All posts by Rick Hasen

“Departure on FEC hobbles the election enforcement agency”

May 1, 2025, 7:31 amfederal election commissionRick Hasen

Politico: The Federal Election Commision, the agency responsible for enforcing campaign finance laws, is again without enough members to take official action after a Republican commissioner announced his departure on Wednesday. The agency is paralyzed without a quorum and cannot… Continue reading

“Trump wants voters to prove citizenship. Arizona tried that and bungled it.”

May 1, 2025, 7:26 amelection administration, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

WaPo: For 30 years, no one questioned Danny Dobosz’s citizenship when the lifelong Republican cast his ballot. So when a letter arrived from a local election official last month asking him to send back a copy of his birth… Continue reading

“Court of Appeals clears path for Republicans to take over NC Board of Elections. Stein to appeal”

April 30, 2025, 5:57 pmelection administration, election subversion riskRick Hasen

WRAL: Control over elections administration in North Carolina could flip from Democratic to Republican control within hours, following a decision late Wednesday from the state Court of Appeals. Elections decisions in North Carolina are made by political appointees, who make… Continue reading

“Grants tie Trump’s anti-DEI order to election security money”

April 30, 2025, 1:44 pmelection administration, Election Assistance CommissionRick Hasen

WaPo: Federal election officials are suggesting states must pledge to follow President Donald Trump’s directive curbing diversity, equity and inclusion programs as a condition for receiving $15 million in election security funding. The new requirement for the grants has sent… Continue reading

New Jersey: “Paterson council president indicted, allegedly destroyed ballots for other candidates”

April 30, 2025, 8:39 amchicaneryRick Hasen

Paterson Press: City Council President Alex Mendez faces a new indictment on voter fraud charges in a case that has dragged on for almost five years involving an all vote-by-mail election that took place at the beginning of the COVID… Continue reading

“Trump’s Maximalist Assertion of Presidential Power Tests the Rule of Law”

April 30, 2025, 8:21 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

Charlie Savage for the NYT: Nearly every president has pushed the bounds of executive power to try to achieve something specific. And a handful of presidents who took office during a true national crisis, like the Civil War or the… Continue reading

“The Battle for the Ballot in New Jersey”

April 30, 2025, 8:18 amballot accessRick Hasen

Gene Mazo has posted this draft at SSRN (Seton Hall Law Review). Here is the abstract: A scholarly literature has recently emerged to study, document, and measure the effects of New Jersey’s unique ballot bracketing system, colloquially known as the… Continue reading

New York Post Story Shows Why Voter Impersonation Fraud Almost Never Happens

April 30, 2025, 7:44 amchicaneryRick Hasen

NYP: A Long Island voter pretended to be someone else to cast an extra ballot in the 2024 election but his scheme was exposed when the resident he impersonated showed up on Election Day, cops said. Lindenhurst resident Christopher… Continue reading

“100 days in, Trump’s moves to overhaul election law get pushback from courts, Democrats”

April 29, 2025, 4:32 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Roll Call: Since returning to office, Trump has taken multiple executive actions related to elections and campaign spending, with Democrats challenging his moves in court. Meanwhile, House Republicans have passed legislation to address one of his priorities: noncitizen voting. On… Continue reading

“Federal election panel chair opposes counting ballots that arrive after Election Day”

April 29, 2025, 3:34 pmabsentee ballots, Election Assistance CommissionRick Hasen

Democracy Docket: Amid the Republican Party’s broad effort to hamstring voting by mail, the chair of an independent federal election commission said he believes states should no longer accept and count ballots after Election Day — a change that would… Continue reading

“Reporting Gerrymanders”

April 29, 2025, 1:10 pmelection law "humor", redistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Ross Davies has written this fun article for The Green Bag. Here is the abstract: Over the past 80 years or so, maps have appeared in many (but not all) of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions involving gerrymanders. This… Continue reading

“Secret Deals, Foreign Investments, Presidential Policy Changes: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm”

April 29, 2025, 7:40 amchicanery, conflict of interest lawsRick Hasen

NYT: The pitch from “ZMoney” arrived on the encrypted messaging app Signal just days before Donald J. Trump’s presidential inauguration. “ZMoney” was Zachary Folkman, an entrepreneur who once ran a company called Date Hotter Girls and was now representing World… Continue reading

Rich Bernstein: “The North Carolina’s Supreme Court’s Dangerous Violation of Equal Protection Threatens All Elections”

April 28, 2025, 12:22 pmBush v. Gore reflections, chicanery, election subversion riskRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Rich Bernstein: Imagine that a state’s statute (or constitution) required a photo ID to vote, but only in certain counties that had a history of consistently voting for Democrats by wide margins. Everyone… Continue reading

My New Draft: “Faux Campaign Finance Regulation and the Pathway to American Oligarchy”

April 28, 2025, 7:32 amcampaign finance, Plutocrats UnitedRick Hasen

I have posted this draft for an upcoming conference on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The collapse of campaign finance regulation in the United States has facilitated a path toward oligarchic power redistribution. Americans did not adopt the current set… Continue reading