Monthly Archives: August 2015

“Audit finds no major problems with Wisconsin elections board”

August 21, 2015, 7:37 amcampaign finance, election administrationRick Hasen

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: An audit released Thursday looking into how Wisconsin’s nonpartisan elections and ethics board handles complaints found no major problems, leading the panel’s director to say it should put to rest concerns about its operations even as… Continue reading

“Lawrence Lessig: Running on Empty Campaign Finance Reform”

August 21, 2015, 7:26 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Steve Klein blog.

Correcting E.J. Dionne’s Legal Mistake

August 20, 2015, 1:53 pmvoter idRichard Pildes

As I assume many readers of this blog noticed right away, E.J. Dionne wrongly described part of the 5th Circuit’s decision on Texas’ voter ID law in his recent piece, here, on voting rights. While correctly noting that the… Continue reading

“End Citizens United PAC wants to make its name a reality”

August 20, 2015, 1:02 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

MSNBC: The group plans on setting up an independent expenditure arm sometime early next year to financially back the candidates through initiatives including television ads, direct mailers and polling. While End Citizens United also hopes to help enact campaign finance… Continue reading

Odd Claim that Effort to Amend Constitution to Eliminate Birthright Citizenship Would Be Unconstitutional

August 20, 2015, 12:39 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Cristian Farias for HuffPo: It turns out that an amendment aiming to change the Constitution to end birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants — a move that squarely targets Latinos — could theoretically be found unconstitutional long before it… Continue reading

“Bob McDonnell Files #SCOTUS Emergency Application to Stay Mandate/Release on Bail Pending Cert”

August 20, 2015, 12:32 pmbriberyRick Hasen

Josh Blackman reports on this emergency application.

Movement to Ease California Top Two?

August 20, 2015, 12:30 pmalternative voting systems, political parties, primariesRick Hasen

Richard Winger reporting from an event on top-two that I unfortunately had to miss because of teaching obligations: During the question period, Paula Lee, an activist in Californians for Electoral Reform, which advocates alternate voting systems such as proportional representation,… Continue reading

“Google could ‘rig the 2016 election,’ researcher says”

August 20, 2015, 10:17 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

CNN: The world’s most-used search engine is so powerful and national elections are so tight, that even a tiny tweak in Google’s (GOOGL, Tech30) secret algorithm could swing the 2016 presidential election, according to Robert… Continue reading

“OIG report recommends USPS develop VBM strategy”

August 20, 2015, 10:15 amabsentee ballots, election administrationRick Hasen

That’s the lead story in this week’s Electionline Weekly.

“The battle for voting rights continues”

August 20, 2015, 7:37 amThe Voting Wars, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

E.J. Dionne: This month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that Texas’s voter ID law “has a discriminatory effect” and amounted to a poll tax. But it also sent the case back to a lower-court… Continue reading