All posts by Justin Levitt

The 7th Circuit denominator

October 7, 2014, 3:42 pmThe Voting Wars, voter id, Voting Rights ActJustin Levitt

No time like the present to start “easing in,” I guess. Others have already said quite a bit about yesterday’s 7th Circuit voter ID decision. I’ve written many times about the ID-on-a-plane fallacy (it’s both irrelevant and wrong), about… Continue reading

Voter registration, domicile, and the location of your pillow

October 3, 2014, 5:32 pmresidency, voter registrationJustin Levitt

As we get into the “silly season” of election administration frenzy, it’s worth connecting two stories hours apart — the piece on Romney’s mistaken registration address to the story about GOP scouring of voter rolls in Illinois. The Romney… Continue reading

The NVRA and the Arkansas AG candidate

October 2, 2014, 10:17 amfraudulent fraud squad, statutory interpretation, voter registrationJustin Levitt

Rick posted yesterday on an Arkansas registrar’s decision to cancel the registration of Leslie Rutledge, a candidate for state AG, after it was brought to the registrar’s attention that Ms. Rutledge had been registered in another state. One of the… Continue reading

“Ada County wrongly strips more than 750 voter registrations”

September 1, 2014, 3:52 pmvoter registrationJustin Levitt

Late last week, Rick linked to a story about potential double voters in Maryland and Virginia. Two groups (Election Integrity Maryland and the Virginia Voters Alliance) claimed to have discovered “tens of thousands” of electors on the rolls in both… Continue reading

Factfinding and “Fact”finding

August 1, 2014, 2:04 pmvoter idJustin Levitt

Yesterday, in his discussion of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s voter ID cases, Rick mentioned that the one example of voter fraud cited by the court was not only inapposite, but also not in evidence before the lower court. He then… Continue reading

The Drunkard’s Search for Money in Politics

May 27, 2014, 12:06 pmcampaign financeJustin Levitt

(cross-posted from Summary Judgments) Late at night, a good Samaritan happens upon an intoxicated man crawling under a streetlight, studying the ground. The drunkard says that he is looking for his keys, and our helpful bystander joins the search. … Continue reading

When the Carpet Doesn’t Match the Drapes

April 2, 2014, 5:06 pmelection administration, fraudulent fraud squadJustin Levitt

Warning: this isn’t a McCutcheon reaction (though I’ve got one of those). The National Review Online has today’s latest entry into the litany of voter fraud reports in which the story doesn’t actually support the headline. The headline says:… Continue reading

Section 2: Under Construction?

March 18, 2014, 10:21 amVoting Rights ActJustin Levitt

Rick linked, here, to an argument by Mr. Clegg and Mr. von Spakovsky about the proper construction of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The argument is predicated on the notion that it’s constitutionally questionable to construe section… Continue reading

Wisconsin Supreme Court finally weighs in on redistricting (by punting)

January 13, 2014, 5:46 pmredistricting, statutory interpretationJustin Levitt

In July of 2011, the Wisconsin legislature passed new district lines, in a hurry. (Though activity had not been scheduled to resume before September, the legislature reconvened in extraordinary session on July 19, and passed both state and federal… Continue reading

VRA Preclearance (A Response to Pildes/Tokaji, pt. 2)

August 19, 2013, 5:16 pmelection administration, redistricting, voter registration, Voting Rights ActJustin Levitt

(At Rick Hasen’s request, I’ve posted (with permission) two listserv responses to this post by Rick Pildes and Dan Tokaji. The first was from Mike Pitts. For this one, you can blame me. The version below is modified a… Continue reading

VRA Preclearance (A Response to Pildes/Tokaji, pt. 1)

August 19, 2013, 4:45 pmelection administration, redistricting, Voting Rights ActJustin Levitt

(Re-posted on behalf of Mike Pitts, from a listserv email, with permission, in response to this post): I have great respect for Dan Tokaji and Rick Pildes. They are smart folks and excellent scholars. And they may well… Continue reading

Bail-in: local, non-southern edition

August 12, 2013, 3:19 pmredistricting, Voting Rights ActJustin Levitt

Justin here. In the wake of Shelby County, attention will naturally follow cases seeking bail-in for jurisdictions once covered by sections 4 and 5. Like Texas, where there’s the opposite of the “New York, New York” scenario: if… Continue reading

Of contributions and expenditures and the land in between

August 5, 2013, 8:32 amcampaign financeJustin Levitt

Justin here (just so Dan doesn’t get the hate mail). In the world of campaign finance, the constitutional distinction between contributions and expenditures has been one of the primary, comparatively stable, fault lines. With relative consistency, the Court has reviewed… Continue reading