Monthly Archives: April 2020

“COVID-19 Should Be a Legitimate ‘Excuse’ to Vote by Mail; In the 16 states that require an excuse to vote by mail, fear of the coronavirus should become an acceptable reason for receiving a mail ballot for the November election.”

April 20, 2020, 4:52 pmabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

Brennan Center: The remaining 16 states allow voters to cast a mail ballot only if they meet certain criteria — typically, that the voters will be away from their home county on Election Day, that they are serving abroad… Continue reading

Important New Report as Mail-In Voting Ramps Up for November: “Signature Verification and Mail Ballots: Guaranteeing Access While Preserving Integrity”

April 20, 2020, 1:49 pmabsentee ballots, election administrationRick Hasen

Great report out of the Stanford Law School Law and Policy Lab, which looks in depth at how California counties handle signature verification on absentee ballot envelopes and how they notify voters about rejected ballots. This kind of detail really… Continue reading

National Constitution Center Virtual Event April 23 with Ned Foley, Jeff Rosen and Me: “How to Fix Presidential Elections in 2020 and Beyond”

April 20, 2020, 11:03 amElection MeltdownRick Hasen

The in-person version of this event in Philadelphia got cancelled, but looking forward to doing this program virtually on April 23, at 7 PM ET (CLE credit available): As the 2020 presidential campaign begins, join two of America’s leading election… Continue reading

“Drive-thrus and free pencils: Texas plans for July elections with in-person voting”

April 20, 2020, 10:53 amelection administrationRick Hasen

Alexa Ura for the Texas Tribune.

“New Voting Rights Battles Erupting In Key Swing States”

April 20, 2020, 10:51 amThe Voting WarsRick Hasen

Steven Rosenfeld for National Memo.

“Wisconsin’s Decision to Have an Election This Month Was Unjust, But Was it Also Unconstitutional? Why the Plaintiffs (Rightly) Lost in the Supreme Court”

April 20, 2020, 10:47 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

At Verdict, Dean Vik Amar and Professor Jason Mazzone have a piece which focuses not on what the right federal-court remedy in the Wisconsin litigation was, but whether there was any substantive federal constitutional violation in the first place. This… Continue reading

“GOP war on mail ballots may backfire”

April 20, 2020, 7:53 amabsentee ballots, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

I have written this oped for the NY Daily News. It begins: If there’s one lesson the farce of conducting the April 7 Wisconsin elections in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic should have taught Republicans, it is that the… Continue reading

“A Post-Pandemic Voting Reform Agenda”

April 20, 2020, 7:39 amalternative voting systemsRick Hasen

Rob Richie and David Daley in Democracy.

“Coronavirus Intensifies Legal Tussle Over Voting Rights; Pandemic adds twist to some long-simmering controversies playing out during 2020 election cycle”

April 19, 2020, 8:26 pmElection MeltdownRick Hasen

Brent Kendall and Alexa Course for the WSJ: Intense court battles over voting rights and election security always promised to be part of the 2020 election cycle, but the coronavirus has added new urgency to the cases, which are… Continue reading

“2020 Will the Pandemic Keep Third Parties Off the 2020 Ballot?”

April 19, 2020, 8:15 pmballot access, third partiesRick Hasen

Bill Scher for Politico Magazine: For America’s third parties, this is nothing less than an existential crisis. Without ballot access, national pollsters won’t feel obligated to include Green and Libertarian candidates in their surveys; voters will be less aware… Continue reading

“Lawsuit seeks to ease absentee voting laws in Missouri during pandemic”

April 19, 2020, 8:11 pmabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Voting rights groups filed suit Friday to allow Missourians to vote by mail if they are sheltering in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.The American Civil Liberties Union and the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition said they… Continue reading

“Federal Courts Won’t Hear North Carolina Gerrymandering Case”

April 19, 2020, 8:06 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Bloomberg Law: North Carolina legislators can’t remove to federal court a state suit under the state constitution challenging a redistricting plan that they say is gerrymandered in favor of Republicans, the Fourth Circuit said Thursday.