Hi, all. Justin here. On Tuesday, voters in Colorado, Michigan, and maybe Utah (it’s still too close to call) approved ballot initatives changing the process for drawing state legislative and congressional lines, and voters in Missouri approved an initiative changing the process for … Continue reading
Justin Levitt
Looks like the North Carolina US Attorney’s Office also subpoenaed the state DMV. The subpoena is here. Among the other information sought: DMV voter registration documents (including from citizens) for individuals not born in the US and documents (including from … Continue reading
A Ninth Circuit panel today unanimously reversed a lower court decision barring California’s collection of IRS Form 990 Schedule B, which lists the top contributors to 501c3 organizations. This was an as-applied claim by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and … Continue reading
The Sixth Circuit reversed a denial of a motion to dismiss, tossing an incitement claim based on then-Candidate Trump’s exhortation at a rally to “Get ’em out of here.” … Continue reading
Thanks to Doug Chapin for calling attention to this Concord Monitor piece on the nuts-and-bolts of getting polling sites ready for an election. The URL for the piece offers a nice insight not in the piece itself: “If you build … Continue reading
Calling Michael McDonald: looks like another redistricting precinct error, but this time it may force a new vote. (The article discusses a bunch of issues beyond the precinct error, few of which seem related to the race in question.) … Continue reading
AP gives a thumbs-up to the claim. … Continue reading
The Hill runs down the measures on the ballot this fall. … Continue reading
Here come the field generals for the 2021 redistricting wars. … Continue reading
No. But it’s interesting to hear Tucker Carlson get angry about efforts to help Latinos vote. … Continue reading
The State Board’s unanimous decision pertains to the subject of an ongoing lawsuit as well. Independent of the merits, it’s awfully close to the election to be making a statewide change of this magnitude. … Continue reading
Late last week, the FEC unanimously (!) approved an advisory opinion allowing Microsoft to “offer a package of enhanced online account security services at no additional charge on a nonpartisan basis to its election-sensitive customers, including federal candidates and national … Continue reading
Hansi Lo Wang, who’s been all over this issue, chronicles the memory loss. … Continue reading
Guy-Uriel Charles and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer have a new piece forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, on partisan gerrymandering and justiciability: This paper examines the Court’s decision in Gil v. Whitford. It advances two claims. First, it provides a comprehensive account … Continue reading
NPR this morning, digging into the reasons why nonvoters don’t. … Continue reading
The water cooler conversation around the DC Circuit these days must be fascinating. The Democratic Coalition says it's filing an ethics complaint against #SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh re: his answers about whether he received stolen docs: https://t.co/wLKZvu5vc5 These are typically … Continue reading
The opinion in Free and Fair Election Fund v. Missouri Ethics Commission is here. (h/t Richard Winger) … Continue reading
The state supervision will include the conduct of the recount in the Democratic primary for the 3d Congressional District. … Continue reading
Sunday’s main segment was on felony disenfranchisement and Florida’s Amendment 4. With, you know, a few asides. … Continue reading
Dem Members of Congress are calling for OIG investigations at DOJ and DHS into the issuance of the spectacularly broad North Carolina subpoenas of voting information. … Continue reading
NPR reports on the work of Spread the Vote, one of the two main national organizations (VoteRiders is the other) helping eligible voters get the IDs they need. … Continue reading
LA Times: President Trump has agreed to give up his right to pursue millions of dollars in damages against Stormy Daniels in a move to kill litigation over an illegal payoff to the adult-film star. The maneuver marks a sharp … Continue reading
And Shana Tovah. It’s Justin: I’ll be at the helm of the blog for a day or two. Please send your news (and your hate mail) my way for the next 48 hours. … Continue reading
Justin here, with my own take on Kavanaugh and the election process, also cross-posted over at the Take Care blog: In the 2016 elections, we were hacked. I don’t mean the breach of the DNC systems, serious as that was. … Continue reading
Just before the holiday, Rick posted a Texas redistricting update: the trial court issued a briefing order asking what’s left of the case after SCOTUS remand. Rick thought “there’s not much left to do.” But while most of the fireworks … Continue reading
Earlier today, Rick noted the 5th Circuit’s opinion on Texas’s voter ID law. I agree with much of his critique of the court’s resolution of the section 3(c) preclearance issue. In my post on the Texas redistricting cases earlier this … Continue reading
