“Democrats: Don’t reject GOP offer to fix electoral count law”

January 12, 2022, 8:23 pmUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Kevin Johnson has this op-ed in The Hill: While healthy skepticism of GOP motives is certainly justified, Democrats are wrong not to take up the offer to fix the ECA. Voting rights are important, but the rhetoric behind prioritizing the… Continue reading

“How the Voting Rights Bills Miss the Target on Election Subversion”

January 12, 2022, 8:22 pmUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Nate Cohn criticizes the FTVA and the JLVRAA (now merged into a new megabill) for not thwarting election subversion. However, the megabill does now include a substantial number of anti-subversion provisions. And while it doesn’t reform the Electoral Count Act,… Continue reading

How to guarantee the right to cast a ballot?

January 12, 2022, 4:05 pmelection subversion risk, NVRA (motor voter), provisional ballots, voter registration, votingNed Foley

I have seen a lot a skepticism lately about relying on courts to protect the equal right of eligible voters to participate in an election by casting a ballot and having it counted accurately. But unless Congress is going to… Continue reading

Breaking: Ohio Supreme Court Rejects Redistricting Plans, Orders New Maps Drawn

January 12, 2022, 12:46 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Ohio Supreme Court tweet. Opinion. {¶ 1} Respondent Ohio Redistricting Commission adopted a General Assembly–district plan in September 2021 to be effective for the next four years. The complaints in these three cases allege that the plan… Continue reading

What should happen to 2020’s renegade presidential electors?

January 12, 2022, 8:53 amelectoral collegeDerek Muller

The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol has been digging into the renegade electoral votes submitted by some Republicans in some states that President Joe Biden carried in 2020. POLITICO links to some PDFs of … Continue reading

“The Big Lie’s Long Shadow”

January 12, 2022, 7:20 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

FiveThirtyEight feature about the innumerable voting restrictions being proposed at the state level. It’s notable that these restrictions are supposedly being advanced to build voter confidence in elections — but there’s no evidence that voter confidence actually improves as a… Continue reading

ECA reform & Article II

January 12, 2022, 7:04 amelection subversion riskNed Foley

Nick has posted Larry Lessig’s Slate piece arguing that it’s necessary to put the brakes on ECA reform because of the risk that the Supreme Court will embrace the so-called “independent state legislature doctrine” to authorize state legislatures to appoint… Continue reading

“Financing of Races for Offices that Oversee Elections: January 2022”

January 12, 2022, 6:58 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

New Brennan Center report on fundraising by candidates for secretary of state — including several who deny the validity of the 2020 election results. Of the six battleground states with secretary of state elections in 2022 (AZ, GA, MI, MN,… Continue reading

“A Voting Rights Push, as States Make Voting Harder”

January 12, 2022, 6:23 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

NYT analysis of President Biden’s big voting rights speech yesterday: To that end, Mr. Biden called for ending the 60-vote threshold for voting rights bills, a step he opposed taking during his campaign and resisted throughout most of the first… Continue reading

“You Can’t Judge a District Just by Looking at It”

January 12, 2022, 6:19 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Duy Nguyen makes the now-familiar point that district compactness is a poor proxy for redistricting values we actually care about like partisan fairness, minority representation, and competition. Over the past two centuries, the quickest way to spot a gerrymandered map… Continue reading

“Congress’ Plan to Protect the 2024 Election From Sabotage Has One Huge Flaw”

January 12, 2022, 6:16 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Larry Lessig writes that reform of the Electoral Count Act shouldn’t be rushed and should try to address the problem posed by the independent state legislature doctrine — namely, that state legislatures might claim constitutional authority to miscount or falsely… Continue reading

“Corporate Political Spending is Bad Business: How to Minimize the Risks and Focus on What Counts”

January 12, 2022, 6:12 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Leo Strine and Dorothy Lund have a new article on the problems created by corporate political spending. In our article, Corporate Political Spending is Bad Business, we explore the deep problems that corporate political spending poses for corporations and… Continue reading

Breaking: Unanimous 3-Judge North Carolina Trial Court Rejects Partisan Gerrymandering Challenge to New Districts; Case Proceeds Next to State Supreme Court, Where It May Fare Better

January 11, 2022, 1:47 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

You can find 260 page opinion at this link.

Can states exclude from the ballot congressional candidates they deem lack the qualifications for office?

January 11, 2022, 4:44 amelection administrationDerek Muller

Some private plaintiffs have sued to try to exclude Representative Madison Cawthorn from the North Carolina congressional ballot on the grounds that he engaged in “engaged in insurrection or rebellion,” which disqualifies him from office under the Fourteenth Amendment.… Continue reading