Category Archives: redistricting
“Gerrymandering and the Limits of Representative Democracy”
New article from Kai Hao Yang and Alexander Zentefis:
We assess the capacity of gerrymandering to undermine the will of the people in a representative democracy. Citizens have political positions represented on a spectrum, and electoral maps separate people into… Continue reading
Some recent law student scholarship on election law
This weekend, I’ll blog about some recent election law scholarship. I thought I’d start by highlighting a few student notes that caught my eye in recent weeks:
Kyle Apple (Iowa), Gerrymandering the Presidency: Why Federal District Popular Voting Presents a … Continue reading
Election litigation update for week ending March 25, 2022
Filing a complaint or winning a judgment are actions good enough to earn the headlines, but there’s plenty of election litigation ongoing throughout the United States at various stages. A taste of a few things that happened over the past… Continue reading
“Federal judges mull trimming Ohio early voting among other options to address redistricting delays”
Out of the frying pan, from Cleveland.com:
A federal court is considering whether to order Ohio to trim its early voting period for the May 3 primary election to buy more time for the state’s stalled redistricting efforts.During a… Continue reading
“Judge throws out Maryland congressional map over ‘extreme’ gerrymandering”
Meagan Flynn at the Washington Post:
Maryland judge has thrown out the state’s congressional map, calling it an “extreme partisan gerrymander” in what is a victory for Republicans who said Democrats in the state General Assembly sought to silence… Continue reading
“Michigan Supreme Court tosses partisan fairness lawsuit challenging state House map”
Detroit Free Press:
The Michigan Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Friday alleging that the state House map drawn by the redistricting commission is unfair to Democrats. In a 5-2 ruling, the court upheld the new state House districts. In… Continue reading
“Ohio’s anti-gerrymandering coalition splits after voting-rights groups delay congressional map challenge”
Cleveland.com:
The backlash within Ohio’s political left was swift after a major voting-rights group announced this week it had dropped its attempt to block a new Republican-drawn congressional map from taking effect in 2022.The ACLU of Ohio, representing a… Continue reading
“Justice Department Files Voting Rights Lawsuit Against Galveston County, Texas to Challenge County Redistricting Plan”
Complaint is here. Press release here. The Justice Department has initiated a handful of Section 2 challenges this redistricting cycle. It’s worth noting that unlike the Alabama litigation, as Rick P. blogged about here, this does… Continue reading
“Ohio primary date debate continues”
Ohio Capital Journal:
The debate over a court’s role in changing the primary date continues in responses submitted to the Ohio Supreme Court.Senate President Matt Huffman and House Speaker Bob Cupp flatly rejected the idea of a primary date… Continue reading
Supreme Court coverage roundup on Wisconsin Legislature v. Wisconsin Elections Commission
Breaking: Supreme Court, in Bizarre Unsigned Opinion, Strikes Wisconsin Legislative Maps on Voting Rights Grounds, Signalling New Hostility to the Voting Rights Act
In a per curiam (unsigned) opinion on the shadow docket, over the dissent of Justices Kagan and Sotomayor, the Supreme Court has rejected a redistricting plan that a divided Wisconsin Supreme Court had adopted for drawing state assembly and senate… Continue reading
BREAKING: Supreme Court says Wisconsin Supreme Court erred in interpreting Voting Rights Act and Equal Protection Clause precedents when adopting state legislative maps
The Court’s per curiam opinion in Wisconsin Legislature v. Wisconsin Elections Commission is here. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Kagan, dissented. (More coverage to come later today.) The bottom line:
We agree that the court committed legal error in… Continue reading
“With 6 weeks until Ohio’s primary, many voting districts still haven’t been decided”
NPR:
Voters in Ohio are supposed to be able to vote in the state’s May 3 primary – up and down the ballot – but with just six weeks to go, the voting districts for the state legislature haven’t… Continue reading