Rep. Darrell Issa’s mail-ballot lawsuit may be thrown out of San Diego federal court

GOP Rep Darrell Issa is suing Secretary of State Shirley Weber inset saying late mail ballots favor Democrats Times of San Diego photo illustration Rep Darrell Issa s lawsuit seeking to prevent counting of mail-in ballots after Referendum Day could be thrown out of federal court on a technicality The glitch Issa might not be eligible to sue Darrell issa lawsuit against Shirley Weber PDF In downtown federal court Friday Judge Andrew G Schopler raised the issue after a lawyer for East County Republican Issa argued that Curtis Morrison shouldn t be allowed as an intervenor defendant in the occurrence Morrison an immigration lawyer among four Democrats seeking Issa s th Congressional District seat doesn t have standing to join the incident because his presence on the November ballot is speculative Issa lawyer Eric Lee noted in a brief Lee wrote Mr Morrison s interest as a candidate in the general ballot is entirely speculative It depends on him qualifying for the primary ballot and winning the primary or at least finishing second For that reason Mr Morrison s interest as a candidate at this stage is not a significantly protectable one But Judge Schopler turned that argument against Issa suggesting that Issa also may lack standing for the same reason Morrison noted in his own brief Rep Issa never explains what causes him to believe the same issue would not apply to his own candidacy Neither Rep Issa s wealth his place within President Trump s inner circle nor his status as the incumbent officeholder excuses him from the same requirement that he must also qualify for the primary ballot win the primary or at least finish second Good news and fun news from currently Issa v Weber hearing CA pic twitter com oXEoL iXmD Curtis Morrison for Congress curtisforCA May Morrison mocked Issa in his May brief Rep Issa s complaint asks the Court to presume that he will be a candidate in the general voting throughout Yet at the same time Rep Issa may not be fully committed to running himself alleging in his complaint only that he intends to run Morrison wrote In the end Schopler allowed Morrison to join the occurrence Morrison advised Times of San Diego Darrell Issa thinks he s so special that he should get to litigate vote law without his constituents or even to other similarly situated congressional candidates being present at the table I m glad the court shut down that nonsense Also permitted as co-defendants with the original target California Secretary of State Shirley Weber are the League of Women Voters the Oregon-based Vet Voice Foundation and the California Alliance of Retired Americans By May the parties must meet and confer and contact the Court with a proposed motion schedule for the anticipated motions to dismiss and preliminary-injunction motion Schopler explained in a minute order Any motion to dismiss in this incident must address the standing and ripeness issues discussed at nowadays s hearing Issa has required for a bench trial and not a trial by jury The conservative legal group Judicial Watch filed suit March on Issa s behalf and Weber s response wasn t due until Monday In a message ACLU attorney Ari Savitzky reported his client the League of Women Voters of California was pleased that the judge allowed the group to enter this matter to defend pro-voter policies and the voting rights of league members and millions of Californians Savitzky with the ACLU Voting Rights Project commented We look forward to telling the Court why Congressman Issa s challenge to California s common-sense mail ballot receipt deadline is wrong He added In California voters must cast their mail ballots by Poll Day and their ballots count even if the mail takes a scarce extra days up to seven to arrive Congressman Issa says that a federal law from the s that says nothing about mail ballots whatsoever and just sets a uniform Vote Day bars this pro-voter rule The League will ask the Court to reject this radical and baseless attack on voters Issa and his legal organization didn t respond to a request for comment In court Friday morning Lee represented Issa Defense attorneys besides Savitzky present were Julia A Gomez Morrison Jennifer E Rosenberg remotely William Kyle Hancock and Lalitha D Madduri In his suit Issa argues Despite Congress unambiguous and longstanding announcement regarding a single and uniform national Electoral process Day California modified and extended Poll Day by allowing seven additional days after Vote Day for receipt of vote-by-mail ballots Such late-arriving ballots tend to favor Democratic candidates and provide an unfair electoral advantage for opponents of Republican congressional incumbents the suit disclosed Last year the th U S Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a law in three states that allowed ballots to be accepted after Vote Day though the ruling didn t affect the vote Issa s suit argues that the state s ballot receipt deadline extends Ballot Day and violates the First and th amendments and the Elections Clause of the Constitution The ballots must have been mailed by Balloting Day Arguments for and against other parties joining Weber as defendants PDF The longtime Republican congressman s lawsuit says he intends to run for re-election in but faces a material menace that he may lose future elections due to these unlawful ballots The complaint also states that late-arriving ballots could harm Issa even if he wins the upcoming race as the plaintiff is injured when an electoral performance is seen as less impressive An unimpressive outcome leads to the society perception that California voters are turning away from plaintiff s message and platform Secretary Weber of San Diego the one-time school board president and Assembly member commented in March I will vigorously defend California s common sense polling laws and safeguard every voter s right to have their ballot counted In May amid the pandemic Issa sued Gov Gavin Newsom over his directive to send every registered voter a ballot for the November voting process That July the suit was dismissed by Judge Morrison England Jr after the state Legislature acted to make it state law Plaintiffs including the Republican National Committee moved to drop the episode Issa voted absentee times in the previous years according to county voting records His mail ballots all arrived before Voting process Day