New white paper from SSN working group: The 2020 election season offers extraordinary opportunities for local parties to welcome new members, grow their ranks, and serve as networks of civic connection. This self-assessment document provides a set of diagnostic questions … Continue reading
Category Archives: political parties
The order is here. An opinion to follow is promised. “After reviewing the record, we affirm the order granting the application for preliminary injunction for substantially the reasons given by the District Court in its thorough May 5, 2020 Opinion … Continue reading
WaPo: The Democratic Party plans to adopt new rules Tuesday to narrow the scope of its presidential nominating convention, potentially paving the way for either a limited in-person gathering or a virtual event this August.The proposed changes, which are expected … Continue reading
Quite a story in the Denver Post. … Continue reading
NYT: A federal judge on Tuesday ordered elections officials in New York State to hold its Democratic primary election in June and reinstate all qualifying candidates on the ballot. The ruling came after the presidential primary was canceled late last month over … Continue reading
NPR: New York Democrats will not be casting primary votes for a presidential candidate this year.State election officials effectively canceled the presidential primary by removing every Democrat except the presumptive nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, from the primary ballot.According … Continue reading
Politico: The Democratic National Committee is postponing the party’s presidential convention in Milwaukee to August 17, the week before the Republican Party’s convention, a Democratic official briefed on the decision said. The delay from July 13 came after likely nominee … Continue reading
NYT: Planners for the Democratic National Convention are looking at “contingency options” in case the mid-July gathering in Milwaukee can’t take place because of the coronavirus, officials said on Monday for the first time.“As we navigate the unprecedented challenge of … Continue reading
NYT: President Trump’s campaign manager and a circle of allies have seized control of the Republican Party’s voter data and fund-raising apparatus, using a network of private businesses whose operations and ownership are cloaked in secrecy, largely exempt from federal … Continue reading
Eugene Mazo has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Why do we have an Election Day but not a Primary Day? No aspect of the presidential nomination process causes as much controversy as the primary calendar. The … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Ned Foley has posted this timely draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This chapter of an edited volume on presidential primaries focuses on the relationship of the primaries to the general election. It does not suffice that the rules … Continue reading
538 podcast, the first in its Primaries Project series. Great drive-time listening! … Continue reading
A 538 video, with more to come: By casting a ballot in a primary or caucus, voters in the U.S. have the chance to decide who will vie to lead the free world. But that wasn’t always the case. The … Continue reading
Bertrall Ross and Doug Spencer have a new paper out in the Northwestern Law Review: “Passive Voter Suppression: Campaign Mobilization and the Effective Disfranchisement of the Poor.” The abstract: A recent spate of election laws tightened registration rules, reduced convenient voting … Continue reading
Ballot access is not for the faint of heart. … Continue reading
Lyz Lenz offers a wry view in The Gazette. But past the humor, her overall point is spot-on: few Americans understand how the Iowa caucuses actually work — and it looks a lot more like a town meeting than a … Continue reading
The Pioneer Press reviews an interesting new facet of Minnesota’s law. As in many states, voters have to declare a party preference before voting in a primary, but apparently, the voters’ choice of party is “secret, just like your actual … Continue reading
Bill Leonard weighs in on new opportunities for partisan gerrymandering after the Census. … Continue reading
The LA Times has the latest on the continuing fallout from the scandal involving the former chair. … Continue reading
The real story isn’t that state party officials are defending state party associational rights under the First Amendmetn (even if they also benefit opposing parties). The real story is the practical recognition that litigation now begins to creep up on … Continue reading
Tierney Sneed at TPM highlights the audio Rick blogged before the holidays, about the lapse of the consent decree between the DNC and RNC governing “ballot security” efforts. … Continue reading
Jessica Levinson forecasts coming confusion in California, a heavily absentee-voting state where voters have now been trained on a “top two” state primary (in which voters can vote on all candidates, no matter their party registration). But the top two … Continue reading
