Announcement: FairVote and the Election Reformers Network have teamed up to host a Symposium called, A Congress for Everyone: The Impact of the Fair Representation Act on Tuesday, February 4. It’s free and will be held at the New York University campus in Washington, DC starting at 3pm.At … Continue reading
Category Archives: Uncategorized
One of the important findings from yesterday’s major CFI Report on campaign finance that has gone unnoticed so far is that Citizens United did not lead to a significant increase in election spending by publicly-traded corporations. As the introduction to … Continue reading
Release: Today, Common Cause filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging reason to believe that Our Revolution, a nonprofit political organization established by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2016 and now supporting his 2020 presidential campaign, violated the federal … Continue reading
Pam Fessler for NPR: PAM FESSLER, BYLINE: Late last year, an election official in a small Texas county got a curious phone call. Someone claimed to be from Hart InterCivic, the vendor who supplied the county’s voting machines. The caller … Continue reading
NPR: Threats to U.S. elections this year could be broader and more diverse than before, warns the spy world’s boss for election security — and she also acknowledged the limits of her ability to tackle them.Shelby Pierson, the intelligence community’s … Continue reading
NPR: A district encompassing Greater Seattle is set to become the first in which every voter can cast a ballot using a smartphone — a historic moment for American democracy.The King Conservation District, a state environmental agency that encompasses Seattle and … Continue reading
Chris Kromm for Facing South. … Continue reading
NPR‘s Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Marilyn Marks of the Coalition for Good Governance about the reasons behind the lawsuit seeking to bar Georgia from using its paperless voting machines. … Continue reading
WaPo: Now, as Iowa Democrats hurtle once again toward the opening faceoff of a hard-fought presidential primary cycle — with at least four candidates seemingly in contention to win Iowa’s Feb. 3 contest — some in the party fear that … Continue reading
The Des Moines Register reports. … Continue reading
Sigh: I am pleased that @FLCourts confirms that Amendment 4 requires fines, fees & restitution be paid to victims before their voting rights may be restored. Voting is a privilege that should not be taken lightly, and I am obligated … Continue reading
AP: A computer security expert says he found that an election server central to a legal battle over the integrity of Georgia elections showed signs of tampering.The server was left exposed to the open internet for at least six months, a problem … Continue reading
NYT: The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to transmit two articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate, sending the president and his party into uncharted territory in a deeply divisive trial fraught with history and political risk.In a choreographed … Continue reading
NYT: Virginia on Wednesday became the 38th state to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, a symbolic victory for those who for generations have been pushing for a constitutional guarantee of legal rights regardless of sex.Virginia’s decision does not seal the amendment’s … Continue reading
I want to offer my huge thanks to Justin and Dan for filling in for me over the last 16 days. It is a lot of work for them because there is no off season in election law anymore. I … Continue reading
WSJ reports: Shelby Pierson, the principal adviser on election threats in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said Tuesday that actors intent on spreading malign influence have become more numerous and potent since Russia’s breaches in the 2016 … Continue reading
Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear argument in Kelly v. United States. The Hill has this story, and Amy Howe’s SCOTUSblog preview is here. At issue in the case are the convictions of an aide to then-Governor Chris Christie … Continue reading
U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan issued the order in Common Cause N.Y. v. Brehm on Friday. The Gothamist has this story, and Lawyers’ Committee this press release. The order follows a four-day bench trial in October. From its conclusion: … Continue reading
From their press release and memo: ” The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have made an eight-figure investment in a legal strategy across key battleground states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas … Continue reading
Launched today: ” the ‘Post Opinions Simulator,’ an interactive tool that allows readers to design their own 2020 Democratic primary and caucus scenarios to see a likely range of outcomes. In this simulator, users can adjust data including polling averages, … Continue reading
The Hill: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will not call for a special election in the district held by resigning Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday…Hunter announced Tuesday he plans to resign effective next Monday after pleading guilty last year to charges of campaign finance violations.The … Continue reading
And now, I give you the inimitable Dan Tokaji, a national treasure. He’s at the helm for the next week. I can’t leave without thanking Rick, again, for keeping this forum so vigorously alive. It’s like drinking from a fire … Continue reading
