AL.com: A state judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit by disability advocates challenging provisions of Alabama’s absentee ballot laws, saying his court lacked jurisdiction and the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue.The lawsuit, initially filed in May in Montgomery County … Continue reading
Category Archives: election administration
Politico: The experiences of electoral authorities around the world show that the risks to pandemic-era voting are predictable and can be prevented — or at least managed — by taking practical steps: delivering funding for additional polling workers and polling … Continue reading
WaPo: Elections officials across the country are accelerating their efforts to install ballot drop boxes, a move they hope will make absentee voting simple and safe for those wary of the mail or fear exposure to the novel coronavirus at polling places.The … Continue reading
The cert. petition is here. I wrote extensively about this case, and the lack of evidence that such a law is justified by a problem with noncitizen voting, in Election Meltdown. … Continue reading
News & Observer: Fears of coronavirus endangering voters in North Carolina this fall — or potentially lowering voter turnout — aren’t enough to force the state to change many of its elections laws, a federal judge has ruled.However, U.S. District … Continue reading
NYT reports, with the subhed: “Nearly six weeks later, two congressional races remain undecided, and officials are trading blame over the mishandling of tens of thousands of mail-in ballots.” … Continue reading
Bryan Lowry for the KC Star: Kansans and Missourians may need to be patient on election night Tuesday. That’s because election night won’t necessarily bring election results.The unprecedented volume of mail balloting and a shortage of poll workers caused by … Continue reading
Watch Part 1 and Part 2 (with co-panelists Susan Glasser and Erin Geiger Smith). More information about my new book, “Election Meltdown,” at this link. … Continue reading
This is distressing: THERE ARE A SET OF POLICY AREAS where stumbling blocks remain. DEMOCRATS want new money for the Postal Service, new money for elections and nearly $1 trillion for state and local governments. REPUBLICANS seem open to USPS money to address operational shortfalls, … Continue reading
Charles Stewart has posted this important draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A “lost vote” occurs when a voter does all that is asked of her, and yet her vote is uncounted in the final tally. Estimating the magnitude … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday extended the early voting period for the November election by six days, citing continued challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.Early voting for the Nov. 3 election will now begin Oct. 13 instead of Oct. 19. … Continue reading
Ohio SOS Frank LaRose in Columbus Dispatch: While absentee voting is trusted by millions of Ohioans as a safe and secure way to vote, and our state ranks among the top in the nation for this voter-first convenience, our system … Continue reading
WaPo: The city’s hottest primary election is the 12th Congressional District.In one corner, you have Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, a pal of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s who has been in Congress since 1993 and was recently elected chair of the … Continue reading
WSJ: Many of the thousands of county and local election officials who will be administering November’s presidential election are running email systems that could leave them vulnerable to online attacks, a new report has found.Cybersecurity vendor Area 1 Security Inc. tracked … Continue reading
NYT deep dive: Elections workers described a cascade of failures as they struggled to activate and operate Georgia’s new high-tech voting system. Next came a barrage of partisan blame-throwing: The Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, accused the liberal-leaning Fulton … Continue reading
WPR: A bipartisan coalition of high-level Wisconsin politicians has launched an initiative to educate voters about in-person and mail-in voting during the COVID-19 pandemic.The initiative, VoteSafe WI, supports both in-person voting and absentee voting by mail for the August partisan … Continue reading
David Ignatius WaPo column: What can U.S. citizens do to help protect the integrity of our November presidential election, after President Trump’s refusal last Sunday to pledge he’ll accept the outcome and his unfounded claims that the election could be “rigged”?Be prepared, … Continue reading
Release: Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) today exercised the committee’s oversight role of federal elections by seeking to engage with localities where significant issues occurred during recent primaries and where voters are likely to face significant … Continue reading
You can find the opinion in Greater Birmingham Industries v. Alabama at this link. This opinion is very troubling because the majority held it was appropriate to grant summary judgment to the state of Alabama despite evidence that at least … Continue reading
In my 2012 book, The Voting Wars, I chronicled how Congress created the United States Election Assistance commission in 2002 after the debacle of 2000’s Bush v. Gore, how the agency started out with great promise as one that could … Continue reading
Among Norm’s excellent suggestions: 1. Print a huge supply of absentee ballots and return envelopes. If state and local election officials can’t afford to do so, they can establish public-private partnerships, using resources from foundations, corporations, and others to get … Continue reading
