Republicans have won a string of legal victories over recent days in cases involving important election disputes in battleground states such as Ohio, Florida, and Michigan.

The latest rulings on electronic voting and provisional ballots may not be the final word – but with Election Day looming, they may stand as voters go to the polls.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati reversed and stayed lower court decisions out of Ohio and Michigan over the weekend, siding with the Bush administration or local Republicans to require that provisional ballots be cast in the right precinct, rather than just in the correct county.

In Florida, a federal judge ruled yesterday that the state’s touch-screen voting machines do not have to produce a paper record for use in case a recount becomes necessary, rejecting a remedy to one of the most persistent complaints of the machines’ critics.

“At this late date – a week and a day until the election – we’re not going to see a lot of pre-election remedies,” said a law professor and associate director of the Election Law project at Ohio State University, Daniel Tokaji. “The real action will be Election Day and post-election, if it’s close.”

Both of the election issues in play – provisional ballots and electronic voting machines – were widely adopted to resolve problems that marred the 2000 election.