Category Archives: The Voting Wars

Introducing the Covid-Related Election Litigation Tracker

September 8, 2020, 1:29 pmelection administration, Election Meltdown, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Great news: A team at the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project has just launched the COVID-Related Election Litigation Tracker, a free, searchable, litigation tracker to help the interested public find, sort and better understand the flood of COVID-related litigation. The… Continue reading

Exchange of the Day (Between Zack Stanton and Justin Levitt)

September 3, 2020, 7:43 pmThe Voting WarsRick Hasen

Politico Q and A (on Justin’s ELB Covid-Election litigation list): Stanton: You track the number of election-related lawsuits that have been filed. I understand that we’re now well above 150 cases? Levitt: It was 226 the last time I checked.… Continue reading

WaPo Podcast: “Trump suggested sending law enforcement to the polls. Can he do that?”

August 27, 2020, 5:09 pmThe Voting WarsRick Hasen

WaPo: In this episode Faith in the U.S. electoral system is one of the most important fundamentals of this country’s democracy.And this year, it’s being tested in unprecedented ways.Some of those challenges are emerging from the rhetoric of the… Continue reading

Joan Biskupic: “Trump revives Bush v. Gore in his crusade against mail-in voting”

August 24, 2020, 10:17 amBush v. Gore reflections, Supreme Court, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Reporting at CNN.

Breaking and Analysis: Federal Court Steps Aside for Now in Dispute over Drop Boxes and Other Pennsylvania Election Rules

August 23, 2020, 12:05 pmabsentee ballots, court decisions, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

In a thoughtful 37-page opinion, in one of the most closely watched pieces of litigation surrounding the conduct of the 2020 election, a federal court (Trump appointee Judge Nicholas Ranjan) has used Pullman abstention to decline to consider the… Continue reading

Angelo Genova, Lawyer for DNC in the RNC Consent Decree Case for 40 Years, Sends Along Thoughts on Trump’s Comments About Sending Law Enforcement to the Polls in November

August 21, 2020, 6:05 amchicanery, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Angelo Genova, speaking for himself and not the DNC, writes: Rick : I read your piece today. I too have watched and heard with great disappointment , but no surprise , the recurring narrative emanating from President Trump and the… Continue reading

Echoing Reasons for Issuance of 1981 Consent Decree Against the RNC, Trump Threatens to Send Law Enforcement to Watch Polls. What Happens Next?

August 20, 2020, 9:07 pmElection Meltdown, fraudulent fraud squad, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Back in 1981, the RNC agreed to a consent decree, which remained in place in various forms until 2017. It prevented the RNC from engaging in certain activities which intimidated minority voters. As I explained in this January 2019 Slate… Continue reading

Republican National Committee Goes to Supreme Court to Try to Overturn Consent Decree Making It Easier to Vote by Mail in Rhode Island During Pandemic

August 10, 2020, 2:28 pmabsentee ballots, election administration, Supreme Court, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Expect quick action in this case given the upcoming deadlines.

Today’s Must Read is David Graham in the Atlantic: “The ‘Blue Shift’ Will Decide the Election Something fundamental has changed about the ways Americans vote.”

August 10, 2020, 7:56 amElection Meltdown, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

The Atlantic: This sort of late-breaking Democratic vote is the new, though still underappreciated, normal in national elections. Americans have become accustomed to knowing who won our elections promptly, but there are many legitimate votes that are not counted immediately… Continue reading

“The Voting Will End Nov. 3. The Legal Battle Probably Won’t.”

August 9, 2020, 8:54 pmElection Meltdown, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

NYT: The stormy once-in-a-lifetime Florida recount battle that polarized the nation in 2000 and left the Supreme Court to decide the presidency may soon look like a high school student council election compared with what could be coming after this… Continue reading

“Fifth Circuit Slow-Walks Argument in Critical Texas Voting Rights Case”

August 7, 2020, 3:10 pmThe Voting WarsRick Hasen

CAC: Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit announced that it will not hear oral argument in a critical Texas voting rights case until August 31, pushing its decision-making process dangerously close to the… Continue reading

“2020 election strategy: Hire all the lawyers”

August 7, 2020, 7:28 amThe Voting WarsRick Hasen

Axios reports.

Kansas Files Supreme Court Cert Petition in Schwab v. Fish (Formerly Fish v. Kobach), Seeking Right to Require Voters to Prove Their Citizenship with Birth or Naturalization Certificate Before Registering to Vote

August 5, 2020, 7:06 amelection administration, Election Meltdown, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

The cert. petition is here. I wrote extensively about this case, and the lack of evidence that such a law is justified by a problem with noncitizen voting, in Election Meltdown.

“Wealthy donors pour millions into fight over mail-in voting”

July 27, 2020, 1:47 pmabsentee ballots, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

AP: Deep-pocketed and often anonymous donors are pouring over $100 million into an intensifying dispute about whether it should be easier to vote by mail, a fight that could determine President Donald Trump’s fate in the November election.In the… Continue reading