Well, we agree that the law appears to have been poorly written. We probably also agree that these five judges are not light-weights.
Have you looked into the relevant legislative history? I have not.
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No, it’s the rule of law, which seems to have handled this case quite well. The law does not say that the local clerk’s office can just mail absentee ballots to all the voters. The law mandates that the voters have to request absentee ballots. So the court is abiding by that mandate, and requiring the clerk’s offices to mail the request form to all the voters, which is an act that is neither forbidden nor required by the statute.
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No reason to delve into the legislative history if the statute is clear on its face.
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They can still call the special session and call the GOPers’ bluff. But it may not be necessary. The GOP absolutely didn’t want an application sent to every registered voter. They wanted it to be left to voters to know they needed to obtain one. It’s not a total victory, obviously, but the court ordering applications to be sent to everyone is a pretty good consolation prize.
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No reason except sheer curiosity, I suppose.
(You meant there’s no reason for these judges to do it, I know.)
Yes, and it belies TPM’s headline, somewhat.
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IANAL or know NM election laws, but couldn’t they send the request where voters have to opt-out of a mail-in ballot rather than opt-in?
May be true in general, but in this case the five judges who ruled unanimously included four Democrats (Democratic appointees).
I suppose you could argue that if Republicans had wanted a sensible and safe process, they would not have taken the county clerks to court. This would not be the most terrible argument ever made!
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Technically no, the headline is true, but it certainly adds some nuance the headline doesn’t capture. It’s always fun in litigation watching things like this happen…sort of Pyrrhic victories for the asshole side of the case.
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Yes, but I’m not yet prepared to call this one a Pyrrhic victory for the Republicans.
We can hope.
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Gets headlines in the local papers, reminds people that there is an election coming up…
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Keep it up, Republicans. You have “awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve”. Come November you’re going to reap what you have sown.
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It sounds like the court issued a compromise decision that doesn’t totally give either side everything they wanted. The GOP wanted to make it as difficult as possible to vote. The clerks wanted to make it as easy as possible. At least if the absentee ballot will not be sent to everyone, the application for it will be mailed to everyone.
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How would that work without sending voters the ballot?
Why leadership matters: Trump + the airhead gov of SD + the other GOP moronic govs + corrupt GOP Senators.
When will we ever learn? as the old Pete Seeger song goes.
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I prefer the ones who are still billionaires.
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So the legge is to be expected to think of every possible contingency, e.g. add force majeure clauses to every Act? What legge is that? Might be good law, but Molly Ivins could have laid waste to it in a very funny column.
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Just send the damn ballot.
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Not really. The NM county clerks said that they will have to shrink the number of polling places because they will not have the volunteers to staff them. Keep in mind that there were a lot of mail in ballots in Wisconsin.
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As someone observed centuries ago, “The law is such an Ass."
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