USA Today: Election lawsuits set record pace amid COVID-19 pandemic as results decide who votes and how Nov. 3

Requiring an excuse for absentee voting. Paying for postage for mail-in ballots. Purging names from voter registration lists. Placing the names on ballots to provide an advantage in so-called “donkey votes.”

These are among the disputes that have generated a record number of lawsuits over the Nov. 3 election. Decisions in the cases will determine who will vote and how. And the political ground is shifting even during the ongoing primaries, as rulings change in the weeks before votes are cast.  …

In Wisconsin, a federal case challenged more than a dozen provisions for conducting elections, including voter identification. In a ruling June 29, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals scaled back early voting and blocked absentee ballots returned by email or fax – but allowed expired student IDs to continue to be used for voter registration.

“On the positive side, the judges ruled that expired photo student IDs can be used as proof of identity to vote,” said Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, who called the state’s rules among the most restrictive in the country.