“When are the Iowa caucuses? Great question.”
POLITICO examines all the uncertainties still surrounding the presidential primary calendar. Despite the headline, it’s not just Iowa that’s unsettled, but other states as well.
“How AI Puts Elections at Risk — And the Needed Safeguards”
Brennan Center analysis. I share the concern about disinformation, including the capacity for AI to produce more effective deceptions. But I also continue to believe, as I wrote in 2020, that it is essential to maintain a clear distinction… Continue reading
“No Labels likely to back off third party bid if DeSantis emerges as GOP nominee”
POLITICO has an interesting and potentially significant report on the criteria and methodology No Labels will use in deciding whether or not to back a third-party presidential candidacy. No Labels claims it will field its own presidential ticket only if… Continue reading
“Ohio Supreme Court orders partial rewrite of ballot language for constitution issue”
Columbus Dispatch. Similar story in Washington Post. The fight over the August special election to change Ohio’s direct democracy procedures for amending the state’s constitution, including raising the threshold for adoption from a majority to a 60% supermajority, is… Continue reading
“Self-Districting: The Ultimate Antidote to Gerrymandering”
Page proofs are now available, and posted on SSRN, for my article proposing an alternative districting system in which voters choose the constituencies they wish to join for purposes of legislative representation, rather than having government officials draw the… Continue reading
“Partisan Gerrymandering as a Threat to Multiracial Democracy”
Bertrall Ross’s essay is published in Southwestern Law Review (vol. 50, page 509) and also available on SSRN. Here’s the abstract:
In Common Cause v. Rucho, the Supreme Court initiated an era of redistricting without restraint. The Court opened… Continue reading
“Wisconsin’s top elections official for 2024 uncertain as incumbent’s term nears end”
AP reports. Keep an eye on this important story as it develops. Wisconsin is the state most likely to be the one that determines which side reaches 270 in the Electoral College next year, and the administration of the voting… Continue reading
“Voting Rights Just Got a Second Surprise Win in Alabama”
Bolts story on the failure of a bill in the state legislature to criminalize assistance with absentee voting, noting that the bill could be reconsidered in the legislature next year.
“John Roberts Just Told Congress How to Fix Bad Supreme Court Decisions”
David Gans in Slate on Allen v. Milligan as a template for the exercise of Congress’s power to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment more broadly that the Court construes it. I detect some tension between this piece and Rick Hasen’s one … Continue reading
“Trump vows to appoint special prosecutor to ‘go after’ Biden if former president wins in 2024”
The Hill reports on Trump’s latest promise of revenge. Like so many previous examples of not-surprising-but-still-shocking breaches of important norms, this crosses yet another line of impropriety dangerous to democracy. What will it take to bring the United States back… Continue reading
My New One at Slate: “There Are Still Two Major Legal Threats to the Voting Rights Act”
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins:
Last week’s voting rights decision in Allen v. Milligan was surprisingly good news: rather than hobble or destroy the existing protections for minority voters to elect their candidates of choice… Continue reading
“Why the Supreme Court Declined an Opportunity to Diminish the Voting Rights Act”
Isaac Chotiner of the New Yorker did this Q&A about Milligan with Ruth Greenwood:
So, yes, I am completely shocked. There is no version of what happened today that I had predicted. We had fifteen different possible outcomes about how… Continue reading
“‘It’s like mob rule here’: Ravalli County panelists claim 2020 election fraud”
Electionline picked up this disturbing story about election denialism in Montana. We’ve all read a lot of similar stories over the last few years, but this one is current and particularly striking in the details of the town meeting where… Continue reading
The constitutional analysis in Allen v. Milligan
One argument raised by Alabama in its brief in Allen v. Milligan was that Section 2 is unconstitutional–at least, unconstitutional if Gingles were interpreted the way the trial court interpreted it. That prompted the bulk of concerned reaction in a… Continue reading