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
Category Archives: political parties
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
Commentary on the impact of the demise of straight-ticket voting options in Texas. … Continue reading
Rebecca Spang with a Bastille Day connection to unabashed partisan redistricting. … Continue reading
The files from Tom Hofeller that Rick keeps mentioning in the context of the census case were given to advocates in North Carolina primarily for use in a redistricting case in state court (i.e., not affected by the SCOTUS ruling … Continue reading
On Monday, Rick linked to an AP piece on 2020 Democratic caucus voting by phone in Iowa and Nevada. Steve Rosenfeld has some deeper dives today (Iowa, Nevada) on what may be brake-pumping at the DNC. … Continue reading
An intriguing new study finds substantial split-ticket voting for downballot incumbents. … Continue reading
From the Houston Chronicle. … Continue reading
Hugh Spitzer has written this article for the Washington Law Review. Here is the abstract: Political parties always disliked the Progressive Era changes that pulled the entire electorate into nominating candidates. Why, after all, should non-party members participate in the … Continue reading
Steven Rosenfeld: The Independent Media Institute’s Voting Booth project obtained a copy of Iowa’s RFP and asked industry and academic experts in remote voting and election cyber-security to assess Iowa’s envisioned telephone-based system. The experts’ top concerns—based on observing similar … Continue reading
Rick Pildes has posted this draft on SSRN (Forthcoming in The Best Candidate: Presidential Nomination in Polarized Times (E. Mazo ed.)) Here is the abstract: The presidential-candidate nomination process is increasingly a train wreck. Voters are now asked to sort … Continue reading
Michael Morley has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Tulsa Law Review). Here is the abstract: This invited essay reviews Jesse H. Rhodes’s book Ballot Blocked: The Political Erosion of the Voting Rights Act. The book’s main thesis is that Republican officials … Continue reading
Tabatha Abu el-Haj in the Columbia Law Review Online: Despite finding my diagnosis of the ills of contemporary American parties and my indictment of responsible party government and its hold over First Amendment doctrine “almost undeniable,” Professor Kang raises two fundamental … Continue reading
BuzzFeed reports. … Continue reading
Balkinization: Here are the collected posts for our Balkinization symposium on Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum’s new book, The Company They Keep: How Partisan Divisions Came to the Supreme Court (Oxford University Press, 2019). 1. Jack Balkin, Introduction to Balkinization Symposium on Neal … Continue reading
NYT’s The Upshot reports. … Continue reading
Dave Daley and Rob Richie oped: Step aside, Super Tuesday — and say aloha to ranked-choice voting.While contests in 11 states on March 3 will elect the most delegates in the 2020 presidential primaries, it’s April 4 — and the … Continue reading
NYT: The House Democratic campaign arm is nearing open warfare with the party’s rising liberal wing as political operatives close to Speaker Nancy Pelosi try to shut down primary challenges before what is likely to be a hard-fought campaign next … Continue reading
The Seattle Times reports. … Continue reading
John Myers for the LAT: In the days leading up to California’s primary three years ago, the complaints from unaffiliated independent voters started pouring in. They were promised they could vote in the closely watched Democratic race for the White House, but … Continue reading
WaPo: The fallout from the Senate’s so-called nuclear option has largely dissipated.And without much fallout, the fate of the once-revered process known as the legislative filibuster faces its greatest peril in more than a century.Senate Republicans are using a complex … Continue reading
Yesterday, Nick offered some thoughts on the arguments in the Rucho and Benisek partisan gerrymandering cases, and several Justices’ fixation on whether all of this litigation is just a Trojan horse for achieving proportional representation. Nick’s post highlights the fact … Continue reading
Good news from Nevada. Caucuses are inherently undemocratic, as I’ve been arguing for years. … Continue reading
Salt Lake Tribune: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ended five years of legal battles by the Utah Republican Party to quash a 2014 election law that allows candidates to qualify for the ballot by collecting signatures and/or through the … Continue reading
A Politico update on the impact of new rules for Democratic primary debates. … Continue reading
A fascinating mapping of estimates of affective polarization (how Americans feel about members of the opposing major party). The polling question isn’t new, but I think that mapping the results onto counties by their demographic composition might be. (Note: this … Continue reading
The Springfield News-Leader reports: Last fall, Missouri voters approved a one-of-a-kind plan to root out partisan gerrymandering with 62 percent of the vote. Republicans unhappy with the changes are now trying to roll them back. Five GOP lawmakers, including Senate … Continue reading
Behind a paywall, the Economist reviews an apparent shift in Texas legislators’ priorities. … Continue reading
Sigh. … Continue reading
Steven Rosenfeld sees parallels between a 2017 Alberta provincial leadership campaign and the NC09 scandal, with lessons for 2020 primaries considering means to further participation online or by phone. … Continue reading
Three new white papers on California’s top-two primary out of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute, by Charles Munger, Jr., a financial and political backer of the top-two system. … Continue reading
NYT reports on opposition to the N.Y. Democratic Party’s resolution to eliminate fusion voting. … Continue reading
Newsday: The state Democratic Party approved a resolution Monday to ban New York’s oft-criticized practice of fusion voting.The resolution was nonbinding and has no legal impact. But Democratic leaders said they hope lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled State Legislature hear the … Continue reading
Order here in case challenging the state’s candidate-selection process. Prior coverage here and here. … Continue reading
NYT: Senate Republicans are preparing to detonate a mini-nuke.Angry over Democratic delaying tactics that have slowed the conveyor belt of Trump administration nominees plodding toward confirmation, the Senate majority is preparing to strong-arm a rules change that would reduce required … Continue reading