AP: “Republican Gov. Chris Sununu reversed course Friday and signed a bill imposing residency requirements on out-of-state college students who vote in New Hampshire. Current law allows students and others who consider the state their domicile to vote without being … Continue reading
Category Archives: voting
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
Available on SSRN. From the abstract: Litigants seeking to lift burdens on the right to vote and judges adjudicating these claims have an unremarkable problem—what is the benchmark for measuring the nature of these burdens? Legal theories abound for claims … Continue reading
An increasingly central and recurring issue in voting-rights litigation today is how courts should evaluate recent changes to various laws regulating the voting system. How much should the prior status quo matter in this assessment? This can present paradoxes for … Continue reading
PBS news Hour reports. … Continue reading
WaPo editorial: Upending decades of political tradition is clearly provocative, and the council should proceed carefully in deciding whether to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local and federal elections. A case could be made that 16-year-olds lack the … Continue reading
Important Joey Fishkin at Balkinization: The Commerce Department has announced that it is adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 Census, for the first time in seventy years. There has been a lot of speculation about possible political motivations … Continue reading
Patrick Marley: Dealing a setback to Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans, a judge ruled Thursday the governor must call special elections to fill two vacant seats in the Legislature. Walker declined to call those elections after two GOP lawmakers stepped … Continue reading
Release: Nearly 4 million citizens living in U.S. territories – a population greater than 21 states and larger than the five smallest states combined – are denied the right to vote for President and voting representation in Congress simply because of … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: The lawsuit was brought by the National Redistricting Foundation — an affiliate of Holder’s group — and the legal team includes Democratic attorney Marc Elias, who served as the general counsel for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. The case will … Continue reading
You can find the court’s opinion at this link. The court has given the plaintiff 30 days to try to amend the complaint. Plaintiff may try to do that, appeal the decision denying a preliminary injunction, or give up the … Continue reading
Vladimir Kogan, Stéphane Lavertu and Zachary Peskowitz for the Monkey Cage. … Continue reading
Josh Douglas CNN oped. … Continue reading
Arizona Capitol Times reports. … Continue reading
Interesting: A district court judge gave an initial win Wednesday to a group that claims Amendment 71 unconstitutionally raised the bar for petitioners hoping to change the Colorado Constitution. Judge William J. Martínez denied a request from the Secretary of State’s Office that asked to dismiss the … Continue reading
Joey Fishkin: Our Constitution, as amended, requires that every ten years the federal government reallocate seats in the House of Representatives to the states “according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons.” This provision leaves little room … Continue reading
Release: Late yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled against expanding territorial voting rights in Segovia v. United States. The case presented an equal protection challenge by plaintiffs in Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands … Continue reading
Josh Douglas CNN oped. … Continue reading
Next logical step, no? … Continue reading
I’ve written about the likely unconstitutionality of a plan which would have temporary Senator Luther Strange resign from his seat, and have the Alabama governor call a new election. This seems pretty clearly to violate the 17th Amendment. But buried … Continue reading
Bloomberg/Haaretz: Palm Tree may sound like a good moniker for a topical vacation resort, but it’s actually the name of the first new town being established in New York State in 35 years. The community is earmarked only for Satmar … Continue reading
Paula Span NYT column: Physical barriers at polling places, a longtime obstacle for the elderly and disabled citizens of any age, can prevent older voters’ participation. Voting machines may not accommodate people who use wheelchairs or are visually impaired. The … Continue reading
The New Mexican reports. … Continue reading
Jon Grinspan NYT oped: One hundred and fifty years ago this month, ex-slaves lined up across the South, clutching their ballots, joining the first elections in which large numbers of black Southerners participated. One year ago, on Nov. 8, Americans … Continue reading
Dan Tokaji has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming Yale Law Journal Forum). Here is the abstract: The most recent presidential election highlighted deep seated problems in American democracy that existing voting rights law cannot fix. This Essay employs the term … Continue reading
There have been a few pieces recently on migration after Hurricane Maria. Some compare these political shifts to migration after Hurricane Katrina. … Continue reading
