“How Utah Sen. Mike Lee tried to make the scheme to overturn Trump’s election loss fit the Constitution”

January 4, 2023, 7:50 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Sen. Mike Lee often describes his political ideology as strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution. Transcripts, documents, text messages and the final report from the House Jan. 6th Committee show Lee actively tried to keep Donald… Continue reading

“All but two McCarthy defectors in House are election deniers”

January 4, 2023, 7:46 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

WaPo: All but two of the 20 Republican House members who voted against Kevin McCarthy for speaker in Tuesday’s third ballot round are election deniers who embraced former president Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Of… Continue reading

“Mark Rozzi, a Democrat-turned-independent, is now speaker of the Pa. House after a surprise vote”

January 4, 2023, 7:36 amlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

Philly Inquirer: Democrats and more than a dozen Republicans threw their support behind a consensus candidate for speaker of the Pennsylvania House on Tuesday, a surprise move some lawmakers said would help bring unity to the state capital. House lawmakers… Continue reading

“Twitter reverses longstanding ban on political advertising”

January 3, 2023, 4:49 pmcampaigns, cheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: Twitter said it was relaxing its ban on political and issue-based advertising on Tuesday, a reversal of the company’s long-standing approach to paid political speech. The policy change, which comes at a moment when major advertisers are defecting… Continue reading

“Ron Johnson advocated for GOP-controlled Legislature to choose presidential electors, new Jan. 6 documents say”

January 3, 2023, 11:40 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: New documents from the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol suggest Sen. Ron Johnson told the chairman of the state Republican Party a month after the 2020 election that the GOP-controlled… Continue reading

“McCarthy Proposes Gutting Office of Congressional Ethics in Bid for Speaker”

January 3, 2023, 10:40 amconflict of interest laws, ethics investigationsRick Hasen

Time: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spent the first two days of the new year trying to shore up GOP support for his bid to be Speaker by releasing a series of proposals aimed at winning over hard-right detractors who… Continue reading

“Don’t Blame RCV for Alameda County Election Snafu”

January 3, 2023, 8:33 amalternative voting systems, election administrationRick Hasen

Rob Richie: First, let’s understand what went wrong. According to both Oakland’s City charter and RCV election norms, if a voter skips a first-choice column or writes in an ineligible candidate, that voter’s ballot should be advanced immediately to… Continue reading

“Trying to Trademark ‘Rigged Election,’ and Other Revelations From the Jan. 6 Transcripts”

January 3, 2023, 7:00 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: The nation’s top military officer saw the Jan. 6 attack as similar to the “Reichstag moment” that led to Nazi dictatorship. Aides for former President Donald J. Trump saw their future job opportunities slipping away, and predicted being “perpetually… Continue reading

“Republicans move to retain Jan. 6 committee documents”

January 3, 2023, 6:56 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

LAT: Republicans are attempting to pass a new House rule to block materials compiled by the panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection from immediately going to the National Archives. Although the House committee investigating the insurrection has released… Continue reading

“Key battleground states are moving to change election laws ahead of ’24”

January 2, 2023, 9:14 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Politico: The 2022 election just wound down, but already states are scrambling to change election laws ahead of 2024. In Georgia, a push is underway to change or entirely scrap the state’s runoffs, while Ohio Republicans are driving toward stricter… Continue reading

“Inside the Jan. 6 committee’s massive new evidence trove”

January 2, 2023, 9:13 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Politico: The Jan. 6 select committee has unloaded a vast database of its underlying evidence — emails between Trump attorneys, text messages among horrified White House aides and outside advisers, internal communications among security and intelligence officials — all coming… Continue reading

“New data shows the folly of Trump’s crusade against early voting”

January 2, 2023, 9:10 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Politico: If there was any doubt Donald Trump’s vilification of early voting is only hurting the GOP, new receipts from the midterm elections show it. Election data from a trio of states that dramatically expanded the ability to cast ballots… Continue reading

When Kris Kobach is the Voice of Reason

January 2, 2023, 9:06 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Wow: Here are the lawyers behind the Louie Gohmert last-ditch lawsuit discussing whether to file it in DC at first. When they decide they’d likely lose there, they ultimately filed it in Texas. Kris Kobach appears to be the dissenting… Continue reading

“We Love the Bill of Rights. Can We Like a Bill of Structures”

January 2, 2023, 9:05 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Rick LaRue has written this article for ELJ. Here is the abstract: The structural pillars of the U.S. electoral system are eroding and will require repair—i.e., constitutional amendment. Problems with voting, the Electoral College, term lengths, and term limits constitute… Continue reading