A number of items have recently arrived, which I’ll note here briefly.
1. The latest issue of PS: Political Science and Politics is a must read for students of election law. In addition to Benjamin Highton’s articles on voter turnout during the 2004 presidential election Ohio counties with long lines (posted for free here) and Baodong Liu’s article on biracial voting coalitions in New Orleans (posted for free here), the issue features a debate between Alan Abramowitz, Brad Alexander, and Matthew Gunning on the one hand and Michael McDonald on the other on whether redistricting is responsible for the lack of competitive elections. UPDATE: I neglected to mention yet another article in the must-read January issue of PS: Thomas J. Brunell, Rethinking Redistricting: How Drawing Uncompetitive Districts Eliminates Gerrymanders, Enhances Representation, and Improves Attitudes toward Congress. Sorry about that.
2. Michael Dimino has written Counter-Majoritarian Power and Judges’ Political Speech, 58 Florida Law Review 53 (2006).
3. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission has issued its FY 2005 Annual Report.
4. The Voting Rights Initiative at the University of Michigan Law School has issued its Final Report, “Documenting Discrimination in Voting: Judicial Findings Under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act since 1982.
5. Michael Carrier has written, “Vote Counting, Technology, and Unintended Consequences, 79 St. John’s Law Review 645 (2005).
6. Albert May has written, “Swift Boat Vets in 2004: Press Coverage of an Independent Campaign, 4 University of North Carolina First Amendment Law Review 66 (2005).
7. Michael Pitts has written, “Let’s Not Call the Whole Thing Off Just Yet: A Response to Samuel Issacharoff’s Suggestion to Scuttle Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,” 84 Nebraska Law Review 605 (2005).