Find them here. … Continue reading
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Ned Foley USA Today oped: Thus, if the court has its way, there will be no risk of a faithless elector being a wild card in this year’s election. But, unfortunately, it is not so simple. The justices’ ruling permits states … Continue reading
My latest for Slate. Here’s how the piece begins: Until recently, litigation about voting during the COVID-19 crisis followed a predictable pattern. Voters would complain about states’ restrictive regulations, conservatives would rush to the laws’ defense, and courts would referee … Continue reading
BAN: On July 6, the Fourth Circuit issued an opinion in Buscemi v Bell, 19-2355, a North Carolina ballot access case. The Fourth Circuit said the March 3 petition deadline for independent candidates, even presidential candidates, is constitutional. This completely contradicts the … Continue reading
LAT: It’s unclear whether West has filed any of the necessary paperwork to formally join the race between incumbent Donald Trump — for whom West has expressed admiration — and Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee. West and his wife … Continue reading
Washington Post: President Trump’s unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore, has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him but … Continue reading
News Hour: A loose network of Facebook groups that took root across the country in April to organize protests over coronavirus stay-at-home orders has become a hub of misinformation and conspiracy theories that have pivoted to a variety of new … Continue reading
AP reports. … Continue reading
Extensive WaPo report: When the novel coronavirus pandemic collided with this year’s primaries, states across the country raced to temporarily adjust voting procedures to make it safer for people to cast their ballots.But efforts to set rules for the general election are … Continue reading
BAN: On July 2, the Sixth Circuit issued an order in SawariMedia v Whitmer, 20-1594. This is the case over whether Michigan must give ballot access relief to initiative proponents. The U.S. District Court had said the state must either cut the … Continue reading
John Nichols for The Nation. … Continue reading
Release: Two candidates for Congress in New Jersey today asked a federal court to declare the state’s restrictions on campaign slogans unconstitutional. The Institute for Free Speech is representing the candidates, Eugene Mazo and Lisa McCormick, in the First Amendment challenge. “New … Continue reading
Release. … Continue reading
Detroit Free Press: Amid ongoing uncertainties about coronavirus and with the Aug. 4 primary approaching, Michigan is seeing a surge in new voter registrations and requests for absentee ballots.Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office provided data Wednesday showing that local … Continue reading
Good Bill Galston piece in the WSJ today (behind a paywall, I assume). Here’s an excerpt of one suggestion Galston makes: Beyond these steps, America’s elder statesmen must do all they can to ensure election integrity. Former Presidents Bill Clinton … Continue reading
You can read it here. … Continue reading
Eliza Newlin Carney for The Fulcrum. … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Chris Warshaw, a political scientist at George Washington University: On November 3, 2020, voters across the country will go to the polls to cast their ballots for President, among other local, state, and … Continue reading
TPM: A new lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee seeks to block the use of drop boxes for Pennsylvania voters to submit their mail-in ballots.The lawsuit, announced Monday, alleges that by letting voters submit their … Continue reading
The view from Canada. … Continue reading
Release: Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) today over its delay in enforcing the Federal Election Campaign Act’s (FECA) requirement that a group whose “major purpose” is supporting the re-election campaign of Senator Joni Ernst register with the FEC. The complaint seeks FEC action on an … Continue reading
The Hill reports. … Continue reading
Now that results are coming in for Kentucky’s primary last week, this line in a local report is worth noting: Blevins says no absentee ballots were rejected due to signatures not matching those on file. But he says quite a … Continue reading
Jerry Goldfeder and Nick Reade in NYDN. … Continue reading
New piece in the ABA Journal from Jason Abel. … Continue reading
AP: President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, the national Republican Party and four Pennsylvania members of Congress sued Monday to force changes to how the state collects and counts mail-in ballots under revamped rules.The federal lawsuit filed in Pittsburgh claims that … Continue reading
Release. … Continue reading