The BBC reports on an intriguing episode from the 1992 race. … Continue reading
The Census Bureau has reached most of its hiring goals in Puerto Rico. And almost everywhere else is still looking for help. They’ve even got a map to show you where (and how much they’re paying). … Continue reading
Hansi Lo Wang reports on the latest federal data-sharing agreement to capture citizenship data for the 2020 census: not on the questionnaire, but through administrative records. … Continue reading
The City reports on what one attorney calls an “unusual electoral gauntlet”: Queens voters are being asked to head to the polls five times in less than two years to select a borough president to replace — and succeed — … Continue reading
Alaska Public Media reports on the progress of a proposition calling for a top-four primary, ranked-choice voting, changes to appointments to local election boards, and campaign finance reform, among others. … Continue reading
The Washington Times on census response. … Continue reading
The Economist seriously shifting the Overton window for impeachment, with a review of ancient Athenian exile. … Continue reading
May your ’20s be even better than you allow yourself to imagine. … Continue reading
Hi. Justin here. As Rick mentioned, I’ll be at the helm of the Election Law Blog from now through January 7, then turning things over to Dan Tokaji for the next stretch. Please send the tips to me and the … Continue reading
(Bumping to the top) Happy holidays to all our #ELB readers! Your tips, feedback, and support make all this worthwhile. Blogging will be light through the end of the year. From the end of December to January 15, I will … Continue reading
News & Observer: North Carolina voters might not have to show a photo ID in the 2020 elections, due to a ruling in federal court that’s expected in the coming days.A federal judge in North Carolina said Thursday she would … Continue reading
This is fun (I contributed a few). … Continue reading
WaPo: Facebook and Twitter on Friday disabled a global network of hundreds of fake accounts that pushed pro-Trump messages and covered its tracks using inauthentic photos generated with the aid of artificial intelligence.The use of AI to trick social-media companies, … Continue reading
This looks like a dynamite panel at AALS: … Continue reading
Jennifer Cohn in NYRB: The United States has a disturbing habit of investing in unvetted new touchscreen voting machines that later prove disastrous. As we barrel toward what is set to be the most important election in a generation, Congress … Continue reading
Here they are. Thanks for reading! The Decade of Citizens United, Slate, Dec. 19, 2019 These Two Articles of Impeachment Are More than Good Enough, Slate, Dec. 10, 2019 Trump’s Senate Impeachment Defense Will Be to Put Joe Biden on Trial, Slate, Nov. … Continue reading
But you can still find them here: Trump’s ‘Obama Did It Too’ Legal Defense Does Not Hold an Ounce of Water, Slate, Dec. 10, 2018 Republicans Are Using Potential GOP Election Crimes in North Carolina to Push for More Voter Suppression … Continue reading
NYT: The House of Representatives on Wednesday impeached President Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, making him the third president in history to be charged with committing high crimes and misdemeanors and face removal by the Senate. On a … Continue reading
Michael Chertoff LAT oped. … Continue reading
Coming next month, Zoltan L. Hajnal, Dangerously Divided: How Race and class Shape Winning and Losing in American Politics (Cambridge 2020). Here is the book description: As America has become more racially diverse and economic inequality has increased, American politics … Continue reading
When the Ukraine story broke, I wrote at Slate: Putting aside whether Trump made promises in order to get Biden-related dirt, or whether his conduct counts as extortion or bribery, there is a good argument that if the facts as reported are … Continue reading
KC Star: Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s office says that on the day last January it took over from outgoing secretary Kris Kobach, it found an unsecured gun in a filing cabinet.The discovery was mentioned in a timeline Schwab … Continue reading
Brennan Center release. … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: A proposal for a $569 million bond to build two new high school buildings in Midland failed by 25 votes in the November election, a margin slim enough it set off calls for a recount.The ballots were recounted … Continue reading
NYT: The House Judiciary Committee formally presented its case for impeaching President Trump in a 658-page report published online early Monday morning, arguing just days before a final vote in the House that he “betrayed the nation by abusing his high office.”The … Continue reading
Read the court order in McLemore v. Hosemann. See my earlier coverage. … Continue reading
AP: People born in the territory of American Samoa should be recognized as U.S. citizens, a federal judge in Utah decided Thursday in a case filed amid more than a century of legal limbo but whose eventual impact remains to … Continue reading
Josh Douglas has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article, prepared for an American University Law Review symposium, explores what the United States can learn from the Scottish experience in lowering the voting age to sixteen. … Continue reading