Stephen Mortellaro has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming Loyola Law Review). Here is the abstract: Congress strikes at the core of state sovereignty when it disenfranchises voters. Yet demands for national disenfranchisement laws have become pervasive since the 2016 election, … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: U.S. Circuit Judge David Hamilton asked whether the differences in absentee voting rights between the territories could be due to their unique political histories. After all, “there are unique, one-of-a-kind, custom deals with each territory,” Hamilton said. … Continue reading
Charles: One of the big stories to come out of Tuesday’s hearing of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (PACEI) is about the divisions that have begun to show among commissioners over how alarmed we should be about stories … Continue reading
Pacific Daily News: The Trump administration is arguing in federal court that, if one U.S. territory doesn’t have the same rights as the others, then all of them should be stripped of those rights, according to a group pursuing lawsuits … Continue reading
Josh Gerstein: A New Hampshire judge has blocked recent changes to the state’s voting laws that would have exposed some first-time voters to a fine or jail time if they failed to submit residence paperwork within 10 days of registering. … Continue reading
Boston Globe: The League of Women Voters of New Hampshire and three New Hampshire voters are suing state officials to block a new law that toughens voter registration requirements, rules that civil rights advocates say amount to intimidation designed to … Continue reading
Josh Douglas WaPo oped. … Continue reading
Joe Mathews column. … Continue reading
The opinion is not yet available, but according to the ACLU’s Dale Ho: “Decision means state cannot require ppl to register 20 days before election bc violates state constitution.” More: “No remedy ordered yet – could mean Election Day Reg; … Continue reading
NYT: However, two recent initiatives have channeled the deep feeling of underrepresentation. In May, a loose coalition of northern activists and residents, including an Indian tribe and the small northern city of Fort Jones, joined forces to file a federal … Continue reading
Release: California’s low voter turnout has two elements: a decline in the voter registration rate relative to other states and a decline in turnout in midterm elections. Each has a different origin in the state’s demographics, according to a report … Continue reading
Pew: Despite these efforts, little is known about eligible but unregistered U.S. citizens’ exposure to opportunities to register, reasons for choosing not to, or attitudes toward the electoral system and civic engagement, or how many of them are interested in … Continue reading
Tina Rosenberg NYT column. … Continue reading
Josh Douglas in NULR Online: In this Essay, Joshua A. Douglas highlights how local voter-backed initiatives can play a significant role in dictating voting rights and election rules. The Essay provides courts with a test to employ when facing an … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: An eclectic group of plaintiffs of all political stripes want to renovate California’s political system, which they say is burdened by an “oligarchic” state government shaped by exponential population growth and an influx of corporate money in … Continue reading
Bernard L. Fraga, Sean McElwee, Jesse Rhodes and Brian Schaffner for the Monkey Cage: Using data from the voter file vendor Catalist and information from the U.S. Census Bureau, we examine the change in turnout rates for different racial/ethnic groups … Continue reading
AP: Georgia lawmakers violated federal voting rights law by moving black voters out and white voters in to two state House districts in 2015, according to a lawsuit filed Monday that calls the mid-decade redistricting an effort to protect white … Continue reading
Noah Lindell has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Wisconsin Law Review). Here is the abstract: In thirty-six states and the District of Columbia, state laws allow candidates running unopposed for certain offices to be “declared elected” without appearing on the … Continue reading
We the People project: Earlier today Plaintiffs from Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico filed their opening brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit challenging discriminatory overseas voting laws and making the case that … Continue reading
Here, at Excess of Democracy. … Continue reading
NYDN reports. … Continue reading
Release: Nonprofit VOTE and the U.S. Elections Project are excited to release “America Goes to The Polls,” a report that ranks all 50 states in voter turnout for the 2016 election and identifies policies that help contribute to higher turnout. … Continue reading
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Civil rights groups announced a settlement Wednesday with Hancock County over allegations officials improperly removed African American voters from the rolls ahead of a hotly contested local election. Groups including the Georgia NAACP and the national Lawyers’ Committee for … Continue reading
McClatchy: A group of military veterans living in Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are crowd-funding their appeal to challenge federal voting laws that deny U.S. citizens living in the territories the ability to vote in presidential elections. Americans … Continue reading