“As Facebook Abandons Fact-Checking, It’s Also Offering Bonuses for Viral Content”

February 27, 2025, 7:05 amcheap speechRick Hasen

ProPublica: Hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, users spread a false claim on Facebook that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was paying a bounty for reports of undocumented people. “BREAKING — ICE is allegedly offering $750 per illegal… Continue reading

“White House Correspondents’ Association cedes control of pool reports to Trump administration”

February 27, 2025, 7:00 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

Politico: Reversing decades of precedent, the White House Correspondents’ Association announced Wednesday that it would no longer coordinate shared coverage of President Donald Trump in an escalating dispute over press access to official events. The association, which represents more than… Continue reading

“How Wisconsin’s inconsistent voting instructions raise the risk of disenfranchisement”

February 27, 2025, 6:48 amabsentee ballots, election administrationRick Hasen

Votebeat: Whether a voter can accurately cast a ballot can come down to some very technical issues, and for that reason, we at Votebeat are used to going down some really narrow — but important — rabbit holes. For example,… Continue reading

“Kansas Senate Republicans take up plan to rewrite constitution to elect Supreme Court justices”

February 27, 2025, 6:43 amjudicial electionsRick Hasen

Kansas Reflector: Senate Republicans are pursuing a ballot question to make the Kansas Supreme Court an elected office, dismantling a decades-old merit-based nomination system for justices that voters put in place after a notorious scandal. The move is largely a… Continue reading

Political Parties—A Fresh Look

February 27, 2025, 6:42 ampolitical parties, third partiesTabatha Abu El-Haj

We have a political party that was elected in part because Americans are concerned about the price of groceries. Now that they hold three branches of government, their primary budget goal is to maintain and extend tax breaks that overwhelmingly… Continue reading

Bezos Announces New Policy for Washington Post’s Opinion Pages. Orbán Playbook?

February 27, 2025, 6:33 amPlutocrats UnitedAutocracyTabatha Abu El-Haj

From the Washington Post: “Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos said Wednesday that the newspaper’s opinions section would now be focused on “personal liberties and free markets” and won’t publish anything that opposes those ideas.” For now, it appears that Bezos… Continue reading

“Unduly Burdensome Public Records Requests and their Effects on Local Election Officials”

February 26, 2025, 1:11 pmchicanery, election administrationRick Hasen

New report from EVIC.

“Indiana Republicans Move to Ban Student IDs for Voting”

February 26, 2025, 1:09 pmvoter idRick Hasen

Bolts: Daniel Jenkins has volunteered to boost voter turnout on Indiana University’s Bloomington campus since becoming a student there in 2022. Jenkins, now a junior studying political science, has spent years helping other students fill out voter registration forms and… Continue reading

“In Crucial Judicial Race in Wisconsin, G.O.P. Now Has a Financial Edge”

February 26, 2025, 7:46 amcampaign finance, judicial electionsRick Hasen

NYT: The last time Wisconsin held an election for the state’s Supreme Court, Republicans cried foul over the wave of money from out-of-state Democrats that overwhelmed their candidate. Two years later, Republicans have learned their lesson. It is Democrats who… Continue reading

“Universal vote by mail is popular in Utah. GOP lawmakers continue to move away from it in a revised bill.”

February 26, 2025, 7:37 amabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

NJ Appellate Court Upholds State’s Ban on Fusion Candidacies

February 26, 2025, 6:50 amthird partiesFusion, state courtsTabatha Abu El-Haj

The New Jersey Appellate Division held that the state’s ban on fusion candidacies does not violate the State Constitution. New Jersey, like other states, prohibits a candidate for public office from appearing on a ballot as the nominee for multiple… Continue reading

Divided Ninth Circuit finds Congress holds power to regulate presidential elections as it does congressional elections

February 26, 2025, 3:31 amcourt decisions, Elections ClauseDerek Muller

Justin helpfully runs through the major elements of the Ninth Circuit’s holding in Mi Familia Vota v. Fontes, but I wanted to highlight a divide in the opinion I wrote about back in 2022 just as this bill was introduced … Continue reading

Antebellum fusion

February 25, 2025, 4:20 pmballot access, political partiesJustin Levitt

Justin again. I had the “pleasure” of teaching Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party again yesterday. Timmons was a federal constitutional challenge to “anti-fusion” laws: laws preventing two parties on the ballot from nominating the same candidate (and thereby… Continue reading

9th Circuit affirms limits on AZ proof of citizenship laws

February 25, 2025, 3:50 pmabsentee ballots, election administration, NVRA (motor voter), The Voting Wars, voter registrationproof of citizenshipJustin Levitt

Justin here. A 9th Circuit panel is out with 156 pages’ worth of opinion in Mi Familia Vota v. Fontes, the latest in the battles revolving around Arizona’s laws requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote. There’s (obviously) quite a… Continue reading