[EL] Trump Falsely and Prematurely Claims Victory in 2:30 AM ET Speech

[Mark Scarberry]

Trump's statement is disgusting whatever the result of any suits might be
and whether or not he wins the election.

In terms of statutory deadlines, the only votes that are being counted now
are votes that were cast in person, dropped off, or received by mail by
election offices on or before Election Day, November 3 (yesterday as I
write this).

With respect to ballots received on or before Election Day, the only
arguments that I'm aware of for not counting them are

   (1) the equal protection argument made in the suit Rick linked to at the
end of this Slate article,
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/election-day-2020-gop-lawsuit-pennsylvania-ballot-cures.html,
involving Montgomery county election officials who contacted voters so that
they could cure defects in their mail-in ballots, allegedly contrary to
Pennsylvania state law, and
   (2) the argument that the federal district court in South Carolina erred
in ordering that ballots must be counted without any signature check,
contrary, allegedly, to state law, as noted in Rick's blog post,
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=117500.
    (3) deadlines before election day in Louisiana and maybe North Dakota,
if I'm reading this chart right. See
https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-11-receipt-and-postmark-deadlines-for-absentee-ballots.aspx

There does not seem to be any question but what Trump won South Carolina,
Louisiana, and North Dakota, so arguments (2) and (3) are irrelevant.

Is argument (1) plausible? How many ballots would be affected? Were the
relevant ballots sequestered?

Are there other arguments?

There is an argument that ballots that are received after the date set by
statute should not be counted. There still are suits involving ballots that
will be received after state law deadlines in the critical states of
Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, right? It seems that those
could affect the presidential election. Are there other states in which
there may be such disputes that could affect the outcome?

Am I missing anything?

It's late, so I hope this email is coherent.

Mark

[image: Pepperdine wordmark]*Caruso School of Law*

*Mark S. Scarberry*

*Professor of Lawmark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu
<mark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu>*
Personal: mark.scarberry at gmail.com




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