Political Parties—A Fresh Look

February 27, 2025, 6:42 ampolitical parties, third partiesTabatha Abu El-Haj

We have a political party that was elected in part because Americans are concerned about the price of groceries. Now that they hold three branches of government, their primary budget goal is to maintain and extend tax breaks that overwhelmingly… Continue reading

Bezos Announces New Policy for Washington Post’s Opinion Pages. Orbán Playbook?

February 27, 2025, 6:33 amPlutocrats UnitedAutocracyTabatha Abu El-Haj

From the Washington Post: “Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos said Wednesday that the newspaper’s opinions section would now be focused on “personal liberties and free markets” and won’t publish anything that opposes those ideas.” For now, it appears that Bezos… Continue reading

“Unduly Burdensome Public Records Requests and their Effects on Local Election Officials”

February 26, 2025, 1:11 pmchicanery, election administrationRick Hasen

New report from EVIC.

“Indiana Republicans Move to Ban Student IDs for Voting”

February 26, 2025, 1:09 pmvoter idRick Hasen

Bolts: Daniel Jenkins has volunteered to boost voter turnout on Indiana University’s Bloomington campus since becoming a student there in 2022. Jenkins, now a junior studying political science, has spent years helping other students fill out voter registration forms and… Continue reading

“In Crucial Judicial Race in Wisconsin, G.O.P. Now Has a Financial Edge”

February 26, 2025, 7:46 amcampaign finance, judicial electionsRick Hasen

NYT: The last time Wisconsin held an election for the state’s Supreme Court, Republicans cried foul over the wave of money from out-of-state Democrats that overwhelmed their candidate. Two years later, Republicans have learned their lesson. It is Democrats who… Continue reading

“Universal vote by mail is popular in Utah. GOP lawmakers continue to move away from it in a revised bill.”

February 26, 2025, 7:37 amabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

NJ Appellate Court Upholds State’s Ban on Fusion Candidacies

February 26, 2025, 6:50 amthird partiesFusion, state courtsTabatha Abu El-Haj

The New Jersey Appellate Division held that the state’s ban on fusion candidacies does not violate the State Constitution. New Jersey, like other states, prohibits a candidate for public office from appearing on a ballot as the nominee for multiple… Continue reading

Divided Ninth Circuit finds Congress holds power to regulate presidential elections as it does congressional elections

February 26, 2025, 3:31 amcourt decisions, Elections ClauseDerek Muller

Justin helpfully runs through the major elements of the Ninth Circuit’s holding in Mi Familia Vota v. Fontes, but I wanted to highlight a divide in the opinion I wrote about back in 2022 just as this bill was introduced … Continue reading

Antebellum fusion

February 25, 2025, 4:20 pmballot access, political partiesJustin Levitt

Justin again. I had the “pleasure” of teaching Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party again yesterday. Timmons was a federal constitutional challenge to “anti-fusion” laws: laws preventing two parties on the ballot from nominating the same candidate (and thereby… Continue reading

9th Circuit affirms limits on AZ proof of citizenship laws

February 25, 2025, 3:50 pmabsentee ballots, election administration, NVRA (motor voter), The Voting Wars, voter registrationproof of citizenshipJustin Levitt

Justin here. A 9th Circuit panel is out with 156 pages’ worth of opinion in Mi Familia Vota v. Fontes, the latest in the battles revolving around Arizona’s laws requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote. There’s (obviously) quite a… Continue reading

“State Election Officials Seek to Avert Deeper Cuts”

February 25, 2025, 6:57 amchicanery, election administrationRick Hasen

NYT: Alarmed by cuts already made to federal agencies that help safeguard elections, and fearful that more could be coming, a bipartisan group of the nation’s top state election officials has appealed to Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security,… Continue reading

“Before Ascending to Top Tier of F.B.I., Bongino Fueled Right-Wing Disbelief”

February 25, 2025, 6:51 amchicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: On a recent episode of his wildly popular podcast, the right-wing provocateur Dan Bongino asserted that he would soon be able to show that pipe bombs found near the Capitol the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack were… Continue reading

Connecticut: “Arrest warrants detail charges of voter fraud in Bridgeport”

February 25, 2025, 6:49 amabsentee ballots, chicaneryRick Hasen

CT Mirror: State prosecutors took a big step Friday when they charged five Bridgeport Democrats with more than 150 election-related crimes, but arrest warrants suggest the sprawling investigation into voter fraud and ballot harvesting might not end there. The charges,… Continue reading

Department of Insanity (and Inanity): “Warner, Who Said CIA Stole Election, Now Leads DOJ Civil Rights”

February 24, 2025, 9:53 amchicanery, Department of Justice, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

Bloomberg Law: The Justice Department has inserted Mac Warner, who last year espoused false claims that the CIA stole Trump’s 2020 presidential victory with the FBI’s help, to run the civil rights division, replacing an ousted career official who’s started… Continue reading