Rosselló v. Calderón (3:04-cv-2251) and Suárez Jimenez v. Comisión Estatal de Elecciones (3:04-cv-2288) (Daniel R. Domínguez, D.P.R.)
The 2004 election of Puerto Rico’s governor depended upon a recount. One of the candidates filed a federal complaint seeking enforcement of a prompt and just resolution of the recount. The district court began evidentiary hearings in mid-November. One issue to be resolved was how to count ballots in which a voter cast a vote for one party generally but for candidates of other parties for all individual offices. A commonwealth case on this issue was removed to the federal court before it was resolved, but Puerto Rico’s supreme court resolved the case anyway. The district court vacated the commonwealth court’s postremoval ruling and commenced additional hearings. The court of appeals determined that removal was improper. In December, the court of appeals ordered a halt to the district court’s intervention in the local electoral dispute.
Subject: Recounts. Topics: Matters for state courts; enjoining certification; removal; recounts; absentee ballots; intervention; attorney fees.

One of many Case Studies in Emergency Election Litigation.