“Occupational Hazard: A Critique of California’s Ballot Designation Statute”

April 14, 2022, 6:44 amelection administrationRick Hasen

Peter Nemerovksi has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Journal of Legislation). Here is the abstract: In 1931, California amended its Political Code to allow candidates for office to list their occupations on the ballot. This ballot designation statute was… Continue reading

An Electoral Game-Changer?

April 13, 2022, 6:23 pmalternative voting systems, UncategorizedNed Foley

Election Law at Ohio State is pleased to host a webinar An Electoral Game-Changer?: What if Ohio (and other states) used Alaska’s new Ranked Choice Voting system? (You can click on the webinar’s title for full information and a link.)… Continue reading

Read Sue Halpern in the New Yorker on Marc Elias’s Controversial Litigation Strategies

April 13, 2022, 6:17 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Here‘s a snippet: Elias’s blitzkrieg litigation strategy has proved divisive among Democrats and others concerned with protecting the right to vote. Bringing so many voting-rights and redistricting cases to court, especially at a time when the judiciary is becoming… Continue reading

New Book Reports Mitch McConnell Knew of Trump’s Plan to Subvert the 2020 Election in December, But Said Nothing Because of Fear of Losing Georgia Senate Runoffs

April 13, 2022, 11:59 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

CNN: In the weeks after he lost the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump had a plan to stay in office — and he wanted Mitch McConnell to know about it.If Trump could successfully pressure Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to … Continue reading

“How Bad Could Things Get for the Voting Rights Act? The Supreme Court Just Gave Us a Preview.”

April 13, 2022, 11:34 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Mike Parsons and Joshua Sellers at the Harvard Law Review Blog.

Wisconsin: “Michael Gableman, leader of the GOP’s review of the 2020 vote, disparages state’s election director for how she dresses”

April 13, 2022, 8:44 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: When Republican attorney Michael Gableman took to the airwaves Tuesday, he didn’t just attack the governor, the attorney general, two judges and five members of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission.He also took a shot at how… Continue reading

Mark Meadows News: “Former NC congressman, chief of staff to Trump removed from state voter rolls”

April 13, 2022, 8:28 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

WRAL: Former President Donald Trump’s closest White House adviser has been removed from North Carolina’s voter rolls by Macon County elections officials, according to the NC State Board of Elections.The development comes after news reports revealed that Meadows, who… Continue reading

Republican, Democratic fundraising for election litigation tops $82 million in 2021

April 13, 2022, 7:29 amcampaign financeDerek Muller

I’ve chronicled how the 2015 “Cromnibus” bill appears to have contributed to a sharp increase in spending on election litigation. The bill allowed additional contributions to “election recounts and contests and other legal proceedings,” above and beyond individual candidate campaign… Continue reading

“New efforts seek to build trust in elections, in the face of a still-thriving 2020 election denier community”

April 13, 2022, 7:03 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Steven Rosenfeld: As 2022’s primaries approach, an unprecedented wave of public and private efforts are underway to foster trust in election operations and election officials in response to ongoing claims by Donald Trump and his supporters, including many officeholders… Continue reading

“New Brennan Center analyses: Sponsors of anti-voter bills and their election denialism; failed Trump campaign lawsuits and related anti-voter bills”

April 13, 2022, 6:56 amchicanery, election subversion risk, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

Release: Today the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law published a pair of analyses tracing post-2020 paths of the misinformation and conspiracy theories spread by the former president and his allies about voting and the 2020 election.One analysis looks… Continue reading

“Mark Zuckerberg Ends Election Grants”

April 13, 2022, 6:53 amelection administrationRick Hasen

NYT: Mark Zuckerberg, who donated nearly half a billion dollars to election offices across the nation in 2020 and drew criticism from conservatives suspicious of his influence on the presidential election, won’t be making additional grants this year, a spokesman… Continue reading

Guy Charles in Balkinization Symposium on My “Cheap Speech” Book: “Giving the People What They Want: Supplying the Demand for Disinformation”

April 13, 2022, 6:35 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Guy’s contribution begins: Political disinformation, the subject of Rick Hasen’s latest book, Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons our Politics–and How to Cure it, is one of the most important and vexing problems currently facing American democracy. The opening chapter… Continue reading

“Grumet: See you in court? For abortion, yes. Voting rights, maybe not.”

April 13, 2022, 6:32 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

Bridget Grumet column in the Austin American-Statesman: Funny. I thought our state leaders wanted regular Texans to help enforce the important stuff.Like that time Gov. Greg Abbott urged “members of the general public” to call ChildProtective Services to report… Continue reading

“In Conference Call Before Riot, a Plea to ‘Descend on the Capitol’

April 12, 2022, 1:32 pmchicanery, election subversion risk, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

NYT: One week before an angry mob stormed the Capitol, a communications expert named Jason Sullivan, a onetime aide to Roger J. Stone Jr., joined a conference call with a group of President Donald J. Trump’s… Continue reading

Election Law Blog

The law of politics and the politics of law