Republicans and Democrats are turning to their lawyers in the final 24 hours of the election as they look to courts to address last-minute fights about poll watching, malfunctioning machines, ballot counting rules, and more.
Republicans have shown aggression in the final stages of 2024 compared to past years, but Democrats have risen to the occasion, resulting in both parties seeing eleventh-hour wins and losses across the country.
Republican National Committee Co-Chairwoman Lara Trump said in a statement on Election Day eve that the RNC has enlisted 500 lawyers who are on standby to handle any allegations of voter fraud, which has long been a focus for the GOP.
“Our message is crystal clear: DO NOT CHEAT,” she said.
Meanwhile, Democrats, led in part by prominent left-leaning attorney Marc Elias, have continued to fight in court all year to expand voter access and loosen voting restrictions while arguing that the GOP’s mission causes disenfranchisement. Elias has said he is following about 200 election-related cases that remain pending even as polls open.
Below is a look at the court battles shaping Election Day.
Pennsylvania county makes emergency request to extend voting hours
The RNC joined Cambria County, a red county in central Pennsylvania, to ask a judge to extend polling place hours on Tuesday because of long lines caused by ballot processing hang-ups.
“This morning’s ballot processing issues in Cambria have resulted in delays — this is unacceptable, plain and simple,” RNC Co-Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. “Our legal team acted immediately to support extended hours to give voters the opportunity to vote — we need voters to STAY IN LINE!”
Attorneys wrote in a court petition that malfunctions caused “many individuals” to leave polling places without casting ballots.
A judge quickly responded to the petition by extending voting hours from 8:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m.
Georgia Supreme Court rejects Democrats’ bid to accept late ballots in blue-leaning county
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled in a 5-3 order on Monday that more than 3,000 voters in Cobb County must return their absentee ballots by the time polls close on Election Day.
The decision was a blow to Democrats after the Democratic National Committee, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the American Civil Liberties Union had sued to allow a portion of voters who received their absentee ballots late to be able to cast their votes after Election Day.
A Cobb County judge granted the request, but Republicans successfully convinced the Supreme Court to reverse the judge’s order temporarily. Any ballots received after Election Day will not be counted as of now but will still be set aside as litigation on the matter continues.
President Joe Biden won Cobb County in 2020 by a comfortable margin, 56% to 42%.
DOJ to observe polling places in Missouri and Texas after batting down legal challenges
The Department of Justice said it is monitoring polling sites across more than two dozen states on Tuesday to check they were following federal election laws, but the announcement received a chilly reception from a few red-leaning states.
Missouri and Texas brought election eve lawsuits against the DOJ over the monitoring.
In Missouri, a judge ruled in favor of the DOJ and said the department could deploy staff to monitor St. Louis polling places. In Texas, the DOJ reached an agreement with the state that involves department staff standing outside, rather than inside, the polling places to conduct monitoring.
Florida’s secretary of state, meanwhile, issued a strongly worded letter criticizing the DOJ for monitoring in his state.
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Republicans resolve Milwaukee poll watcher lawsuit
The RNC announced Tuesday that it resolved a lawsuit it brought one day prior against election officials in Milwaukee, a deep-blue city in the swing state of Wisconsin, involving poll watchers.
The RNC had alleged that election workers were limiting poll watchers in at least three polling locations, but according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, an RNC attorney said during a court hearing Tuesday that upon further review, it found no problem.
“There seems to be no issues,” the RNC attorney said during the hearing. “The issues we believed were present are not present anymore.”
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley billed it as a “big win” in a statement on X.
“As a result of our lawsuit, we just got word that Milwaukee has affirmed that poll watchers will have full access to observe the voting process,” Whatley said.
RNC attorneys had alleged in their initial complaint that the Milwaukee Elections Commission limited the number of poll watchers permitted in Serb Hall, Good Hope Library, and Capitol Drive Voting Center to two or four per location during early voting.
Arizona judge denies GOP bid to block use of most populous county’s voting equipment
A judge in Maricopa County, Arizona, rejected an effort by Republicans to block the use of voting systems that they said were not following state law regarding protecting access passwords to voting equipment.
The Maricopa County Republican Committee alleged in an Oct. 29 lawsuit that the state’s most populous county was unlawfully using passwords for its voting machines and tabulating equipment that were given by its vendor, Dominion Voting Systems.
According to the complaint, Maricopa Republicans said Arizona law states that passwords for voting systems should not be supplied by the vendor and must only be known to authorized users.
“The consequences of such manipulation and their impact on the democratic process are terrifying to contemplate,” the complaint reads.
A judge ruled that it would not be tenable to grant such a request as voting and tabulation is already underway. So far, the county has tabulated more than 895,000 ballots using the challenged voting equipment.
President Joe Biden, who won Arizona in the last general election, won Maricopa County by just under 11,000 votes in the 2020 election.
This story is developing and may be updated.
