“Turnout Was Strong in Georgia, but Mail Voting Plummets After New Law”

December 2, 2022, 7:24 amabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

NYT: While voter turnout remained strong, absentee voting in Georgia dropped off drastically in this year’s midterm election, the first major test of an expansive 2021 voting law that added restrictions for casting ballots by mail. Data released by the… Continue reading

The messy legal and practical issues behind a DNC primary calendar shuffle

December 2, 2022, 7:24 amprimariesDerek Muller

This weekend, the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee will recommend changes to the party’s delegate selection rules and primary calendar for the 2024 election. On the topic, I strongly recommend Josh Putnam’s FrontloadingHQ for all the details. There… Continue reading

“Trump expresses solidarity with Jan. 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol”

December 2, 2022, 7:21 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

WaPo: Former president Donald Trump expressed solidarity with the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, sending a video of support to a fundraising event Thursday night hosted by a group called the Patriot Freedom Project that… Continue reading

“Pennsylvania Republicans reconsider their war on mail voting”

December 2, 2022, 7:13 amabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

Politico: For the past two years, Republican officials in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania have blasted mail voting, firing off lawsuits and bills aimed at crippling the balloting method that has become increasingly popular post-pandemic. In the wake of… Continue reading

“Republicans’ Supreme Court argument on redistricting could backfire”

December 2, 2022, 7:01 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Sam Wang oped for WaPo: But if the Republicans win in the U.S. Supreme Court, the result on a national scale would almost certainly benefit Democrats. Why? Because outside North Carolina, only swing states and blue states have curbed… Continue reading

Next Week on the Blog…

December 1, 2022, 4:30 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Derek Muller will be primary ELB blogger next week. On Wednesday, December 7, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the Moore v. Harper case. I will be live blogging the audio of the oral arguments right here on… Continue reading

“Voting Without State Checks and Balances? A Close Look at the Independent State Legislature Theory”

December 1, 2022, 3:25 pmUncategorizedIndependent State Legislature Doctrine, Moore v. HarperTabatha Abu El-Haj

The New York City Bar Association hosted this excellent panel discussion, co-sponsored by the Brennan Center, in advance of next week’s oral arguments in Moore v. Harper. The panel featured Carter Phillips (Sidley Austin LLP, Counsel of Record for… Continue reading

“Cochise County complies with judge’s order and certifies election results”

December 1, 2022, 3:05 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

The latest: On Thursday, a judge ruled the board had “exceeded its lawful authority” by not certifying the election results on time and ordered the board to hold an emergency meeting by the end of the day. The judge said… Continue reading

“Voting under the Federal Constitution”

December 1, 2022, 10:09 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Travis Crum has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Oxford Handbook of American Election Law). Here is the abstract: There is no explicit, affirmative right to vote in the federal Constitution. At the Founding, the franchise was largely limited to… Continue reading

“Cochise County, after disregarding state elections law, may go to court without attorney”

December 1, 2022, 7:37 amchicanery, election subversion riskRick Hasen

Arizona Republic: Cochise County officials may go to court Thursday without an attorney to represent them against charges that they broke the law by failing to certify the results of the Nov. 8 election. County supervisors on Tuesday voted to… Continue reading

“Manchin and Klobuchar: Omnibus likely place for electoral count overhaul”

December 1, 2022, 7:25 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Roll Call: Legislation to overhaul how Congress counts presidential electoral votes should hop on the must-pass spending omnibus on its way out of the Senate, Sens. Joe Manchin III and Amy Klobuchar said Wednesday. Speaking at a National Council… Continue reading

“The Jolt: Finger-pointing starts over long waits for Georgia voters”

December 1, 2022, 7:14 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

AJC: Voters are having to wait in line for more than two hours at some crowded voting locations before casting a ballot in the U.S. Senate runoff, a consequence of both high turnout and a shorter early voting period, The… Continue reading

“The Bottom-Up Election-Denial Strategy; It’s wrong, it seems illegal, and it’s probably not going to work. For now.”

December 1, 2022, 7:11 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Elaine Godfrey for The Atlantic: Something that became very clear in 2020 is that America’s election system relies not on spelled-out rules and regulations, but on human beings acting honestly. Before 2016, the certification process was not used as a… Continue reading

“Why the voting machines failed in Mercer County”

December 1, 2022, 7:07 amvoting technologyRick Hasen

Andrew Appel: On Election Day, November 8, 2022, every voting machine in every polling place in Mercer County, New Jersey failed to work. Voters in each precinct filled in the ovals in their preprinted optical-scan paper ballots, but the voting… Continue reading