are deemed to not match voters’ signatures on file in an allegedly error-ridden process. The RNC’s motion to intervene in the case was denied, but they were allowed to file an amicus curiae brief in the trial court with the Washington State Republican Party on behalf of the law.

On March 6th, the Washington Supreme Court upheld the state’s signature verification process. “We are pleased with the court’s ruling, which affirms our commitment to secure, accessible, and transparent elections in Washington,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs (D) said in a statement following the court’s decision. “Signature verification has been a fundamental part of our state’s vote-by-mail system for decades, helping to protect against fraud while ensuring that every eligible voter’s ballot is counted.”