NY State of Politics on the proposed New York bill to move some local elections on-cycle. Of course, county elected officials who won their positions in off-cycle elections oppose the change. By the same token, the beneficiaries of gerrymandering always… Continue reading

Jesse Wegman for the NYT on the red state exodus from ERIC — a shift impossible to square with any supposed interest in maintaining voter rolls and preventing fraud. Republican officials have for a long time rightly insisted on the… Continue reading

Brett Parker has posted this paper finding a moderate increase in ideological polarization on state supreme courts: Research has documented elite polarization in a variety of areas, including Congress, the executive branch, and the federal judiciary. To my knowledge, however,… Continue reading

This joint report from Protect Democracy, States United Democracy Center, and Law Forward tracks bills across the country that increase the risk of election subversion: As we demonstrate in this edition of the Report, the danger of a democracy crisis… Continue reading

This is a guest post from Ellen Katz: Much of Allen’s significance may lie in the small section of the Chief Justice ’s opinion that Justice Kavanaugh refused to join, and the final point Justice Kavanaugh offered in his… Continue reading

Rick Pildes wrote this piece for Slate on how plaintiffs may harness new redistricting technology to bring more successful Section 2 claims after Milligan: This new technology makes it possible to find VRA districts that might have been hard to… Continue reading

Here are some early thoughts on today’s historic and unexpected decision in Milligan: 1. The Roberts Court Did This? Before today, the Roberts Court had only chipped away at racial vote dilution claims under Section 2. In LULAC, the Court… Continue reading

Here’s the Court’s decision by Chief Justice Roberts. More analysis later, but this is an absolutely stunning development. I would never have expected this Court to rule fully in favor of the plaintiffs in a Section 2 racial vote dilution… Continue reading

New York’s legislature is considering moving most local elections to November of even-numbered years. This is one of the most impactful electoral reforms that states can adopt. If New York goes ahead with it, it would join Arizona, California, and… Continue reading

Jacqueline Rosen has posted this Election Law Journal article. Abstract below: Recently, the Supreme Court significantly limited review of partisan gerrymandering claims, closing the door to a substantial portion of redistricting challenges. However, religious-based redistricting is an overlooked area… Continue reading

WaPo on House Republicans’ interest in scholars who study disinformation (with the apparent aim of suppressing this academic work, not disinformation): Republican House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and his allies in Congress are demanding documents from and meetings with leading… Continue reading

The Connecticut Legislature has passed a state-level voting rights act. Connecticut now joins California, New York, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington in offering protections against racial discrimination in voting beyond those provided by the federal Voting Rights Act. For more on… Continue reading

Steven Hill on fusion voting, which is having something of a moment in the sun as reformers push to eliminate fusion bans. It does that by allowing a candidate to appear on the ballot under multiple political party labels simultaneously… Continue reading

According to a report, artificial intelligence can produce political propaganda almost as persuasive as Russian or Iranian fake news (though this may be a low bar): In mid-April, Stamos and Stanford’s Shelby Grossman led a webinar where they previewed… Continue reading