When should you file a lawsuit over an election? If you’re a Democrat, the answer is at any time. But if you’re a Republican the answer is never.

Here’s February, 2020.  

 A federal judge, this week, ruled against Gov. Brian Kemp in a lawsuit filed against him in 2018, while he was still Secretary of State. According to the suit, Kemp, in his role as secretary of state, was accused of using a racially-biased methodology for removing as many as 700,000 legitimate voters from the state’s voter rolls during a period between 2016 and 2018.

In her conclusion, the judge said she is considering a summary judgment finding against Kemp and considering full access to the 2016 and 2017 Crosscheck lists to Palast and Butler.

Here’s Judge Ross, an Obama appointee, now.

For the second time in one day, a federal judge in Georgia tossed out a Republican-led challenge against absentee voting in the Peach State’s runoff election now underway.

“As the parties are aware, federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction,” U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross, a Barack Obama appointee, ruled on Thursday, finding a lack of standing.

“All of plaintiffs’ claims are based on theories of potential future injury,” Ross added, finding that too “speculative” to carry the day.

You can sue over how an election was handled in 2018, and get a decision in 2020, but you can’t sue over an election in 2020. Not if you’re a Republican.

There’s no standing to sue over an election before it happens because then it’s speculative “theories of potential future injury”, nor can you sue while an election is underway. 

Because, come on, it’s already underway.

“We’re not on the eve of an election; we’re in the middle of it,” noted Charlene S McGowan, counsel for Georgia’s Office of the Attorney General.

And then it’s too late to sue afterward.

But speaking of who gets to sue, here’s who gets to sue when it comes to the Democrats.

The federal lawsuit was initiated by freelance journalist Greg Palast along with Helen Butler, executive director of Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda.

Freelance journalists can sue over 2018 elections, but Republicans, no matter how clearly they can show injury, can’t sue over the 2020 election.