Category Archives: election subversion risk

Trump Addresses Jan. 6 at His Arizona Rally: “Jan. 6 has become the Democrat Party’s excuse to justify an unprecedented assault on American civil rights and liberties”

January 17, 2022, 12:54 pmelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Arizona Republic: Saturday’s rally came not long after the anniversary of the riot by a pro-Trump mob seeking to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.Republicans seem eager to move past that violence, but others are less willing to… Continue reading

“Democrats Face a Dilemma on Voting: Compromise or Keep Pressing?”

January 14, 2022, 4:43 pmelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Jonathan Weisman for the NYT: With their drive to secure far-reaching voting rights legislation nearing a dead end, Senate Democrats face a decision they had hoped to avoid: Should they embrace a much narrower, bipartisan effort to safeguard the vote-counting… Continue reading

Me on the Diane Rehm Podcast: “What’s Next In The Push To Protect The Vote”

January 14, 2022, 6:30 amelection subversion risk, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Listen: For the past year Democrats have pushed two major bills aimed at protecting voting rights in federal elections: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.Now the fight over the vote is taking… Continue reading

“Chairperson Lofgren Releases Staff Report On The Electoral Count Act”

January 13, 2022, 3:52 pmelection subversion riskNed Foley

Press release & link to the report. Given today’s filibuster-related news, is it possible now that discussions will more forward in Congress on seeking bipartisan ECA (and potentially closely related) reform, tailored specifically to protections for vote-counting and… Continue reading

How to guarantee the right to cast a ballot?

January 12, 2022, 4:05 pmelection subversion risk, NVRA (motor voter), provisional ballots, voter registration, votingNed Foley

I have seen a lot a skepticism lately about relying on courts to protect the equal right of eligible voters to participate in an election by casting a ballot and having it counted accurately. But unless Congress is going to… Continue reading

ECA reform & Article II

January 12, 2022, 7:04 amelection subversion riskNed Foley

Nick has posted Larry Lessig’s Slate piece arguing that it’s necessary to put the brakes on ECA reform because of the risk that the Supreme Court will embrace the so-called “independent state legislature doctrine” to authorize state legislatures to appoint… Continue reading

ECA reform must be bipartisan

January 10, 2022, 6:58 pmelection subversion riskElectoral Count ActNed Foley

The ACS Expert Forum has posted my essay Reforming the Electoral Count Act requires bipartisan buy-in—Democrats can’t do it alone even with filibuster reform. I won’t repeat what I wrote there, but here are some points: First, in my… Continue reading

CBS News to Raffensperger on the Potential for Jody Hice to Be Elected Secretary of State: “Could an election outcome in Georgia be manipulated if current GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger loses his primary race?”

January 9, 2022, 3:41 pmelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Kind of a nonanswer here.

“The Bad Deal Democrats Should Take; Electoral-count reform is a narrow fix, insufficient for the many problems in the voting system—but it’s better than nothing at all.”

January 9, 2022, 1:23 pmelection subversion risk, electoral collegeRick Hasen

David Graham for the Atlantic: Some ECA-reform advocates worry that even if Schumer was somehow able to get Manchin and Sinema to agree to sweeping reforms, including ECA updates, and pass them through the Senate on a party-line vote… Continue reading

“Democrats are faced with a choice on voting rights: Go big or go small”

January 9, 2022, 1:20 pmelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Jon Ward: Voting experts who are concerned that the United States is heading for a constitutional crisis — and potential political violence — are warning that Democrats need to shift gears and prioritize a more narrow set of reforms… Continue reading

“The Unsung Heroes of the 2020 Presidential Election”

January 9, 2022, 1:12 pmelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Luke Broadwater for the NYT reviews THE STEAL: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It By Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague. The unheralded and mostly unknown Republicans active in local politics who refused… Continue reading

“Democracy is on the brink of disaster. For voters, it’s politics as usual.”

January 9, 2022, 6:14 amalternative voting systems, election subversion risk, political polarizationNed Foley

Rick P, in the previous blog post, was right to highlight Karen Tumulty’s column. The Washington Post today also has a piece presenting a rather depressing counterargument, by Colgate political scientist Sam Rosenfeld. The conclusion (although it’s… Continue reading

Renewing America Series: The Growing Divide—Polarization in the United States

January 7, 2022, 11:49 amelection subversion risk, political polarizationNed Foley

I was honored to be part of this Council of Foreign Relations conversation yesterday (video and transcript now available), moderated by Amy Davidson Sorkin of The New Yorker, with Barton Gellman of The Atlantic and Lilliana Mason of Johns Hopkins.… Continue reading

My New York Times Essay: “No One Is Coming to Save Us From the ‘Dagger at the Throat of America’”

January 7, 2022, 7:20 amelection subversion risk, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

I have written this piece for the New York Times. It begins: The saturation coverage of the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection and of Donald Trump’s attempt to bully his way into a reversal of his loss in the… Continue reading