WaPo: One of the foremost proponents of stricter voter identification laws, Kobach, who is running in the primary Tuesday for the Republican nomination for the state’s governorship, has been undeterred since a federal judge struck down a restrictive voting law … Continue reading
Category Archives: election administration
Steven Rosenfeld: That overall tally means that 17 out of the 28 states that were in Crosscheck as of early 2017 have backed away, at least for now. That list of states, that, under a legal memo, agree to share … Continue reading
ProPublica: Today, thousands of commission documents were released that show aspects of the body’s inner workings. As critics have suggested, the records — a mix of memos, internal emails and reports — make clear the commission’s work was driven by … Continue reading
NYT: Top national security officials vowed Thursday to defend American elections against what they called real threats from Russia only weeks after President Trump seemed to accept President Vladimir V. Putin’s denials of interference during a summit meeting in Finland. … Continue reading
CNN: Two leading senators are asserting that President Donald Trump has not focused on the clear threat the Kremlin poses in the 2018 elections, with one Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee contending that Russian hackers may have already targeted … Continue reading
USA Today: Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic push Wednesday that would have provided $250 million to beef up election security. The money would have been doled out in grants through the Federal Election Assistance Commission and helped, among other things, … Continue reading
Common Cause: Today a federal judge struck down a 2015 bill passed by the Michigan legislature and signed by Governor Snyder to ban straight-ticket voting. Common Cause joined the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the Democratic Party of Michigan, and Michigan … Continue reading
AL.com: The Alabama Secretary of State’s probe into absentee voting irregularities during the July 17 primary runoff could be expanded to include more Black Belt counties. Secretary of State John Merrill said that Wilcox and Perry counties, initially named last week … Continue reading
Politico: President Donald Trump on Friday promised an intense, “whole-of-government” focus on securing the nation’s elections from cyberattacks — but a POLITICO survey of states finds ample reasons to worry about both this year’s midterms and 2020. Only 14 states … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer: More than 11,000 non-citizens who weren’t eligible to register to vote in Pennsylvania since the mid-1990s inadvertently registered because of an oversight in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s motor-voter system, a State Department analysis revealed. The thousands of … Continue reading
NBC News: After nearly two years of calling Russian election interference a hoax and its investigation a witch hunt, on Friday afternoon President Donald Trump is scheduled to preside over the first National Security Council meeting devoted to defending American democracy from … Continue reading
Interesting contrast: The candidates largely agreed that voter fraud is not a systemic issue but committed themselves to enforcing the state’s election laws. They also said they want to focus on improving the less-talked-about administrative side of the office, such … Continue reading
WaPo: President Trump will convene a meeting Friday of the National Security Council on election security, a session that could include a discussion of possible Russian interference in November’s midterm elections, according to a White House official. … Continue reading
This item appears at the New Yorker. … Continue reading
A very thoughtful opinion granting a preliminary injunction in League of Women Voters v. Detzner. In addition to applying the Anderson-Burdick balancing test for equal protection claims, the court also applied a Twenty-Sixth Amendment analysis, finding that the Secretary of State’s … Continue reading
This post appears at Protect Democracy. … Continue reading
The Las Vegas Sun reports. … Continue reading
Mary Kiraly oped in WaPo. … Continue reading
Myrna Perez NYT oped: In the past decade, attacks on the vote have been treacherous: discriminatory voter ID laws, cutbacks in early voting and other complications that emerged from bad laws or policies formulated weeks, months or even years before … Continue reading
WaPo: House Republicans plan to vote Thursday on a spending bill that excludes new money for election security grants to states, provoking a furious reaction from Democrats amid a national controversy over Russian election interference. At issue is a grants … Continue reading
Politico reports. … Continue reading
Kim Zetter for Politico. … Continue reading
Release: Common Cause, the National Election Defense Coalition and Protect Democracy today filed an Amicus Curiae brief in support of all plaintiffs in the Curling v. Kemp lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The … Continue reading
Kim Zetter: The nation’s top voting machine maker has admitted in a letter to a federal lawmaker that the company installed remote-access software on election-management systems it sold over a period of six years, raising questions about the security of … Continue reading
WSJ: A senior FBI official overseeing a government task force that addresses Russian attempts to meddle in U.S. elections has left the government for a job in the private sector, a departure that comes just months ahead of the 2018 … Continue reading
WaPo on yesterday’s hearings on both sides of Capitol Hill: “Momentum may finally be building in Congress to take new action to secure the elections from cyberthreats as the midterms approach.” Politico reports that: “The top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee … Continue reading
