From the WSJ (behind paywall): Onetime celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday for stealing $300,000 from the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, whom he represented in her battles with former President Donald Trump. U.S.… Continue reading

From the East Asian Forum:       “Almost a decade of centre-right rule came to an end on 21 May when former prime minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal Party–National Party coalition was defeated by the centre-left Labor Party, which now holds office… Continue reading

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the prevalence of two-round voting systems in other countries for presidential elections, Colombia’s presidential election provides a terrific example. In Colombia’s first-round vote yesterday, three main candidates competed. A former left-wing guerilla, Gustavo… Continue reading

As Ned Foley and I have been writing about in various forums, our typical use of plurality voting rules in the US can lead to factional candidates winning nominations or elections, even though they lack majority support. That’s one of… Continue reading

Initial stories about voter turnout in Georgia’s primaries noted the dramatic increase in turnout from the prior primaries in 2018. I flagged those stories, but said I wanted to see what the rejection rate for absentee ballots would be, given… Continue reading

At Politico, in a story titled Why Texans Can’t Get the Gun Laws They Really Want, Joshua Blank reports on polling data that appears to show that Texans favor stricter gun policies than those the legislature has recently enacted.… Continue reading

I’ve posted this new essay, which is coming out in the California Law Review, on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: Democracies throughout the West are unable to marshal wide-enough support to deliver effective government. The communications revolution is one reason… Continue reading

From Quartz: A new report by Canadian national intelligence experts says that country faces new threats from a once unlikely source: the United States. The paper, published by a task force that includes two former directors of the Canadian Security… Continue reading

From the AJC. Note this is a poll among Republicans: The poll found that at least 60% of likely Republican voters are at least somewhat confident that the November elections will be conducted fairly and accurately, compared with one-quarter… Continue reading

Ned flagged this article earlier, mentioned it includes a lot of rich details, but used his post to turn to other issues. Given the controversies around the changes to Georgia’s voting laws over the last year, I thought it was… Continue reading

David Frum in The Atlantic has a good piece on yesterday’s decision in FEC v. Cruz. The piece concludes by arguing that the focus of campaign-finance reform these days ought to be how to put candidates and their campaigns,… Continue reading

As a proponent of competitive districts, I’m often asked how much the decline in competitive districts is due to intentional gerrymandering versus the realities of political geography, in which metro areas have become highly Democratic and rural areas highly Republican.… Continue reading

When the main elections that matter are the primaries — from Politico: House Democratic primaries are drawing record cash — even as they’re almost guaranteed to lose their majority. Super PACs and other organizations have already dropped more than… Continue reading

New study from Sandy Handan-Nader, Andrew Myers, Andrew B. Hall. Abstract: U.S. state legislatures are critical policymaking bodies and the major pipeline of candidates to national office. Polarization in state legislatures has increased substantially in recent… Continue reading