All posts by Derek Muller

UPDATED: Redistricting roundup

August 31, 2021, 12:30 pmredistrictingDerek Muller

August 31: I have updated some of the links and resources in this post and have bumped it to the top. Ahead of the Census release: ABC News Associated Press CNN NBC News NPR New York Times Politico Roll Call… Continue reading

Nationwide preclearance of existing voter identification laws in the John L. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

August 20, 2021, 1:36 pmVoting Rights ActDerek Muller

Travis and Nick had helpful summaries and thoughts of the major components of H.R. 4, the John L. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. I wanted to highlight one interesting change from the 2019 edition of the VRAA, the scope of… Continue reading

Qualifications for candidates running in California’s gubernatorial recall

August 17, 2021, 7:23 amballot accessDerek Muller

To build off Ned‘s post, and setting aside the major laches problem to this lawsuit, Vik Amar and Evan Caminker at Justia have a pretty thorough defense of California’s process, a process that disqualifies a recalled governor from seeking… Continue reading

From Mesa County, Colorado: “Decertified election equipment could prove costly to county “

August 15, 2021, 4:49 pmelection administrationDerek Muller

Thanks again to Rick for allowing me to take the helm for a couple of weeks. It’s now back over to him for the daily grind. My last update for the weekend comes from Mesa County. The latest, after Monday… Continue reading

“The Geography of Law: Understanding the Origin of State and Federal Redistricting Cases”

August 15, 2021, 10:15 amredistrictingDerek Muller

A timely piece in Political Research Quarterly: Knowing where legal complaints arise can tell us something about them and reveal clues about their conditions of origin. In this paper, we examine the geographic origins of litigation challenging the boundaries… Continue reading

“All-mail voting in Colorado increases turnout and reduces turnout inequality”

August 15, 2021, 8:45 amabsentee ballotsDerek Muller

New article from Adam Bonica, Jacob M. Grumbach, Charlotte Hill, & Hakeem Jefferson in Electoral Studies: The COVID-19 crisis has generated interest in all-mail voting (AMV) as a potential policy solution for avoiding in-person elections. However, the quality of… Continue reading

“Hyperpartisan Campaign Finance”

August 15, 2021, 7:30 amcampaign financeDerek Muller

An article from Michael S. Kang, forthcoming in the Emory Law Journal, now on SSRN: Hyperpartisanship dominates modern American politics and government, but today’s politics are strikingly different from the preceding period of American history, a Cold War… Continue reading

“Two-Party Structural Countermandering”

August 15, 2021, 6:15 amredistrictingDerek Muller

Draft from Benjamin Plener Cover forthcoming in the Iowa Law Review now up on SSRN: The popular narrative surrounding gerrymandering frames it as a performative phenomenon—achieved through the intentional manipulations of malevolent partisan actors. Efforts to curb partisan gerrymandering—which… Continue reading

“Elections supervisor imposes vaccine mandate for all poll workers in Broward special congressional election”

August 14, 2021, 3:48 pmelection administrationDerek Muller

One more thing to watch in election administration in the months ahead. From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Broward Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott has told poll workers that they must be vaccinated for COVID-19 if they wish to work… Continue reading

Hoover report: “Evaluating Look Ahead America’s ‘The Georgia Report’ On Illegal, Out-Of-State Voting In The 2020 Election”

August 14, 2021, 8:30 amelection administration, fraudulent fraud squadDerek Muller

New report from Justin Grimmer, Andrew B. Hall, and Daniel M. Thompson out at the Hoover Institution: Given the critical importance of safeguarding the American electoral system, it is vital to evaluate the evidence offered for specific claims of fraud… Continue reading

“The Common Good and Voter Polarization”

August 14, 2021, 7:30 ampolitical polarization, voter initiativesDerek Muller

New draft on SSRN by John G. Matsusaka and Chad Kendall: Do voters see democracy entirely as a game of self-interest in which one person’s gain is another’s loss, or do they also view it as a search for… Continue reading

Harvard Law and Policy Review releases symposium issue on the Electoral College

August 14, 2021, 6:00 amelectoral collegeDerek Muller

I’ll highlight some more academic work this weekend. Up first: It was a pleasure to participate in this terrific event with a fantastic lineup! Volume 15, Issue 1 of the Harvard Law & Policy Review is here. Lawrence Lessig,… Continue reading

“Colorado redistricting panel votes to end ‘prison gerrymandering’ in new legislative maps”

August 13, 2021, 4:29 pmredistrictingDerek Muller

Colorado Newsline: For the first time in the state’s history, Colorado will change how it counts incarcerated people when drawing up new legislative maps, a redistricting panel confirmed in a vote on Friday.Historically, prison inmates have been counted by… Continue reading

“Compton city councilman charged with election rigging, bribery in race decided by one vote”

August 13, 2021, 4:26 pmvotingDerek Muller

Stories like this show how rare fraud is–and how hard it is to get away with even on the very smallest of scales. It’s also a low turnout, narrow margin (i.e., 1), local election, where the risk of fraud is… Continue reading