At the Fulcrum: Most senior U.S. election officials come to their posts through explicitly partisan processes, such as partisan elections. The vast majority of these officials rise above the flaws in the positions they hold and render impartial service,… Continue reading

From Deadline Detroit, via Political Wire: Two candidates for state office in Michigan, both Republicans, “encouraged supporters to interfere with election processes, and come armed to polling places, in a recent joint appearance,” Deadline Detroit reports. Said gubernatorial candidate… Continue reading

New accounts show that Donald Trump “was more directly involved than previously known in exploring proposals to use his national security agencies to seize voting machines as he grasped unsuccessfully for evidence of fraud that would help him reverse his… Continue reading

Remarkable story from the Washington Post: Chief Justice Burger had delivered a letter to Mitchell telling him there was no woman qualified to be on the court. According to Mitchell, Burger recommended “the same bunch of names, all the… Continue reading

Hadn’t been aware of this until this post from Jonathan Adler at the Volokh Conspiracy: One of the things that surprised me about President Trump’s judicial nominations was the (relatively) large number of legal academics he tapped for the federal… Continue reading

The sources and amounts of money contributed to the political parties must be fully disclosed. Not so for this type of outside funding. I have done empirical work, with Mike Norton, demonstrating “How Outside Money Makes Governing More Difficult.” … Continue reading

Washington Post editorial: The focus of the Democrats’ failed bills was on ensuring Americans access to the ballot box — a response to voting restrictions imposed in 19 states by Republicans. But at least as important is ensuring that Americans’… Continue reading

The moment when the Supreme Court declined to do anything about the massive disenfranchisement of black voters throughout the South is embodied in Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ opinion in Giles v. Harris, 189 US 475 (1903). Justice Kagan’s dissenting opinion… Continue reading

Two decisions involving race, partisanship, and redistricting stand out for me as Justice Breyer’s two most consequential election-law opinions for the Court. If we take them in chronological order, the first is Easley v. Cromartie, a 5-4 decision out of… Continue reading

I’ve been writing about how the communications revolution is one significant factor fueling polarization, the rise of free-agent politicians, and the difficulty of putting together effective political majorities that can legislate. This new data from Axios (which takes it from… Continue reading

Last month, Dave Wasserman, a redistricting expert, caused a stir when he predicted in a tweet that reforms which had created redistricting commissions in several states would end up costing Democrats 10-15 House seats if they could have ruthlessly gerrymandered… Continue reading

Voters in Alaska adopted a top-four primary election structure and ranked-choice voting in the general election as a way to reward candidates with the broadest electoral appeal. Those reforms have been challenged under the state constitution, with the state supreme… Continue reading

Before this redistricting cycle began, I wrote a lengthy essay on the importance of competitive congressional districts as one means of limiting political extremism, as part of my more general focus on institutional reforms that might help mitigate extremism.… Continue reading

               The Committee on House Administration, chaired by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), has released its majority-staff analysis of current problems with the Electoral Count Act and a series of seven proposed reforms.  The report is a good start and endorses… Continue reading