McClatchy: Early voting sites should be easier to find in this fall’s elections, at least in North Carolina’s biggest cities, because of an order issued by the N.C. State Board of Elections on Friday.North Carolina Republicans say the change to … Continue reading
Bloomberg: The 2020 election between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden is shaping up to be the most litigated in U.S. history, as changes to balloting prompted by the coronavirus pandemic spur lawsuits that could leave the outcome in suspense … Continue reading
Brennan Center: Early this morning, 34 national security leaders — including Madeline Albright, Chuck Hagel, Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Leon Panetta, James Clapper, and Janet Napolitano — sent the letter here (full text and signers below) to congressional leaders on the urgent … Continue reading
Bart Jansen deep dive for USA Today: Requiring an excuse for absentee voting. Paying for postage for mail-in ballots. Purging names from voter registration lists. Placing the names on ballots to provide an advantage in so-called “donkey votes.”These are among the … Continue reading
You can find the complaint at this link. … Continue reading
Announcement via email: The CID Voting Location Siting Toolis Expanding! The Center for Inclusive Democracy (CID), formerly known as the California Civic Engagement Project, is expanding its Voting Location Siting Tool to serve a total of ten states representing 43% of the … Continue reading
CBS News reports. … Continue reading
AJC: Election officials in Fulton County are refusing to accept emailed absentee ballot requests, an apparent violation of Georgia voting laws.The county’s decision to reject emailed absentee ballot applications comes after it struggled to manage a flood of requests before the June … Continue reading
I have written this article for L.A. Lawyer. It begins: California has been in the vanguard of election reform, passing voting rules that modernize the election process and make it easier to register and vote, such as same day an … Continue reading
Jon Ward for Yahoo News: Anyone can spin out a worst-case scenario for the presidential election, but it’s worth paying particular attention to those that keep experts like Richard Hasen up at night.Hasen, a law and political science professor at … Continue reading
Charlotte Observer: A new report shows “a striking surge” in the number of absentee ballot requests in North Carolina, reflecting patterns seen across the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.State election officials say as many as four of 10 voters, or more … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: If the primary runoff elections are a test run for November, cracks are becoming apparent in the state’s voting system as it struggles to function under the strain of rampant coronavirus spread.Early voting is over, and Tuesday is … Continue reading
AP reports. … Continue reading
WaPo editorial: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) seems not to have learned them. He presided over a largely mail-in primary election in his state last month that saw strong turnout based on extremely high levels of absentee voting — but that also … Continue reading
Reuters: Presidential nominating contests held this year in states from Wisconsin to Georgia have exposed massive challenges in conducting elections during the worst public health crisis in a century. Closed or understaffed polling venues led to long lines, there were … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: A lack of workers willing to run polling sites as Texas continues to report record coronavirus infections is forcing election officials in two major counties to scale back plans for the July 14 primary runoff elections.Citing a drop-off … Continue reading
AJC: The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office is working with county elections officials to avoid a repeat of June’s chaotic primary elections that included hours-long lines to vote.Poll worker jobs will be advertised through social media, newspaper and radio. Tech … Continue reading
WaPo: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that voters consider alternatives to casting their ballots in person during upcoming elections, as states expand absentee and early voting options for November amid fears of spreading the coronavirus.The guidance was issued with … Continue reading
Smart Cities reports. … Continue reading
Josh Douglas on lessons from the Kentucky primary. … Continue reading
Listen here. … Continue reading
NYT: For months, Republican leaders in Texas resisted calls by Democrats to allow widespread mail-in voting, more swayed by President Trump’s concerns about mail-ballot “fraud” than by the threat the coronavirus might pose at polling places.The pandemic would have run its course by the … Continue reading
The Macon Telegraph reports. … Continue reading
CNN: A group of civic-minded organizations have joined together to recruit thousands of volunteers to work the polls this November, as states grapple with how the coronavirus pandemic could affect voting in the fall. The nonprofit organizations and businesses behind the new … Continue reading
Nate Persily and Charles Stewart for The Atlantic. … Continue reading
New policy brief from Maria Carnovale of Duke. … Continue reading
Lexington Herald-Leader oped. … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
AP reports. … Continue reading