All posts by Derek Muller

“Detroit reports ‘huge improvement’ in balancing election ballots counted, cast”

August 11, 2021, 11:02 amelection administrationDerek Muller

Significant improvement from a rough 2016 baseline, reported in the Detroit Free Press: In almost every precinct in Detroit, the number of ballots from the city’s most recent election matched the number of ballots recorded as cast in the poll… Continue reading

“John Roberts and the Supreme Court might block anything Democrats do on voting rights”

August 11, 2021, 11:01 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActDerek Muller

Tierney Sneed at CNN: A key piece of congressional Democrats’ voting rights push faces not only a near-impossible odds of becoming law, but also a daunting court battle in front of a conservative judiciary if it does.The legislation, known… Continue reading

“Bolsonaro Discredits Electronic Voting, Prompting Fears of a Power Grab”

August 11, 2021, 4:36 amelection administrationDerek Muller

New York Times: Facing the prospect of a crushing defeat at the polls next year, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil is rousing supporters for an existential battle — against voting machines.Beleaguered by the devastating toll of the coronavirus, a… Continue reading

“Abundance of Jan. 6 Evidence Collides With Suspects’ Right to Speedy Trials”

August 11, 2021, 4:35 amelection subversion riskDerek Muller

Alan Feuer at the New York Times: As the case of Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a suspect in the Jan. 6 riot, was poised in late July to drag into its seventh month without much progress, the presiding judge lost patience… Continue reading

“Trump asked his AG about legal strategy to overturn election, Rosen tells senators”

August 10, 2021, 12:38 pmDepartment of Justice, electoral collegeDerek Muller

More details on Jeffrey Rosen’s testimony, as linked earlier, this time at Politico: Donald Trump asked the country’s top legal official in late December about a conspiratorial draft complaint aimed at overturning the 2020 election results, according to… Continue reading

“Dominion Sues Newsmax, One America News Network, Others Over Election Claims”

August 10, 2021, 12:37 pmelection administration, voting technologyDerek Muller

Wall Street Journal on the latest Dominion lawsuit: One of the largest voting-machine companies in the U.S. on Tuesday sued two conservative media networks and a businessman it said had defamed it by spreading accusations that it rigged the 2020… Continue reading

“Claims of voter suppression in newly enacted state laws don’t all hold up under closer review”

August 10, 2021, 12:36 pmelection administration, legislation and legislatures, votingDerek Muller

Last month here at ELB, I expressed some skepticism about efforts to label some laws as “suppression,” voting restrictions, and the like. I continue that over at The Conversation, here.

“What Redistricting Looks Like in Every State”

August 10, 2021, 4:26 amredistrictingDerek Muller

FiveThirtyEight has launched a new site dedicated to examining congressional redistricting.

“As extremes shape voter ID debate, the rules keep getting stricter”

August 10, 2021, 4:24 amvoter idDerek Muller

PolitiFact, with this bottom line: Efforts to tighten identification requirements for voting, largely driven by Republicans, have been under way for about two decades, but they accelerated this year in the wake of the 2020 election.While the debate over… Continue reading

“Census experts puzzled by high rate of unanswered questions”

August 10, 2021, 4:22 amredistrictingDerek Muller

Associated Press: Census Bureau statisticians and outside experts are trying to unravel a mystery: Why were so many questions about households in the 2020 census left unanswered?Residents did not respond to a multitude of questions about sex, race, Hispanic… Continue reading

Mesa County, Colorado election clerk under investigation for security breach

August 9, 2021, 1:45 pmelection administrationDerek Muller

Developing story in Colorado. First from the Denver Post: Mesa County’s election office is being investigated after passwords for its election equipment allegedly were posted on social media and a right-wing blog earlier this month.The Colorado Secretary of State’s… Continue reading

Sixth Circuit affirms convictions for unlawful contributions to Kentucky candidate for U.S. Senate

August 9, 2021, 1:44 pmcampaign finance, campaignsDerek Muller

The opinion in United States v. Emmons is here. Alison Lundergan Grimes from Kentucky challenged Mitch McConnell in 2014 for a U.S. Senate seat. Her father (who ran a closely-held business) and a family friend were found guilty of… Continue reading

North Carolina pilots risk-limiting audits in upcoming election

August 9, 2021, 1:43 pmelection administrationDerek Muller

Good news detailed here, as states have slowly begun to build such programs (NCSL has other details).

“Reducing Election Litigation”

August 9, 2021, 5:59 amcampaign finance, guest blogging election law scholarshipDerek Muller

I have this draft on SSRN of a piece coming out in the Fordham Law Review as a part of its recent election law symposium. It’s a small effort to think about election litigation and how it might be reduced.… Continue reading