The following is a guest post from Bill Whitford, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Law School. The United States Supreme Court did not need to reach a definitive decision in the recent lawsuit concerning the rules governing absentee … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: April 2020
Steve Mulroy oped: Probably not, according to the Heritage Foundation’s data. The think tank compiles a database of reported instances of voter fraud or election fraud. It lists 1,277 “proven instances of voter fraud” in the 50 states over decades, dating back … Continue reading
Washington Monthly reports. … Continue reading
Baltimore Sun: Maryland’s first election since the coronavirus pandemic will not only fill a vacant Baltimore-area congressional seat but test how well voters — and the state — navigate a balloting-by-mail system that had to be hurriedly devised because of … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs. … Continue reading
AP reports. … Continue reading
Dayton Daily News reports. … Continue reading
ABC News reports. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
David Gans and Rebecca Damante at CAC. … Continue reading
NYT: For months, Joseph R. Biden Jr. has argued that under pressure and political duress, President Trump may pursue increasingly extreme measures to stay in power.In November, Mr. Biden said he feared that “as the walls close in on him … Continue reading
Rebecca Guthrie has posted this student note for the Fordham Law Review. I’m obviously interested in this topic, and its new database of cases alone will make this article very useful—but I expect if offers far more. I can’t wait … Continue reading
CLC: After a yearslong battle in court, Native Americans in North Dakota will finally face fewer obstacles to accessing the ballot. The Spirit Lake Nation and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe recently filed a binding agreement, which once approved by the … Continue reading
The latest podcast from Franita and Foley. … Continue reading
Gavin Thompson Weise blogs at US Vote Foundation. … Continue reading
Joe Biden at a fundraiser last night said the following: “Mark my words I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held. Imagine threatening not to fund … Continue reading
Watch: As the 2020 presidential campaign begins, join two of America’s leading election law experts, Richard Hasen and Edward Foley, for a discussion on how to fix presidential elections, in 2020 and beyond. Building on Foley’s Presidential Elections and Majority Rule: The Rise, Demise, and … Continue reading
Newsweek reports. … Continue reading
Video from USC Price School: Karen Flynn, President of Common Cause Mindy Romero, Founder and director of the California Civic Engagement Project Christian Grose, Academic director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy Jack Knott, Dean of … Continue reading
Cleveland.com: Ohio elections officials say delays with the United States Postal Service could cause some voters to not get their ballots on time send them in for next Tuesday’s vote-by-mail primary election.Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Thursday his … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for the Brennan Center. … Continue reading
Daily Beast: As concerns have risen about voter safety in the midst of a global pandemic, the past few weeks have seen proposed solutions put forward by voter-rights organizations, Democratic lawmakers, and almost the entirety of former Vice President Joe … Continue reading
Daniel Nichanian reports. … Continue reading
Electionline: Earlier this month, the Auburn University and The Election Center released the findings of the Investing in Elections project that surveyed Election Center members about office operations, methods of election and resources. “The differences between budget, lead staff salaries, and cost … Continue reading
Nina Totenberg for NPR’s Morning Edition: So, it was no surprise when the conservative majority refused to make even a modest accommodation to the pandemic. What was surprising was the tone of the opinion. Critics of the opinion, including some Roberts defenders, … Continue reading
Details: Are America’s presidential elections in need of reform? On April 23, @rickhasen and @Nedfoley join a virtual #AmericasTownHall to discuss their new books, the history of our election system, and #Election2020.— National Constitution Center (@ConstitutionCtr) April 20, 2020 … Continue reading
Bipartisan Policy Center: American voters, particularly women, face challenges when trying to vote. In the 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, reforms prohibiting restrictions on voting based on sex have led to improvements, but there is still … Continue reading
Sam Levine for The Guardian. … Continue reading
The Markup: Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a post pledging to combat misinformation about COVID-19 circulating on Facebook.“We’ve taken down hundreds of thousands of pieces of misinformation related to COVID-19, including theories like drinking bleach cures the virus or that … Continue reading
NYDN: Already hedging his bets by running for two offices this year, Assemblyman Dan Quart is looking to boot one of his challengers from the Democratic primary ballot.Quart — who’s seeking re-election to the Assembly at the same time he’s running … Continue reading
I had been wondering if any lawsuits that are challenging excuse-based absentee voting in the era of COVID have raised a 26th amendment age discrimination in voting claim. These excuse-based states generally allow anyone over 65 to get an absentee … Continue reading
Release: The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of South Carolina, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a federal lawsuit today over South Carolina’s failure to take action to ensure all eligible voters can vote by mail during the COVID-19 pandemic — even … Continue reading
You can find it here (Derek Muller and David Post have first two entries.) … Continue reading
Miami Herald: In Florida, a state where the steady rise of mail voting has dramatically transformed the campaign season over the last 20 years, the novel coronavirus could fast-forward the evolution of elections. Elections offices in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties … Continue reading
Marcia Coyle for PBS. … Continue reading
Yahoo News reports. … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Milwaukee Common Council voted unanimously Tuesday to create a program under which all of the city’s approximately 300,000 registered voters would receive an application for an absentee ballot in the mail. The “SafeVote” program also provides voters with a … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. … Continue reading
Guy Charles and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer in The Monkey Cage: On April 7, thousands of Wisconsin citizens braved a global pandemic to show up at the polls to vote. Some commentators blamed Republicans in the legislature for forcing voters to choose between their … Continue reading
BAN: On April 21, a Colorado state trial court put Michelle Ferrigno Warren on the June 30 Democratic primary ballot for U.S. Senate, even though she needed 10,500 valid signatures and she only had 5,383 valid signatures….Here is the 28-page decision in … Continue reading
Tierney Sneed for TPM: The pandemic stands to bring a major surge of mail-in and absentee voting, both in the remaining spring and summer elections, and in the general election this fall.But the system — critical for keeping voters safe … Continue reading
WaPo: The ads on Facebook sounded populist and passionate: “The people are rising up against these insane shutdowns,” they said. “We’re fighting back to demand that our elected officials reopen America.”But the posts, funded by an initiative called “Convention of … Continue reading
WSJ: The State Department has assessed that Russia, China and Iran are mounting increasingly intense and coordinated disinformation campaigns against the U.S. relating to the outbreak of the new coronavirus, according to an internal report.All three countries are using state-controlled media, … Continue reading
NY Post reports. … Continue reading
Video with the always insightful Graeme Orr: Like all else, politics is upturned by the current pandemic. How will electoral politics and particularly the conduct of elections be affected? This talk canvasses what flexibility there is to delay elections and … Continue reading
Jeffrey Abramson has written this article for the Emory Law Journal Online. … Continue reading
NYT: An informal coalition of influential conservative leaders and groups, some with close connections to the White House, has been quietly working to nurture protests and apply political and legal pressure to overturn state and local orders intended to stop … Continue reading
Marc Elias press release. … Continue reading
ELJ: Manuscript Submission Deadline: June 15, 2020. Before submission, please refer to the Election Law Journal author submission guidelines.The recent primary elections in Wisconsin exposed the problems of trying to hold an election during a pandemic and demonstrated the difficulties in having an … Continue reading
Sam Issacharoff and Trevor Morrison have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, California Law Review). Here is the abstract: Constitutionalism has never been exclusively reduced to the written text either in terms of its commands or its interpretation. In the … Continue reading