Monthly Archives: October 2020

North Carolina: “Former GOP legislator charged with assaulting a poll worker at Wake early voting site”

October 16, 2020, 12:01 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

News & Observer: A former Republican state legislator was charged with assaulting an election worker at a Wake County early voting site on Friday morning. Gary Pendleton was an official Republican poll observer at the Northern Regional Center, 350 East… Continue reading

“Statement on Florida Officials’ Plans to Remove People with Past Convictions from Florida’s Voter Roll”

October 16, 2020, 11:40 amfelon votingRick Hasen

Via email: With less than 18 days until the 2020 General Election, the Florida Division of Elections made plans to remove returning citizens who owe legal financial obligations from Florida’s voter roll in direct violation of Florida’s 30-day notice period.… Continue reading

“In Ohio, a Printing Company Is Overwhelmed and Mail Ballots Are Delayed”

October 16, 2020, 11:14 amabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

NYT: As the presidential election headed into the final stretch in late summer, counties in Ohio and Pennsylvania worried that a deluge of absentee ballot requests would swamp their printing capacity. So 16 of them contracted with Midwest Direct,… Continue reading

“Which Constitution Is Amy Coney Barrett Talking About?”

October 16, 2020, 11:07 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Jamelle Bouie: Barrett’s Constitution is the Constitution of 1787, written in Philadelphia and made official the following year. That’s why her formulation for originalism rests on ratification, as she states at the outset of a paper she wrote called “… Continue reading

Purcell Brief

October 16, 2020, 10:57 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Here’s the link to a Supreme Court amicus brief, filed earlier today on behalf of several election law scholars (including myself), asking the Court to provide more guidance about the Purcell principle. The brief makes two principal arguments: (1) that… Continue reading

Would President George W. Bush Speak Up If Trump Loses But Refuses to Concede?

October 16, 2020, 10:54 amElection MeltdownRick Hasen

The Atlantic: With less than three weeks until the election, Bush—as the only living former Republican president—would be in a position to stand up for American democracy if Trump loses but refuses to concede, as he has threatened to… Continue reading

“Pa. has rejected 372,000 ballot applications — most of them duplicates — bewildering voters and straining officials”

October 16, 2020, 10:38 amabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

Philly Inquirer: Pennsylvania has rejected 372,000 requests for mail ballots, straining election offices and bewildering voters in one of the most hotly contested battlegrounds in the presidential election.More than 90% of those applications, or about 336,000, were denied as… Continue reading

“Twitter Changes Course After Republicans Claim ‘Election Interference’”

October 16, 2020, 10:36 amcampaigns, cheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: President Trump called Facebook and Twitter “terrible” and “a monster” and said he would go after them. Senators Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn said they would subpoena the chief executives of the companies for their… Continue reading

“An Election Without Chaos Will Be a Miracle; This year, I trained to work at the polls. I’m sure I’ll screw up.”

October 16, 2020, 10:29 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Judith Shulevitz for The Atlantic.

“G.O.P.-Appointed Judges Threaten Democracy, Liberals Seeking Court Expansion Say”

October 16, 2020, 10:24 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: Progressive activists who want Democrats to expand the Supreme Court and pack it with additional liberal justices are mustering a new argument: Republican-appointed jurists, they say, keep using their power to make it harder for Americans to vote.Backed by… Continue reading

Top Recent Downloads in Election Law on SSRN

October 16, 2020, 10:11 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Here: RankPaperDownloads1.Foreword: The Degradation of American Democracy—and the Court Michael J. KlarmanHarvard UniversityDate Posted: 31 Aug 2020Last Revised: 01 Sep 20201,9442.Mail-In Voter Fraud: Anatomy of a Disinformation Campaign Yochai Benkler, Casey Tilton, Bruce Etling… Continue reading

“If we want results on election night, this is a reform both parties should support”

October 16, 2020, 4:27 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

Glad to see the Washington Post weighing in the need for states like PA to permit processing of absentee ballots sooner than Election Day. How long have some of us been urging states to make this change? Since March, when… Continue reading

“The Strangest Election Scenario Runs Through Georgia; There’s a small but real possibility that we won’t know which party controls the Senate until 2021, thanks to a special election and a unique state requirement.”

October 15, 2020, 8:35 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Wired reports.

“White House was warned Giuliani was target of Russian intelligence operation to feed misinformation to Trump”

October 15, 2020, 7:02 pmchicaneryRick Hasen

WaPo: U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter.The warnings were… Continue reading

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The law of politics and the politics of law