Available here. From the introduction: This report also outlines the following recommendations to drive voter participation and make the process of voting more convenient for eligible Americans: 1. Streamline voter registration with automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration (SDR), preregistration of … Continue reading
Slate: The new measure, which will take effect for the upcoming midterm elections, requires every early voting site in the state to stay open 12 hours a day each weekday (in addition to any weekend hours). By mandating such a … Continue reading
Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports for Kansas News Service. … Continue reading
NYT: Eight of the tech industry’s most influential companies, in anticipation of a repeat of the Russian meddling that occurred during the 2016 presidential campaign, met with United States intelligence officials last month to discuss preparations for this year’s … Continue reading
KC Star: Four days after a federal judge threw out a Kansas voting restriction, 72 newly naturalized Americans became registered voters in the same courthouse where the landmark voting rights trial took place. “That’s the reason why I became a citizen: to be … Continue reading
The opinion here is no surprise and seems right given that any California voter can vote by mail if she wishes. (On when lack of uniformity across counties or voters creates constitutional problems, see my University of Chicago Legal Forum piece, When … Continue reading
CBS News: A Texas woman plans to challenge a judge’s decision to deny her a new trial after sentencing her to five years in prison for voter fraud. Crystal Mason was convicted in March of voting illegally in the 2016 presidential … Continue reading
ABC7: A week after a huge glitch during the California Primary, Los Angeles County moved to modernize its voting system. It comes with a big price tag and a lot of questions. The mystery of the 118,000 missing names on L.A … Continue reading
AP: In an era when hacking has raised concerns about the security of America’s elections and President Donald Trump raises concerns about voter fraud, North Dakota stands out as the only state that doesn’t require voter registration. Residents and most … Continue reading
I have written this post for Just Security, which is the second in their series on potential legal gaps exposed by events related to the 2016 election. It begins: By now everyone is familiar with attempts by the Russian government and others … Continue reading
Wisconsin State Journal oped: The national attention on election security shows that sometimes the solution to a complex problem is not high-tech or even new. A “playbook” recently released by a bipartisan team of experts at Harvard recommends securing U.S. … Continue reading
Order: The State of North Dakota moves to stay the district court’s injunction of April 3, 2018, concerning certain subsections of the North Dakota elections statute, N.D.C.C. § 16.1-01- 04.1. Based primarily on the imminent primary election date of June … Continue reading
From the court’s decision preliminarily enjoining Indiana’s purge system as violating the NVRA: Regarding the likelihood of success on the merits, the Court determines that Common Cause has a high likelihood of success on the merits of its claim that … Continue reading
LAT: If you are a registered voter in Los Angeles County and poll workers say they can’t find your name on the roster at the polling place when you go to vote, don’t worry — you can still cast a provisional ballot. … Continue reading
Baltimore Sun: Siding with state elections officials Monday, a circuit judge allowed them to proceed with Maryland’s forthcoming primary with ballots that do not include the name of Valerie Ervin, the last-minute Democratic candidate for governor. Ervin’s name will appear instead … Continue reading
Baltimore Sun: Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Valerie Ervin received a boost Thursday in her attempt to get her name onto the June primary ballot when the state Democratic Party publicly supported the effort. “The Democratic Party believes that Maryland law … Continue reading
Tammy Patrick with the lead story in this week’s Electionline. … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: More than a year after hearing arguments, a federal appeals court has yet to rule on a host of Wisconsin voting laws, including aspects of the state’s voter ID statute. The long delay has left some scratching their heads … Continue reading
Des Moines Register: A civil rights organization and an Iowa State University student is suing Iowa’s secretary of state over a voter ID law they say infringes on Iowans’ ability to fairly cast a ballot. The League of United Latin American … Continue reading
SacBee: The head of California’s campaign watchdog agency resigned her position on Tuesday. Jodi Remke, who Gov. Jerry Brown appointed in 2014, stepped down as the chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission amid ongoing turmoil. She often verbally sparred … Continue reading
WMUR: An exhaustive review by state election officials, including a first-time comparison of voter information shared with 27 other states, has turned up virtually no evidence of possible voter fraud in New Hampshire, those officials said Tuesday….The key results were: … Continue reading
Margaret McCullan oped for USA Today. … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: A new lawsuit accuses Gov. Rick Scott’s administration of making it more difficult for young people to vote by preventing early voting at public buildings on state university campuses. The election-year complaint filed Tuesday by the League … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading