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Friday 2 OctOber 2020
Voting lawsuits pile up across U.S. as election approaches

Continued from Front tion of the state court's rul-
ing that orders counties to
Some of the disputes are count ballots that arrive
unfolding in states not tradi- during the three-day ex-
tionally thought of as elec- tension period even if they
tion battlegrounds, such lack a postmark or legible
as Montana, where there postmark.
is a highly competitive U.S. Meanwhile in federal court,
Senate race on the ballot. Republicans are suing to,
A judge Wednesday re- among other things, out-
jected an effort by Trump's law drop boxes or other
reelection campaign and sites used to collect mail-in
Republican groups to block ballots.
counties from holding the The Supreme Court itself
general election mostly by has already been asked
mail. to get involved in several
But most of the closely cases, as it did in April,
watched cases are in when conservative justices
states perceived as up-for- blocked Democratic ef-
grabs in 2020 and probably forts to extend absentee
crucial to the race. voting in Wisconsin during
That includes Ohio, where Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson speaks in front of a newly-painted mural by the primary.
a coalition of voting groups artist Ndubisi Okoye, during a press conference by MichiganVoting.com Coalition members There is, of course, prec-
and Democrats have announcing "40 Days of Early Voting" campaign at the ACLU of Michigan building in Detroit, edent for an election that
sued to force an expan- Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020. ends in the courts. In 2000,
sion of ballot drop boxes Associated Press the Supreme Court set-
from more than just one Appeals. Carolina, where voters are of thousands of absentee tled a recount dispute in
per county. Separately on A federal appeals court on already struggling with rules ballot applications in three Florida, effectively handing
Monday, a federal judge Tuesday upheld a six-day requiring witness signatures counties. This week, an- the election to Republican
rejected changes to the extension for counting ab- on absentee ballots, the other judge upheld a new George W. Bush.
state's signature-matching sentee ballots in Wisconsin RNC and Trump's cam- Republican-backed law Barry Richard, a Florida law-
requirement for ballots and as long as they are post- paign committee have that will make it harder for yer who represented Bush
ballot applications, hand- marked by Election Day. sued over new election counties to process absen- during that litigation, said
ing a win to the state's Re- The ruling gave Democrats guidance that will permit tee ballot applications. there's no guarantee the
publican election chief in the state at least a tem- ballots with incomplete wit- Pennsylvania has been a Supreme Court will want to
who has been engulfed porary victory in a case that ness information to be fixed particular hive of activity. get involved again, or that
with litigation this election could nonetheless by ap- without the voter having to Republican lawmakers any lawsuit over the elec-
season. pealed to the U.S. Supreme fill out a new blank ballot. asked the U.S. Supreme tion will present a compel-
In Arizona, a judge's ruling Court. In neighboring Mich- In Iowa, the Trump cam- Court on Monday to put ling issue for the bench to
that voters who forget to igan, the GOP is suing to try paign and Republican a hold on a ruling by the address.
sign their early ballots have to overturn a decision that groups have won a series state's highest court that One significant difference
up to five days after the lets the state count absen- of sweeping legal victo- extends the deadline for between then and now, he
election to fix the problem tee ballots up to 14 days af- ries in their attempts to receiving and counting said, is that neither candi-
is now on appeal before ter the election. limit absentee voting, with mailed-in ballots. Republi- date raised the prospect of
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of In battleground North judges throwing out tens cans also object to a por- not accepting the results.q

U.S. traffic deaths fell 2% in 2019; 3rd straight yearly drop

The downward trend is dropped 0.5%. Deaths in but concerned because
continuing into this year passenger vehicles fell of a trend since April of
with people driving fewer 2.8%. increased fatality rates.
miles due to the pandem- But deaths in crashes in- "Now more than ever
ic, the National Highway volving heavy trucks fell by we should be watching
Traffic Safety Administra- just one, from 5,006 in 2018 ourselves for safe driving
tion said Thursday. to 5,005 last year. practices and encourag-
The agency says deaths Estimates by the agency ing others to do the same,"
fell 2% last year, to 36,096. show that traffic deaths Owens said in a statement.
That's 739 fewer than the in the first half of this year The agency issued a re-
36,835 fatalities reported fell 2% from the same pe- port saying that during the
to the agency in 2019. riod in 2019, to 16,550. But height of the coronavirus
The decrease came even traffic volumes fell more restrictions with less traffic
though vehicle miles trav- than the number of fatal on the roads, drivers took
eled increased by nearly crashes, increasing the fa- more risks including speed-
In this Jan. 24, 2020 file photo, early rush hour traffic rolls along 1%, reducing the fatality tality rate per 100 million ing, failing to wear seat
I-10 in Phoenix. Traffic deaths in the U.S. fell for the third straight rate to 1.1 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled to belts, and driving under
year in 2019, the government's road safety agency said miles traveled. That was 1.25. That's up from 1.06 for the influence of drugs or
Thursday, Oct. 1.
Associated Press the lowest since 2014. the first half of 2019. alcohol. Average speeds
The agency says pedes- James Owens, NHTSA's increased, and incidents
DETROIT (AP) — Traffic in 2019, the government's trian deaths fell 2.7%, bicy- deputy administrator, said with people caught driv-
deaths in the U.S. fell for road safety agency re- clist fatalities dropped 2.9% the agency is encouraged ing at extreme speeds
the third consecutive year ported. and motorcycle deaths by the overall declines, rose, NHTSA said.q