NY Times:

A mere 65 votes separated the two candidates late Tuesday in a Congressional contest in upstate New York that received national attention and was widely seen as a referendum on the Obama administration’s economic recovery efforts.
With all precincts reporting, the Democrat, Scott Murphy, a 39-year-old venture capitalist, led 77,344 to 77,279 over his Republican rival, Assemblyman James N. Tedisco, 58, for the seat vacated by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a Democrat. The turnout was surprisingly strong for a special election.
But 10,055 absentee ballots were issued — and 5,907 received so far, state election officials said — meaning the election cannot be decided until the paper ballots are counted. Moreover, it is likely that the count may not begin until at least April 6, said Bob Brehm, a spokesman for the State Board of Elections.

Believe it or not, there used to be an “off season” in the election law field.

The Washington Post offers this report.

The Washington Post offers this very interesting report. I’ve said the question is debatable enough that members of Congress can vote for the measure without violating their oath to uphold the Constitution, but that the measure would have a tough time in the courts.

The Washington Times offers this report.

The Star-Tribune offers this report about this ruling from the three-judge court. More analysis from MinnPost (quoting Ned Foley extensively) and Ned’s own analysis.

The ABA Preview of Supreme Court Cases has posted this Q & A on Citizens United.

Bob Bauer comments.

Philip Peisch has written a quite good student note, Procurement and the Polls: How Sharing Responsibility for Acquiring Voting Machines Can Improve and Restore Confidence in American Voting Systems for the Georgetown Law Journal. It offers a nuanced defense of election administration decentralized authority, something you don’t see all the time.
Josh Douglas has posted The Significance of the Shift toward As-Applied Challenges in Election Law (forthcoming, Hofstra Law Review) on SSRN. I read this one too in draft. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in here, but I think it is too early yet to evaluate the effect of Crawford and the Washington State Grange cases on the lower courts.
Lochner, Dorie Apollonio and Rhett Tatum have written Wheat from Chaff: Third Party Monitoring and FEC Enforcement Actions, which just won the best article prize for Regulation and Governance journal.

I’ll be speaking tomorrow down in San Diego as the last speaker in this series on Law & Democracy. I’ll be presenting The Democracy Canon, 62 Stanford Law Rev. (forthcoming 2009).
Regular blogging will resume Wednesday.

That’s the dubious claim advanced in this WSJ oped by David Rivkin and Lee Casey.

Meredith McGehee has written this Roll Call oped.

Politico explores some of the scenarios.

Another election law specialist gets chosen. Beth has been nominated as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy. Congratulations Beth!

Heather Gerken has written this commentary for the Star Tribune.