In the state of Washington, the legislature just passed a capital-gains tax, which the Governor is expected to sign. Washington also has a voter referendum process. But according to this story, the legislation includes a provision that prevents a… Continue reading

There’s an intriguing, underappreciated aspect to the constitutional issues before the Supreme Court in this case, which involves California’s requirement that certain charitable organizations which fundraise in the state file non-public forms with the Attorney General’s office that include disclosure… Continue reading

As part of my identification of four political reforms that might help mitigate the most extreme forces in our current politics, I have argued that redistricters (whether independent commissions or legislatures) should strive to create competitive districts, rather than safe… Continue reading

The New York Times has a good explainer, with good visualization aids, that explains how RCV will work in our June primaries for mayor. I wanted to clarify one point of potential confusion. The story says: In New York’s… Continue reading

Rick Hasen linked to this story already, but I wanted to add some additional excerpts from political insiders. These excerpts bolster the concerns I’ve expressed for some time now about small-donor money fueling the more extremist forces in politics: “The… Continue reading

It’s well-known that one of the issues to keep in mind about public-financing of elections in the United States — whether traditional forms of public financing or small-donor matching funds approaches to public financing — that there is still likely… Continue reading

Ray La Raja is one of the leading political scientists who writes on campaign finance issues and political polarization. With his co-author, Zach Albert, he has a new working paper that examines small-donor funding patterns for moderate and extreme candidates… Continue reading

Just ran across this story on the 12 most gerrymandered House districts, according to some experts The Fulcrum surveyed in 2019. Here is the comment on this district, OH 9, from Jason Fierman, founder and managing director of The Redistrict … Continue reading

President Biden’s Commission on the Supreme Court includes several academic figures with ties to the election-law field, including Guy-Uriel Charles, Michael Kang, Heather Gerken, Bertrall Ross, and me, as well as the Commission’s Co-Chair, Bob Bauer. It’s a terrific group… Continue reading

From Politico’s Huddle: Freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the controversial MAGA firebrand, raised over $3.2 million in the first three months of this year, according to a source close to her campaign. That eye-popping haul came from over… Continue reading

One of the most heavily contested voting-policy issues in the 2020 election, in both the courts and the political arena, was the deadline for returning absentee ballots. Now that it’s possible to get data on this issue, I put… Continue reading

This Bloomberg piece has a lot of good data on which candidates benefit most and least from small donations. Some excerpts: Democrats in Congress are trying to increase the clout of small donors, yet a provision in their voting-rights legislation… Continue reading

Israel’s election system requires a party to receive at least 3.5% of the vote to obtain any seats in the Knesset. With 91% of the vote in, 13 parties have won seats in the 120-seat parliament. Here is the current … Continue reading