That appears to be the conclusion of this new paper by Ed Stiglitz and Aviv Caspi entitled “Observability and Reasoned Discourse: Evidence from the U.S. Senate”. Here’s the abstract: Many private and public institutions depend on reasoned discourse to… Continue reading

With all the attention focused on his “delay the election” tweet, I want to highlight another aspect of this morning’s tweets about voting. The President begins by praising absentee voting: “With Universal Mail-in Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good)… Continue reading

If you think it’s only American media that’s been turned upside down by a tweet like this, I’m already doing interviews on the subject with German and Spanish television, and have turned down requests from still other countries.               I’m… Continue reading

From Axios: FBI Director Christopher Wray and other intelligence community officials warned about China’s increased capability to interfere in U.S. elections in separate classified hearings with the Senate Intelligence Committee this week, two sources familiar with the hearings tell… Continue reading

Troubling story from Politico about congressional oversight of potential foreign influence over the election: The group of congressional leaders responsible for reviewing the nation’s most closely held secrets is engaged in an unusual and bitter partisan fight over how much… Continue reading

In an interview on Fox News two nights ago, Vice President Pence endorsed absentee voting for this fall and drew a distinction between that and full vote by mail. Below is the relevant portion from a transcript of that interview.… Continue reading

From the Washington Post: At an often contentious emergency hearing Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers pressed the director of the Census Bureau on how he will follow last week’s presidential directive to change the way the decennial census is used for… Continue reading

From the WSJ, a troubling report, but negotiations are still ongoing: “We’ve already appropriated an awful lot of money for election assistance,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday. “What we’re not going to do is federalize the American… Continue reading

Washington Post, on a new report from Maplight: Daniel G. Newman, president and co-founder of MapLight, told me: “We are playing with fire as a nation by failing to address the gaps and ambiguities in our election rules that… Continue reading

Hopefully some of these funds will enable the Postal Service to ramp up for managing the flood of absentee ballots this fall.

The organization Issue One has issued this report. “Secretive shell companies provide ideal cover for foreigners wishing to evade the existing prohibition on their involvement in U.S. elections,” said Issue One Founder and CEO Nick Penniman. “The Justice Department… Continue reading

Bangor Daily News: Those making a fourth legal challenge in just over two years to Maine’s ranked-choice voting system are using a new lens of equity, but they will have to convince a federal judge that fundamentals have shifted since… Continue reading

In this deep dive analyzing the absentee ballot process in WI’s April 7th primary, the Green Bay Press Gazette (hat tip to local media) concludes that more than 23,000 absentee ballots were rejected in that primary. The story points out… Continue reading

This could be an important option for the fall, for jurisdictions that can manage to do this: Voters don’t have to leave their vehicles to vote in the primary election in Eau Claire. City officials have set up drive-thru… Continue reading