Mississippi Today: Secretary of State Michael Watson is asking for an official opinion from Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office about whether a bill passed by the state Legislature will make it more difficult for Mississippians to vote if COVID-19 is … Continue reading
Category Archives: Uncategorized
As Rick Hasen noted, I have a forthcoming article in The Election Law Journal, with Mike Norton, which empirically shows that the rise of outside money in elections has made governing more difficult. When outside groups become bigger players, relative … Continue reading
NBC News reports. … Continue reading
See this very interesting filing. … Continue reading
USA Today: Fearing nightmare scenarios such as attacks on voter registration databases and state websites tallying results, U.S. officials are leading simulated training exercises to get ready for Nov. 3.The “tabletop exercises,” to be held virtually because of coronavirus, will include … Continue reading
Vice News: New York hasn’t put out any numbers on the overall rejection rate. But fully 14% of all absentee ballots were tossed out in New York’s 2018 elections, by far the highest rate in the country compared to an … Continue reading
The Detroit Free Press reports. … Continue reading
TPM: Election officials who were already facing major challenges in making voting accessible operations during the pandemic were thrown a new curveball this week.Mail service could be slowed down in coming months, as part of a campaign to overhaul the … Continue reading
Business Insider reports. … Continue reading
The Detroit Free Press reports. … Continue reading
Policymakers and election officials are rightly racing to prepare for unprecedented levels of absentee voting this fall. But it is also essential that we ensure a robust capacity for in-person voting this fall. Back in June, I explained why … Continue reading
Find it here. … Continue reading
Announcement via email: The Universal Voting Working Group is releasing its report on July 20th. “Lift Every Voice: The Urgency of Universal Civic Duty Voting” is the result of almost two years of work by a diverse group of 25 scholars, advocates, and … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Philip Bump analysis. … Continue reading
Protocol reports. … Continue reading
Ned Foley oped: So, how can we improve the odds that any overtime this year ends like 1884 and 1916, instead of 1876 and 2000? It starts with a commitment to state procedures that certify vote counts, several weeks after … Continue reading
Joshua Sellers has posted this draft on SSRN (American University Law Review). Here is the abstract: Increasingly novel legal conflicts over electoral participation and voting rights are on the rise. For instance, multiple aspects of Georgia’s election system have been … Continue reading
Andy Kroll for Rolling Stone. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
CNN: The world took notice on May 26, when Twitter fact-checked President Donald Trump for the very first time. Trump posted a series of blatant lies about mail-in voting, and declared that “this will be a rigged election.” Twitter responded swiftly, saying … Continue reading
See here. … Continue reading
CNN: The new group, called the Sunflower State PAC, has quietly reserved $850,000 for ads just this week alone, according to data from the Campaign Media Analysis Group. The ad, reviewed by CNN, bashes Republican US Rep. Roger Marshall as … Continue reading
Analysis. … Continue reading
WaPo: Postal workers found three tubs of uncounted absentee ballots the day after the Wisconsin primary. Some Ohioans did not receive their ballots in time for the election because of mail delays. And in Dallas, absentee ballots some voters sent … Continue reading
Listen here. … Continue reading
USA Today reports. … Continue reading
Looking forward to participating in this July 21 event: Can the United States hold free and fair elections this fall?Tuesday, July 21, 1:00pm – 2:15pm (EST)Free and fair elections constitute an essential element of representative democracy, enabling societies to resolve … Continue reading
NYT: Over the past five months, people have waited in all sorts of lines to vote: some bent around stuccoed store corners, some curving through city parks, others spaced six feet apart.On Tuesday, voters in Alabama, Texas and Maine went … Continue reading
Frontline: Experts say the coronavirus pandemic has tacked on hundreds of millions of dollars in unexpected costs to this year’s election. And there are clear signs that an emergency federal infusion of $400 million made in March will fall far … Continue reading
Event from the Civics Center. … Continue reading
The Secretary of State in MA recently certified that a ballot measure asking voters whether they want to adopt RCV had qualified to be on the ballot this fall. Voters in Alaska will also have an opportunity to weigh in … Continue reading
Sam Levine: Florida Republicans send mailer encouraging people to vote by mail. The mailer included a tweet from Trump saying "absentee ballots are fine," but blurred the second half of it in which Trump falsely said the process would corrupt … Continue reading
AP: More than 100,000 mail-in ballots were rejected by California election officials during the March presidential primary, according to data obtained by The Associated Press that highlights a glaring gap in the state’s effort to ensure every vote is counted.With … Continue reading
Sam Levine for The Guardian. … Continue reading
San Antonio Express News reports. … Continue reading
Glad to see more support for my view that, for this fall’s election, Congress should move back the dates in the Electoral Count Act that govern the Electoral College process. From today’s Washington Post: Second, Congress can take a simple … Continue reading
NYT: Facebook is considering banning political advertising across its network before the November general election, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, after facing intense pressure for allowing hate speech and misinformation to flourish across its site.The decision … Continue reading
Sixteen days after Election Day, the winner of the Democratic primary in NY’s CD #1 has now been determined. The race involved 36,500 absentee ballots, which, as a result of NY laws on absentee ballot casting and processing, accounts for … Continue reading
LAT editorial. … Continue reading
The appeals court rejected trial court emergency order against Gov. Newsom’s executive orders when plaintiffs failed to give proper notice to the governor and there was no showing of imminent harm … Continue reading
Times of San Diego: Three weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a November 2020 vote-by-mail election, former U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa and Republican co-plaintiffs dropped their lawsuit over the issue.On Thursday, Issa’s legal team wrote federal Judge Morrison C. England Jr. … Continue reading
KUNR reports. … Continue reading
Common Cause release. … Continue reading
Here’s a Q and A I did with Freedom House on our report, Fair Elections During a Crisis. … Continue reading
Press release. … Continue reading
Roll Call: Lawmakers and disinformation experts say social media companies must be prepared to confront the likely onslaught of lies and misleading information during that period. States holding presidential primaries in the past few months have already seen reporting of results … Continue reading
NYT: Facebook has not done enough to fight discrimination on its platform and has made some decisions that were “significant setbacks for civil rights,” according to a new independent audit of the company’s policies and practices.In a 100-page prepublication report, … Continue reading
We are now two weeks out since New York held its primary elections. As this WSJ story reported, officials this week just began opening nearly 400,000 absentee ballots cast in that election. In one closely contested Congressional primary, for CD … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading