Here’s the link to the recording of the webinar that Election Law at Ohio State held last week on the topic of structural reform of the electoral process–and specifically the policy tradeoffs involved between Instant Runoff Voting (technically, the “Hare” method) and Convergence Voting (technically, “Condorcet”).
“GOP recruits poll monitors from suburban areas to monitor the vote in Democratic cities”
Republicans have made suburban areas a recruiting ground for their army of Election Day poll monitors, with plans to deploy some into urban, Democratic epicenters that have remained the focus of conservatives’ erroneous claims of voter fraud.
The strategy has the potential to be uniquely disruptive to voters and election staff this fall, nonpartisan elections experts say, given that the volunteers would be dispatched to monitor areas with different political and demographic makeups than their own — and potentially different protocols for casting and counting ballots.
“In addition to voter intimidation risks, I think that the strategy also poses the potential to be just disruptive to the election process in general,” said Jonathan Diaz, the director of voting advocacy at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.
I Spoke with CNN’s Abby Phillip About Election Law Issues Related to a Possible Joe Biden Withdrawal from Presidential Race (link to video)
“Supreme Court Ruling Reflects Challenges of Jan. 6 Prosecutions”
Alan Feuer NYT analysis:
The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday that prosecutors had misused an obstruction law in charging hundreds of rioters who attacked the Capitol is the latest example of the persistent challenges the Justice Department has faced in grappling with the consequences of Jan. 6, 2021.
By and large, the department has succeeded over the past three years in moving against members of the pro-Trump mob who sought to disrupt the certification of President Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, and in winning convictions on seditious conspiracy charges against members of two far-right groups that were instrumental in stoking the violence that day, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
But lacking any established legal blueprint for addressing an assault on the foundations of democracy, prosecutors sometimes got creative with the law. And that has left them vulnerable to second-guessing by the courts on how they have pursued criminal cases both against the rioters and against former President Donald J. Trump, and contributing to a long series of challenges and delays.
The court’s new ruling on the obstruction law will hardly cripple the Justice Department’s ability to go after the rioters, but it will constrain prosecutors by restricting the use of an important tool they have relied on to seek accountability against the most disruptive members of the mob….
“Allegations of Democratic Voter fraud and Support for Political Violence Among Republicans”
James A. Piazza in American Politics Research:
Are partisans more likely to endorse political violence when politicians accuse their rivals of election improprieties? I theorize that for Republican partisans in the United States, the answer to this question is yes. Republican partisans are primed to believe allegations of cheating by Democrats and view election improprieties through the lens of racial and xenophobic resentments. Allegations of Democratic election fraud prompt them to eschew nonviolent norms of political behavior and endorse political violence. I test these propositions using an original, online survey experiment involving 140 self-identified Republican subjects. I find that exposure to allegations by politicians that Democrats engage in election fraud prompts Republican partisans to increase their support for political violence. Furthermore, using mediation tests, I find that exposing Republicans to allegations of electoral fraud by Democrats reduces their trust of people of different races and religions which, in turn, increases their support for political violence.
“Justices Thomas and Alito Ignored Calls for Recusal in Jan. 6 Case”
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., rejecting calls for their disqualification, participated in the case, siding with a member of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Experts in legal ethics have said that the activities of the justices’ wives raised serious questions about their impartiality.
Virginia Thomas, known as Ginny, helped shape the effort to overturn the 2020 election. “Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History,” Ms. Thomas wrote in a text message to Mark Meadows, President Donald J. Trump’s chief of staff, during the fraught weeks between the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 attack.
Justice Thomas has not given a public explanation for remaining on the case, and he has taken part in other cases arising from the election and the 2021 attack. But he recused himself in October from a case concerning John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who had advised Mr. Trump. Justice Thomas, for whom Mr. Eastman had served as a law clerk, gave no reasons for his decision to disqualify himself from that case.
Justice Alito has been more forthcoming. He explained why he would not recuse from the case in a letter to Democratic lawmakers in May after The New York Times reported that flags that have been used to support the “Stop the Steal” movement had been displayed at his homes in Virginia and New Jersey.
The justice said his wife, Martha-Ann, was responsible. “My wife is fond of flying flags,” he wrote. “I am not. She was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years.”…
Bottini: “Is there still a judge in Paris? French legislative elections proceed with minimal constitutional check”
The following is a guest post from Eleonora Bottini, Professor of Public Law, University of Caen Normandy:
On June 20th and 26th, 2024, the French Constitutional Council, unsurprisingly, authorized the legislative snap elections in France to proceed as… Continue reading
“The Government Needs to Act Fast to Protect the Election”
Gowri Ramachandran and Lawrence Norden post-Murthy in The Atlantic:
With Murthy now dismissed and limited time before November 5, the federal government can and should immediately resume its regular briefings with social-media companies about foreign interference in our elections. Although… Continue reading
WRAL Capital Broadcasting Co. 3 Part Series on the New Role of Outside Money in North Carolina Elections
CBC EDITORIAL INVESTIGATES: Outside campaign money dominates N.C. elections (PART ONE; Monday, June 24, 2024)
CBC EDITORIAL INVESTIGATES: Outside groups spending on N.C. campaigns. Who they are? What they want? (PART TWO: Tuesday, June 25, 2024)
CBC EDITORIAL INVESTIGATES: Voters’ … Continue reading
Breaking: Plaintiffs, Likely Fearing the Supreme Court Will Make Things Worse, Decline to Seek Supreme Court Review of Eighth Circuit Case Holding There’s No Right For Private Parties to Sue Under Section 2 of Voting Rights Act
With today’s deadline, I have learned there will be no cert petition filed. This is a case from the Eighth Circuit that is wrong on the text of the Voting Rights Act, wrong on its history, and wrong on… Continue reading
My New One at Slate: “That Big Jan. 6 Supreme Court Decision Is Not the Win for Trump People Think It Is”
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins:
In Fischer v. United States, a divided Supreme Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, handed Donald Trump a political victory by saying the government overreached in prosecuting some… Continue reading
Supreme Court Hands January 6 Rioters a Win in Fischer Case, But It Likely Won’t Help Trump Beat Similar Charges Against Him (Should He Ever Go To Trial on Election Interference)
The key holding in Fischer v. United States is to read the obstruction statute so that “the Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or as… Continue reading
What Replaces Chevron Deference in Administrative Law Statutory Interpretation Cases? Greater Judicial Power
Here, from the end of the Chief Justice’s opinion in Loper-Bright, is a brief paragraph on what replaces Chevron deference to administrative agency interpretation of ambiguous statutes:
Chevron is overruled. Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether… Continue reading
More on the legal (and practical) issues around a presidential candidate’s withdrawal
Rick H. gets the heart of the issues right in his early post. I want to highlight some more wrinkles (but I put the odds of Biden stepping down much lower than 50%).
First, Rick is right that the… Continue reading