60 Minutes: Justin Clark, senior counsel for President Donald Trump’s campaign, advised Wisconsin Republicans. He blames Democratic governor Tony Evers for the chaos and told us the Democrats are cynically using the pandemic to expand their voter base with mail … Continue reading
Trump tweet: Absentee Ballots are fine. A person has to go through a process to get and use them. Mail-In Voting, on the other hand, will lead to the most corrupt Election is USA history. Bad things happen with Mail-Ins. … Continue reading
Oh my. "The blacks are having lots of events for voter registration. People in Mississippi have to get involved too."—Jones County (MS) Election Commissioner Gail Harrison Welch pic.twitter.com/kbrPFqZMUe— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) June 28, 2020 … Continue reading
Important announcement via email: ASAP: Seeking Law Students Nationwide to Recruit Student Poll Workers. William & Mary Law students have formed the Alliance of Students at the Polls (ASAP). ASAP is building a national network of law students to recruit … Continue reading
Brett Pugach has posted this draft on SSRN (Rutgers L. Rev.). Here is the abstract: In New Jersey, unelected and unaccountable party bosses and political machines have for years relied on arcane state laws related to the design of primary … Continue reading
A new paper by Jeffrey Buzas and Gregory Warrington. Here’s the abstract: We introduce simulated packing and cracking as a technique for evaluating partisan-gerrymandering measures. We apply it to historical congressional and legislative elections to evaluate four measures: partisan bias, … Continue reading
The Week reports. … Continue reading
WDIV reports. … Continue reading
Joshua Geltzer WaPo oped. … Continue reading
Watch here: … Continue reading
My brother’s phone just now. pic.twitter.com/m2yXmEvmPg— 'stina is one with the Force is with her (@stinapag) June 26, 2020 … Continue reading
Steven Rosenfeld reports. … Continue reading
Start here: NEWS: AG Barr just sat down with @NPRinskeep, who asked him about his theory (which has been thoroughly debunked by election officials+experts) that foreign countries could print millions of ballots to interfere with mail voting in November…Here's a … Continue reading
The Washington Examiner reports. I’ve been saying this for a while. … Continue reading
Brennan Center: Polling place closures did reduce turnout in the 2020 primary election. The table above indicates that turnout in Milwaukee City was depressed by roughly 8.6 percentage points. Considering that 26 percent of our control voters cast a ballot, this implies … Continue reading
Release: On June 24, Joint Center President Spencer Overton provided expert testimony at a joint congressional hearing entitled “A Country in Crisis: How Disinformation Online is Dividing the Nation.”During the congressional hearing, Spencer explained that both domestic and foreign actors … Continue reading
Des Moines Register: Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed into law new restrictions that will prevent Secretary of State Paul Pate from mailing ballot request forms to Iowans in November’s election without first seeking approval from legislators. The law will also prohibit county … Continue reading
You can find the articles here: Featured Articles James A. Gardner, Democratic Legitimacy Under Conditions of Severely Depressed Voter Turnout Daniel P. Tokaji, Voter Registration in a Pandemic Richard H. Pildes, How to Accommodate aMassive Surge in Absentee Voting Richard Briffault, Election Law Localism … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy: The impact of the coronavirus on the daily lives of millions of Americans has demonstrated that patience is a virtue. But it is clearly a virtue that not everyone in the United States possesses, as politicians and armed groups have demanded that … Continue reading
Listen: Long lines, machine breakdowns, absentee obstacles: As our country grapples with a pandemic, social uprising and divisive politics, voting is more challenging than ever. But what does complacency, voter disenfranchisement and rights infringement say about our election system, and … Continue reading
Here is the order. And two of the judges had this to say about the Purcell principle: “Purcell is not a magic wand that defendants can wave to make any unconstitutional election restriction disappear so long as an impending election … Continue reading
June 26 Duke virtual event: COVID-19 presents major challenges for the US election process. Measures necessary to protect the public and prevent the spread of the virus, like shelter-in-place orders, quarantine and self-isolation, and fear of infection will keep many … Continue reading
There’s a new empirical paper out from a strong group of authors on what turnout effects Virginia’s voter ID law might have had. In this abstract, I highlight the surprising findings: One contentious question in contemporary election administration is the … Continue reading