Sam Wang urges the new unilateral Democratic majority in Virginia to follow through on redistricting reform. … Continue reading
The Post’s editorial board laments the potential change of heart after the change in electoral fortunes. … Continue reading
The Daily Wire ties the census, redistricting, and (perhaps) a bit of wish fulfillment. They’re not wrong about legislative leadership use of redistricting to enforce party discipline, though. It’ll be interesting to see the extent to which New York’s new … Continue reading
Josh Blackman, at the Volokh Conspiracy, offers a timely reminder of the 2009 ACS essay compilation — “The Constitution in 2020” – with a progressive vision of future constitutional law. The compilation included, among others, a piece by Pam Karlan … Continue reading
Here come the allegations of unlawful coordination. And with it, your reminder that, as Dan Tokaji and Renata Strause explained years ago, in assessing the legality of campaign coordination, there’s often a “gap between the line the law draws and … Continue reading
And for David Daley, one of the biggest stories of the decade-in-review is partisan gerrymandering. … Continue reading
A few stories about incumbent government officials weighing the merits of redistricting reform, finding reason to put up the strongest resistance coincidentally right when they unilaterally control the partisan levers of power. In Virginia, it’s Democrats; in Idaho, Republicans. … Continue reading
And Jane Timm at NBC News previews the 2020 redistricting cycle these partisan fights are about. … Continue reading
Remarkable look in the NYT at the transformation of the Republican Party. … Continue reading
Richard Briffault has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, The Best Candidate: Presidential Nomination in Polarized Times (Eugene D. Mazo and Michael R. Dimino, eds., Cambridge Univ. Press 2020)). Here is the abstract: The Constitution says nothing about the presidential … Continue reading
NYT: In Iowa, fretting about the caucuses is a quadrennial tradition among Democratic and Republican officials alike. But at a time when leading Democrats have made the fight for ballot access, voting rights and diverse representation core principles, their marquee … Continue reading
An unsurprising ruling. … Continue reading
FairVote reports. … Continue reading
Politico: California’s new law requiring candidates’ tax returns may be aimed at Donald Trump, but its most consequential effects would likely be felt downballot if it survives a legal challenge.For Republicans who already face a steep climb to blunt Democratic … Continue reading
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill requiring Presidential candidates (as well as gubernatorial candidates) to supply their tax returns if they want appear on the primary ballot. There is no question the Trump campaign or their allies, and … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service reviews the end of week one of trial. … Continue reading
Nathan Gonzales in Roll Call counting an awful lot of chickens: Democrats’ potential challenge in the next round of redistricting will be drawing new lines at the apex of electoral performance. … Continue reading
An interesting commentary on the debate over fusion voting in New York. … Continue reading
Kyle Kondik reviews partisan control of the process for Rasmussen. I’ve got a summary of who’s in charge of what, with the partisan control as of today, right here for Congress and here for state legislatures. … Continue reading
The bill to respond to partisan gerrymandering in the state gets some bipartisan support after Rucho. And Miles Rapoport reviews some of the efforts underway elsewhere. … Continue reading
And they’re (correctly) not happy. … Continue reading
A clever title for a clever piece about partisan gerrymandering, and the doctrine holding the Guarantee Clause nonjusticiable. I’m inclined to agree on the substance. … Continue reading
The Trump takeover of the GOP is reflected in the recent campaign finance disclosures. The subhead of the piece: “Some of the same donors who bankrolled anti-Trump efforts in 2016 are at the center of the president’s reelection.” … Continue reading
A report from the opening days of the state court’s partisan gerrymandering trial in North Carolina. … Continue reading
Gene Nichol, in the News & Observer, with a local’s view on Rucho (feat. Shelby County). … Continue reading
Morning Edition on Common Cause v. Lewis, the North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case in state court, heading into trial today. … Continue reading
Chock full of election-law goodies. Among other pieces: Elizabeth Warren, Foreword (on corruption and faith in government)Jeffrey Clements, “But It Will Happen”: A Constitutional Amendment to Secure Political Equality in Election Spending and RepresentationViki Harrison, How One State Legislature Grappled … Continue reading