Category Archives: electoral college

Fortier and Ornstein: How Faithless Elector Laws and COVID-19 Could Undermine Our Presidential Election

October 5, 2020, 10:41 amElection Meltdown, electoral collegeRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from John Fortier and Norm Ornstein: After 9/11, in the course of our work on continuity of government, we wrote a piece in the Election Law Journal, “If Terrorists Attacked our Presidential… Continue reading

“Will the Popular Vote Decide the Electoral College in 2024?”

October 5, 2020, 7:19 amelectoral collegeRick Hasen

John Koza on the Open Mind podcast.

With News That the President Has Tested Positive for Coronavirus (and He Was in Contact with Joe Biden at the Debate Earlier in the Week), What Happens If a Presidential Candidate Dies or is Incapacitated Before Election Day? A Mess

October 1, 2020, 10:34 pmelectoral collegeRick Hasen

The President and First Lady reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus. As the New York Times notes, “Mr. Trump’s positive test result could pose immediate difficulties for the future of his campaign against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.,… Continue reading

“Elections experts, law professors, former President of National Association of Secretaries of State urge Congress to pass state vote counting deadline extension to avoid crisis”

October 1, 2020, 1:07 pmelectoral collegeRick Hasen

Release: With just a month to go before the November 3rd election, a group of 40 experts on elections and democracy are imploring Congress to support a bill that would give states more time to tally election results. A… Continue reading

“A State Legislature Cannot Appoint its Preferred Slate of Electors to Override the Will of the People After the Election”

September 16, 2020, 3:25 pmElection Meltdown, electoral collegeRick Hasen

New analysis from the National Task Force on Election Crises.

“The Electoral Count Act & The Process of Electing a President”

September 12, 2020, 12:36 pmElection Meltdown, electoral collegeRick Hasen

The National Task Force on Election Crises has issued this analysis.

“Post-Election Chaos: A Primer”

September 10, 2020, 7:45 amElection Meltdown, electoral collegeRick Hasen

Cass Sunstein has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: With respect to the election of the U.S. President, the U.S. Constitution is vague and full of silences and gaps. When the vote is close, and when people… Continue reading

“The Deadline That Could Hand Trump the Election; A 133-year-old law creates perverse incentives for the Trump administration—and could make a chaotic postelection period even more tumultuous.”

September 9, 2020, 7:55 pmelectoral collegeRick Hasen

The Atlantic: Many Americans know that counting all of the votes in this November’s presidential election is going to take extra time. Few people realize there’s a specific deadline by which states must finish.The 1887 Electoral Count Act seems… Continue reading

“A delayed mail truck can decide the presidency”

September 9, 2020, 6:25 pmelectoral collegeRick Hasen

John Koza Hill oped: The National Popular Vote compact has already been enacted into law by 15 states and the District of Columbia (together possessing 196 electoral votes) and will take effect when enacted by states with 74 more… Continue reading

“The Electoral College Will Destroy America; And no, New York and California would not dominate a popular vote.”

September 9, 2020, 6:17 pmelectoral collegeRick Hasen

Jesse Wegman NYT column.

Ninth Circuit Unanimously Rejects Challenge to California’s “Winner-Take-All” System for Allocating State’s Electoral College Votes

September 8, 2020, 5:48 pmelectoral collegeRick Hasen

No surprise.

Must Read from Larry Diamond and Ned Foley: “The Terrifying Inadequacy of American Election Law; The country has narrowly averted catastrophic deadlocks over the presidential-election outcome before. We may not be so fortunate in 2020.”

September 8, 2020, 7:38 amElection Meltdown, electoral collegeRick Hasen

Atlantic ideas piece: In that event, who ought to be obeyed as commander in chief starting at noon on January 20: a reelected President Trump, or an Acting President Pelosi?The best time to act to avert this disaster scenario… Continue reading

Suit Seeking to Kick Kanye West Off Virginia Ballot Alleges That At Least Three People Listed as West Electors Had Their Signatures Obtained via Fraud

September 1, 2020, 6:19 pmcampaigns, chicanery, electoral collegeRick Hasen

You can find the complaint at this link. As Ben Jacobs noted the other day, this may be the first time a candidate for President has been sued by one of the candidate’s purported presidential electors.

“How Has the Electoral College Survived for This Long?”

August 3, 2020, 1:19 pmelectoral collegeRick Hasen

Alex Keyssar NYT oped: As our revived national conversation on race has made clear, the legacies of slavery and white supremacy run wide and deep in American society and political life. One such legacy — which is particularly noteworthy… Continue reading