Category Archives: The Voting Wars

“What the REAL ID delay tells us about implementing proof-of-citizenship laws”

May 31, 2025, 11:05 amelection administration, The Voting Wars, voter idproof of citizenshipJustin Levitt

That’s the subject line of this week’s Votebeat newsletter, covering a bunch of reporting from a bunch of states that it’s been less straightforward for people to get the right kind of ID than it might at first seem.

“The Disparate and Durable Effects of Mail Voting Restrictions: Evidence from Texas”

May 28, 2025, 5:31 pmabsentee ballots, election administration, The Voting Wars, voter registrationvoter turnoutJustin Levitt

More from Texas. This is interesting research on 2021’s SB1, which (among other elements) required voters casting mail ballots to provide either their driver’s license or state ID number or their Social Security digits, both on mail ballot applications… Continue reading

“Wisconsin Elections Commission: Small communities don’t need permission to stop using voting machines”

May 28, 2025, 5:30 pmelection administration, The Voting Wars, voting technologyJustin Levitt

From Wisconsin Public Radio: The Wisconsin Elections Commission says small communities don’t need the state’s permission to stop using electronic voting machines, siding with a northwestern Wisconsin town that switched to hand-counted, paper ballots last year. The WEC decision… Continue reading

“Trump administration begins cracking down on federal employees’ use of leave for voting”

May 28, 2025, 5:28 pmThe Voting WarsExecutive Orders, time to voteJustin Levitt

From Government Executive: With some key primary elections at the state level occurring in the coming weeks, the Trump administration has begun notifying employees they can no longer use paid administrative leave to vote. The reminder, so far sent… Continue reading

“What Just Happened: The Trump Administration’s Dismissal of Voting Rights Lawsuits”

May 27, 2025, 7:48 amDepartment of Justice, The Voting Wars, Voting Rights ActJustin Levitt

Hot off the presses at Just Security, Chiraag Bains — a former colleague at both DOJ and the White House — walks through in impressive detail the current Administration’s dismissal of “all salient pending cases” brought by the decimated… Continue reading

“Prove citizenship to vote? For some married women, it might not be so easy.”

May 24, 2025, 10:04 amThe Voting WarsRick Hasen

WaPo: Some Republican-led states are moving to require voters to prove their citizenship, as Texas advances a controversial measure that could make it harder for eligible voters to get on the rolls because of changed names, mislaid paperwork or database… Continue reading

“Democrats Won a North Carolina Supreme Court Seat. But They Lost Control Over the Board That Sets Election Rules.”

May 16, 2025, 7:07 amelection administration, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

ProPublica: Last week, North Carolina Democrats scored a victory when Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin, who’d lost a tight race for the state’s Supreme Court, finally conceded defeat after a six-month legal battle to throw out ballots that he contended were… Continue reading

“What to know about push in Shasta County to override voter ID, election laws in California”

May 2, 2025, 7:43 amfraudulent fraud squad, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Record Searchlight: A citizens group whose leaders have been at the forefront of unverified claims of local election fraud are leaning heavily on Shasta’s status as a charter county in their attempt to change its voting rules. “Save Shasta Elections”… Continue reading

“The Endless Election Law War”

May 2, 2025, 7:34 amThe Voting WarsRick Hasen

Jason Marisam has posted this draft on SSRN (Texas Law Review Online). Here is the abstract: Since the 2000 presidential election, Republicans and Democrats have been locked in a seemingly endless war over our nation’s election laws, constantly proposing and… Continue reading

“Trump wants voters to prove citizenship. Arizona tried that and bungled it.”

May 1, 2025, 7:26 amelection administration, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

WaPo: For 30 years, no one questioned Danny Dobosz’s citizenship when the lifelong Republican cast his ballot. So when a letter arrived from a local election official last month asking him to send back a copy of his birth… Continue reading

Historians Keyssar and Wilentz Put SAVE Act’s Proposed Disenfranchisement in Historical Perspective

April 10, 2025, 9:31 amThe Voting WarsRick Hasen

Democracy Docket: Voting-rights advocates and Democratic officials have already made clear the massive threat the SAVE Act poses to access to the ballot in the here and now, warning that it could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. But in… Continue reading

“Democratic attorneys general sue Trump over elections executive order”

April 3, 2025, 6:34 pmelection administration, Election Assistance Commission, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Votebeat: Democratic attorneys general in 19 states are together suing Trump over his sweeping executive order on elections, saying that it is an illegal attempt to usurp state control of electionsthat “would cause imminent and irreparable harm” if the… Continue reading

Ben Ginsberg: “Echoes of Gore’s Florida recount in Griffin’s attempt to toss ballots”

April 1, 2025, 6:27 amBush v. Gore reflections, chicanery, judicial elections, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Ben Ginsberg in the Carolina Journal: Jefferson Griffin’s attempts to invalidate 60,000 North Carolina voters bear haunting parallels to what Al Gore supporters tried to do late in the 2000 Florida recount to take away George W. Bush’s victory. I… Continue reading

“Democrats sue Trump administration over elections executive order”

April 1, 2025, 6:25 amElection Assistance Commission, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

WaPo: Several Democratic groups — including the Democratic National Committee — along with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) on Monday sued the Trump administration over President Donald Trump’s executive … Continue reading