Category Archives: primaries

“Big 2024 Presidential Election Changes Are Leaving Voters Baffled”

January 9, 2024, 8:33 amprimariesDerek Muller

A striking piece in today’s Wall Street Journal: Iowa Republicans on Monday will caucus to choose a presidential candidate, but Democrats will start to vote by mail and wait weeks for results. In New Hampshire the following week, both… Continue reading

Indiana court finds law keeping Republican Senate candidate off primary ballot violates Anderson-Burdick, 17th Amendment

December 8, 2023, 6:45 ampolitical parties, primariesDerek Muller

You can see the Marion County Superior Court’s decision in Rust v. Morales and commentary here. More commentary from the Indianapolis Star. The law requires primary candidates either (1) voted in that party’s past two primary elections or… Continue reading

“The Way Nevada Will Pick the GOP Presidential Nominee Is a Mess; Dueling caucus and primary confuse voters”

November 21, 2023, 7:42 ampolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

WSJ: In January, roughly half a million Republican voters in Nevada will receive presidential primary ballots in the mail. Former President Donald Trump’s name won’t be on them. The omission is part of a tussle that has ripped open… Continue reading

“The New Hampshire Primary Will Be Jan. 23”

November 16, 2023, 7:43 ampolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

NYT: New Hampshire’s presidential primary will be held Jan. 23, state officials announced on Wednesday. The date had been in contention since the Democratic National Committee decided earlier this year to change its nominating calendar, which had long given New… Continue reading

“Voter Suppression, New York Style; Few states make it harder to participate in primary elections, which frequently determine the eventual winner.”

September 27, 2023, 7:36 amprimariesRick Hasen

Howard Husock for City Journal.

“How Trump is rewriting the GOP’s rules to win in 2024”

August 4, 2023, 8:06 ampolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

Politico: “Trump’s team has worked behind the scenes to ensure delegate selection rules play to their favor — or, in their rivals’ telling, to ‘rig’ the system.”

Who has qualified for the first Republican debate?

July 25, 2023, 4:39 amcampaign finance, primariesDan Tokaji

538 reports that six candidates appear to have satisfied both the polling and donor requirements: Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie.

“Trump’s Legal Woes Mount as Trial Dates and Campaign Calendar Collide”

July 20, 2023, 5:34 amelection subversion risk, primariesDan Tokaji

NYT: Generally, criminal defendants must be present in the courtroom during their trials. Not only will that force Mr. Trump to step away from the campaign trail, possibly for weeks at a time, but the judges overseeing his trials… Continue reading

ASU Report on Voter Attitudes about Elections

July 18, 2023, 2:59 pmalternative voting systems, election administration, primariesDan Tokaji

From the hotbed — no pun intended (sorry Arizonans, I know it’s been sweltering) — of election denialism comes this report by Arizona State’s Center for Independent and Sustainable Democracy. Highlights from the press release: Arizona voters strongly support… Continue reading

“Iowa GOP sets Jan. 15 for first-in-the-nation caucus, starting 2024 race”

July 9, 2023, 8:25 pmpolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

WaPo: Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses will be held on Jan. 15, state Republicans voted on Saturday, kicking off the 2024 presidential nomination process. The vote by the Iowa Republican Party’s state central committee, which scheduled the contest on the Martin… Continue reading

“The Associational Rights of Political Parties”

July 7, 2023, 7:35 amcumulative voting, political parties, primaries, third partiesNew ScholarshipTabatha Abu El-Haj

Sharing a chapter I have written for The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law (Eugene Mazo, ed.) (2023, forthcoming). The chapter, among other things, stresses the ways that the U.S. Supreme Court’s current approach to the associational freedom of political… Continue reading

“The Democratic Party promised to overhaul its primaries. Doing that has been anything but simple”

July 3, 2023, 7:36 ampolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

AP: New Hampshire is in open rebellion. Georgia is all but out. South Carolina and Nevada are on board but face stiff Republican pushback. Michigan’s compliance may mean having to cut the state legislative session short, despite Democrats controlling both… Continue reading

New Iowa law adds two tweaks to presidential caucus process

June 2, 2023, 9:48 amprimariesDerek Muller

The Des Moines Register covers a new law signed by Governor Kim Reynolds, HF 716, that tweaks a few aspects of elections in Iowa. The bill was revised substantially from the time it was first introduced and solved major… Continue reading

Nevada Republican Party sues to stop from being forced to use a presidential primary instead of a caucus

May 31, 2023, 10:25 ampolitical parties, primariesDerek Muller

A Nevada news outlet has the details here, and the news release from the Nevada Republican Party is here. It took me a while to find the complaint, which was filed in state court last week in a… Continue reading