All posts by Rick Hasen

PA: “Judge orders Bucks County to extend mail ballot deadline following Trump legal challenge”

October 30, 2024, 4:18 pmabsentee ballots, election administrationRick Hasen

WHYY: A Pennsylvania judge ordered Bucks County to extend its mail ballot deadline to 5 p.m. Friday. The order stems from a legal challenge by the Trump campaign, which alleged the county turned away voters who stood in line to… Continue reading

Third Circuit Unsurprisingly Confirms that Cornel West Cannot Get on the Pennsylvania Ballot at This Late Date (Update: West Has Gone to SCOTUS)

October 30, 2024, 4:10 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Order. Update: Petition before Justice Alito.

“Looking back to 2020 for a Guide to How Fast the Votes Will Be Reported in 2024”

October 30, 2024, 10:24 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

The indispensable Charles Stewart: What does all this mean for 2024? I would highlight three things. First, pre-processing make a difference, although it makes the biggest difference in the early hours of counting. In 2020, seventeen states prohibited processing of… Continue reading

I Spoke to the International Crisis Group Podcast “Ripple Effect” on “Are the U.S. Elections at Risk of Subversion?”

October 30, 2024, 10:19 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

You can listen here.

Something Weird is Going on with the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Announcement of Receipt of Fraudulent Voter Registration Applications

October 30, 2024, 9:47 amchicaneryRick Hasen

This editorial suggests one theory of why officials announced the investigation now, but refused to say which group submitted the faulty registrations. But I wonder if that information is being kept under wraps because it was Republican-affiliated groups that engaged… Continue reading

“In Election’s Final Days, Dark Money and ‘Gray Money’ Fund ‘Dirty Tricks'”

October 30, 2024, 7:55 amcampaign finance, campaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: The campaign literature that landed in Republican mailboxes in North Carolina this week was jarring. On one side was a sonogram image of a human fetus, with this message: “Her heart is beating. We all know it. Only the… Continue reading

NYT Goes Deep with Marc Elias Profile

October 30, 2024, 7:51 amelection law bizRick Hasen

NYT: In January, the law firm of the powerful Democratic lawyer Marc Elias launched a gambit intended to help his party. The Elias Law Group petitioned the Federal Election Commission to allow a George Soros-funded political action committee to coordinate… Continue reading

Colorado, Man (Colorado Secretary of State posted spreadsheet with voting system passwords)

October 30, 2024, 7:42 amelection administrationRick Hasen

9News: The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office inadvertently posted a spreadsheet to its website with a hidden tab that included voting system passwords. In a statement to 9NEWS, a spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said that… Continue reading

Breaking: Injected New Uncertainty into Pennsylvania’s Voting Rules, Intermediate Appeals Court Rules over Dissents that Failing to Count Undated or Misdated But Timely Mail-in Ballots Violates the PA Constitution: What Happens Next?

October 30, 2024, 7:37 amabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

You can find the opinions and dissents at this link. This specific question comes up in the context of a special election, now over, in Pennsylvania, but it’s the same issue that the PA Supreme Court recently declined to opine… Continue reading

Breaking: Supreme Court, on (Apparent) Party Line Vote, Allows Virginia Purge of 1,600 Voters Identified as Possible Non-Citizens (But We Know Some are Erroneously on This List)

October 30, 2024, 7:05 amSupreme CourtRick Hasen

Here is the order: All the Republican-appointed Justices voted to allow the purge and all the Democratic-appointed Justices dissented. The argument was that this last minute purge violated the National Voter Registration Act’s ban on systematic cleaning of voting rolls… Continue reading

The Bush v. Gore-Like Equal Protection Issue Lurking in the Pennsylvania Cases

October 30, 2024, 6:54 amSupreme CourtRick Hasen

Yesterday I linked to a week-old story about how the chances of being alerted of a problem with your mail ballot and being able to cure it depended on where you live. It raises questions of unequal treatment of voters… Continue reading

“Who will be the next president? News outlets are running out of ways to communicate the uncertainty”

October 30, 2024, 6:49 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Brian Stelter for CNN: “I’ve used just about every adjective for ‘close,’ and ‘even,’ but that’s the message every time,” Anthony Salvanto, the CBS News executive director of elections and surveys, told CNN. Election-related fears and anxieties are especially high this year, but the… Continue reading

Florida, Man (Ballots Fell Out of a Truck in Miami and a Postal Worker Threw Out Mail including a Ballot in Orlando)

October 30, 2024, 6:47 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Miami Herald: Containers with Miami-Dade ballots were found on the side of a road overnight after they fell out of a county truck, the Elections Department confirmed Tuesday. “The worker forgot to lock the back of the truck and as… Continue reading

“There Is No ‘Little Secret’ Speaker Power over the Electoral Count”

October 29, 2024, 4:28 pmelection subversion risk, electoral collegeRick Hasen

Andy Craig at Cato at Liberty: The Speaker’s role during the electoral count is, in fact, nearly non-existent. There are no lawful mechanisms for the Speaker to derail the joint session of Congress without the backing of concurrent majorities in… Continue reading

Election Law Blog

The law of politics and the politics of law