(X-posted at Take Care.) Two of the last SCOTUS mega-cases of the Term share a little something. This morning, the Supreme Court hears argument in the Texas redistricting case. Tomorrow, the Court considers Trump’s travel ban. They’re both massive cases, … Continue reading
An update out of south Florida: a federal court just rejected a claim by the ACRU that Broward County has a legal responsibility to purge voters more aggressively. There’s plenty of detail in the opinion about what Broward does and does … Continue reading
After a redistricting treatise this morning, just a snippet of follow-up for now. This morning, I suggested that the question on the substance of a First Amendment claim for the partisan gerrymandering cases — the question in line with First … Continue reading
In light of today’s Benisek argument, and at the risk of getting banished to another forum (I jest, I think), I offer a modest addition to the Pildes–Stephanopoulos discussion on partisan gerrymandering and the First Amendment. I agree with much … Continue reading
Justin here: just a quick note for those trying desperately to keep track of what’s where in North Carolina redistricting given the last few days. (This is the really short version.) Don’t worry, this’ll all change by the time you … Continue reading
A guest post by Chris Elmendorf and Eric McGhee: During oral argument in Gill v. Whitford, the partisan gerrymandering case, Justice Gorsuch complained that the plaintiffs’ proposed test for unconstitutional gerrymanders was too much like a steak rub: “I like … Continue reading
Recode reports: Microsoft is currently reviewing its sales records to determine whether trolls aligned with the Russian government purchased ads on Bing or other company products during the 2016 U.S. presidential race. I’ll be interested indeed to see whether Russians … Continue reading
Doug Chapin covers Brian Hancock on the local tip of the electoral cybersecurity spear. … Continue reading
Here’s a more optimistic assessment of electoral cybersecurity preparedness than yesterday’s version; it’s focused on the 28-member federal-state Election Critical Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council. … Continue reading
It spreads beyond Facebook: Google for the first time has uncovered evidence that Russian operatives exploited the company’s platforms in an attempt to interfere in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the company’s investigation. The Silicon Valley giant … Continue reading
An interesting profile on Parscale, including a bit on his interaction with the leading social media companies. UPDATE: here’s a page with the transcript of the video as well. More here at NBC, with a tantalizing headline: Trump’s digital campaign director … Continue reading
And the issues for social media companies around political ads don’t get any easier. The Hill reports: Twitter took down a campaign ad from Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) that referenced “baby body parts,” the congresswoman’s campaign said on Monday. . … Continue reading
A Politico preview of the report coming tomorrow from the DEFCON hacker conference in July, about the security of voting machines. Voting system security is vitally important, and I wish that more attention were paid to the market for and … Continue reading
Fortune has a different scoop from the same report: Ethical hackers will team up with U.S. governors, academics and others to help prevent election results from being hacked, according to a person familiar with the plan. The coalition’s members include … Continue reading
He’s looking carefully into Russian elections, at least. … Continue reading
Dan Tokaji and Michael Morley star in a National Constitution Center podcast. Michael’s also got a Prawfs piece up on the Congressional enforcement power that may follow from a holding in Gill. … Continue reading
The subhead from ProPublica: The Wisconsin case before the Supreme Court claims to be about partisanship. But race is a factor in this case and many others nationwide. A few briefs in Gill (including one on behalf of law professors, and … Continue reading
Over at National Review, Jay Cost asks the Court to leave redress of gerrymandering to the political process. When the cause of action is a complaint that adherents of a plausible majority party have been intentionally and durably prevented from … Continue reading
CNN covers the expanding GOP civil war. … Continue reading
Reuters: Feinstein is the oldest U.S. senator but among several octogenarians, including Republicans Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Richard Shelby, Jim Inhofe, Pat Roberts and John McCain. … Continue reading
From the CBC: Delivering on a promise to give British Columbians a choice in how future elections will be decided, Attorney General David Eby has announced plans for a referendum on proportional representation. “Today we have taken the first step … Continue reading
Or, at least, the Kate McKinnon SNL version did. “That’s not a district, that’s a tapeworm.” Looking forward to more Ginsburns in the future. … Continue reading
Governor Brown signed the California DISCLOSE Act yesterday, including provisions to specifically identify in ads the largest contributors to the entities producing them. (I’ve written about similar provisions, here.) Common Cause is pleased. … Continue reading