Ballot Requests Setting Record; Lawsuits over Mail-In Voting
BERMAN: This morning we're seeing all kinds of evidence that interest in early voting is skyrocketing across the country. A CNN survey of election offices in 42 states and Washington, D.C., finds that more than 28 million ballots have already been requested. Another 43 million are being mailed automatically to voters. That tops the more than 50 million pre-election ballots that were cast past in 2016. CNN's Kristen Holmes joins us now, more with the numbers, what's actually happening here, Kristen, which I think is important.</s>KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, that's right. So this is a sign of what is expected to be record-shattering voter turnout in this election. You know, of those 42 states that we surveyed, 15 of them reported that they have more requests for absentee ballots now than the entire amount of pre-election votes that were cast back in 2016. So, looking at it on a state-by-state level, for example, North Carolina, the number of absentee ballots there has already surpassed 1 million this week. At this point in 2016, there were 85,000 requests, 85,000 versus 1 million. Pennsylvania, the number of ballots requested there is eight times the amount of people who actually cast a ballot ahead of the election in 2016. Now, of course, I'm mentioning key swing states and I want to break down the party breakdown here for you in those key swing states because that's very important. You have 1.3 million more ballots that have been requested by Democrats than Republicans. While this is a big number, there is a big caveat here. It is not that surprising. All of the research that we have, all the data shows that President Trump's supporters, Republicans, are more likely to vote in-person on Election Day. So that number could easily be made up. Now, in terms of ballots that have actually been cast, we have data from about 12 states here and it's about 500,000 ballots that have actually been cast. There is some important things to keep in mind when we talk about these huge numbers. Not all of those mail-in ballots are actually going to be cast. They are not going to be returned. And, in fact, I spoke to people in Virginia who told me that they had requested a mail-in ballot, decided they wanted to cast their ballot in person, so we have to account for some of that. The other thing here is that the number of people requesting ballots does not in any way indicate how the election outcome will look. But this is very encouraging in terms of seeing people registering to vote, getting out there, and it shows just how important this election is to so many Americans, John.</s>CAMEROTA: I'll take it, Kristen. You're so right, there is a high level of engagement and that is great for any side. So, thank you very much for giving us a snapshot of where we are right now. Joining us now is CNN analyst Jessica Huseman. She's a reporter at ProPublica. Jessica, we've really been looking forward to talking to you. Also, to kind of mentally prepare viewers and voters that this is not going to be a neat and tidy election day because of coronavirus, because of all of that voter engagement that Kristen was just telling us, it's going to look different. And it already is. For -- case in point, there's already legal battles happening in states around the country because of things like this, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Where will voters be able to drop off their ballots? That's one legal battle. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, when do voters have to mail in their ballots by? Michigan, will voters have the ability to fix any problems with their mail-in ballots? North Carolina, Republicans pledging to try to overturn a new agreement that extends the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots by six days. So give us your take on what we're already seeing. And are these measures designed to restrict voting access or just to clarify it?</s>JESSICA HUSEMAN, CNN ANALYST: You know, I think that it's a mixed bag across the country. There are some states that are certainly not that thrilled that vote by mail is increasing. There are other states that are doing it enthusiastically. And still in those states it's a huge movement to switch from traditional methods of voting to vote-by-mail. And so a lot of these lawsuits are just about sorting out the details that haven't been worked out because we're just moving so quickly towards November and this pandemic in a very different voting environment. So, you know, I think that depending on the states that you're in, both of the things that you just referenced might be true.</s>CAMEROTA: And let's talk -- let's just zero in on one thing that is confusing people in Pennsylvania, and that are these rather Victorian terms of naked ballots and secrecy envelopes. And this is, I mean I think you're about to tell us, an antiquated notion, but let's just listen to the Pennsylvania attorney general attempt to explain it.</s>JOSH SHAPIRO (D) PENNSYLVANIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: You fold it up and you stick it in the secrecy envelope. That's the second ballot -- or the second envelope. And the final envelope is the envelope you use to mail it back.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, what's happening there?</s>HUSEMAN: Let me just say that if 2020 brings me nothing but the phrase "naked ballots," I will be just -- just fine with that. I -- you know, it's a really confusing and antiquated system. These secrecy ballots were really useful when, you know, we were counting votes by hand and there was a concern that the person counting your ballot might see the way that you voted. But that's really not how ballots are counted anymore. They are sorted by machines. They are counted by machines. And by the time human eyes see the ballots, they have been removed from any envelope that would contain the voter's identity. So for something like an audit, their secret ballot would still be protected. And so what's really interesting about Pennsylvania is that while most states that have secrecy envelopes still require you to sign the back of that inner envelope, Pennsylvania requires you to sign the back of the outer envelope that's looked at by the clerks. So there's really no purpose for the inner envelope at all. And so experts are telling me that they're really discouraged by the idea that such a useless by-product of the past is going to be disenfranchising voters in Pennsylvania.</s>CAMEROTA: Now let's talk about another thing in Pennsylvania, and that's these nine discarded ballots. It sounds like they were military ballots that people might have thought were mail-in ballots. When they figured out they were military ballots, they threw them out. There were nine. That hardly suggests any sort of widespread problem whatsoever. However, the Department of Justice felt compelled to get involved and issue a press release about this. So what does that tell us?</s>HUSEMAN: You know, it's really stunning to me that the DOJ issued a press release. It's obviously not policy for the DOJ to comment on investigations that are still pending. And so that was -- that was a striking thing for them to do. And given that they identified how these ballots were cast, which is very much not in line with America's history of maintaining secrecy and ballots and is, in fact, the exact reason why Pennsylvania's secret ballot envelopes, inner envelopes are being litigated right now, you know, it was just a really stunning announcement that kind of smacked of partisanship, the exact kind of partisanship out of the DOJ that, you know, the media and Democrats have really been concerned about this entire season. And so what we don't know is what discarded even means. So it said that the ballots were discarded. We're really not clear as to what that meant or how the ballots ended up where they did or why. It's clear from Pennsylvania officials that these were mistaken for something they weren't. It was a very small number of ballots. And then, also, this county went overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016, so that most of the ballots, you know, made -- they're aware of who was -- whose name was on seven of the nine ballots and that seven of those nine ballots were cast for Donald Trump is not that surprising. So there's really nothing about this that would suggest a larger problem. It is certainly true that these nine ballots should be investigated and what happened to them should be figured out because every vote does count and these nine ballots will matter, but it does not suggest an overwhelming problem as if -- which Trump's campaign, yesterday, tried to play it off as. And I just don't think that there's any evidence of that.</s>CAMEROTA: That's really helpful because I think that that's the upshot of all this. Yes, there are these hiccups. People are desperately trying to iron them out over, you know, the next 40 days. But on a large scale, we are being assured by election officials everywhere that they are going to get this right. So, Jessica, thank you very much for all of your investigating and reporting and sharing it with us.</s>HUSEMAN: Yes.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, so, ahead, CNN takes you to a Trump rally where we ask the president's supporters to show us their FaceBook feeds. The content they're seeing and how it's influencing their vote. That's next.