Arizona: “Maricopa County Chairman moved to ‘undisclosed location’ for safety after midterm elections”

November 21, 2022, 7:31 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

FOX 10 Phoenix: Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates has confirmed that he moved to an undisclosed location for his safety after security concerns connected to the 2022 midterm elections. Deputies from the sheriff’s office are also providing a security… Continue reading

New Zealand: “Supreme Court rules in favour of lowering voting age to 16 in case by ‘Make it 16′ group”

November 21, 2022, 7:27 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

News from New Zealand.

“Associational Party-Building: A Path to Rebuilding Democracy”

November 21, 2022, 6:34 ampolitical parties, political polarization, UncategorizedNew ScholarshipTabatha Abu El-Haj

Didi Kuo (Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University) and I are excited to share our new article, Associational Party-Building: A Path to Rebuilding Democracy, which is out today in the Columbia Law Review Forum.… Continue reading

“Kari Lake Claims Her Voters Were Disenfranchised. Her Voters Tell a Different Story.”

November 20, 2022, 8:31 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: When he stepped inside a Phoenix polling place on the morning of Election Day on the way to work, Kevin Bembry was told that the tabulation machines were not functioning properly and he might want to vote somewhere… Continue reading

What role, if any, might turnout play in explaining the pattern of backlash to the President’s party in the first midterm of their presidency?

November 20, 2022, 5:28 amUncategorized2022 Election Cycle, voter turnoutTabatha Abu El-Haj

Almost exactly a year ago, I expressed skepticism that the Republican Party’s wins in Bucks County in the off-cycle 2021 election “amount[ed] to the GOP roaring back to life in the Pennsylvania suburbs.” In that post, I grumbled that:… Continue reading

Based on popular demand, Trump to return to Twitter

November 20, 2022, 4:34 amcheap speech, chicaneryTwitterTabatha Abu El-Haj

N.Y. Times and everyone is reporting on Elon Musk’s decision to reinstate Trump after polling Twitter. It is so nice to finally have an answer, after all these years, to who “the people” are: 15 million Twitter users.… Continue reading

Petitioners’ Bizarre Answer in Moore v. Harper Reply Brief About How States Can Rein in Partisan Gerrymandering

November 19, 2022, 4:01 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Petitioners in Moore v. Harper argue that state supreme courts cannot apply state constitutional provisions limiting partisan gerrymandering to stop state legislatures from gerrymandering congressional districts. Doing so, they argue, would usurp the power of the legislature which “alone” has… Continue reading

“Leaked call shows clash between Kari Lake campaign and Maricopa County”

November 19, 2022, 3:42 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

WaPo: On Friday night, a Twitter account associated with Lake’s campaign posted a video of a portion of the call that captures Liddy cursing and raising his voice. The Lake campaign did not respond to a request for the full… Continue reading

Bill Marshall’s Review of My Cheap Speech Book in the First Amendment Law Review

November 19, 2022, 3:40 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

Grateful for this review from William P. Marshall, Cheap Speech, Freedom of Speech, and the War Against Disinformation, 20 First Amendment L. Rev 418 (2022): CHEAP SPEECH is an effort to grapple with the challenges posed by this flood… Continue reading

NC Chooses Most Extreme Position on Independent State Legislature Theory

November 19, 2022, 9:15 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

When NC filed its opening brief in the independent state legislature case, Moore v. Harper, I commented on this blog that NC’s brief wavered between taking (1) the extreme position that state courts cannot impose any substantive limits on state… Continue reading

“Ohio Republicans launch effort to make citizen-led amendments harder to pass for voters”

November 19, 2022, 4:45 amdirect democracyEntrenchmentTabatha Abu El-Haj

Ohio Capitol Journal reports on a new push to limit direct democracy in Ohio. Following in South Dakota’s footsteps, and just a little over a week after Election Day, Ohio Republicans are talking about pushing an initiative that would… Continue reading

Pennsylvania Update

November 19, 2022, 4:39 amUncategorized2022 Election CycleTabatha Abu El-Haj

Philadelphia 3.0 ended the week with an election round-up. First, it notes, that youth voters seem to have tipped the election toward Fetterman: “According to data from CIRCLE at Tufts University, voters under 29 netted John Fetterman 120,000 votes of… Continue reading

Breaking News–GA Trial Court Rules Voting May Proceed on Saturday, Nov. 26, in the GA Senate runoff election

November 18, 2022, 4:46 pmUncategorized2022 Election Cycle, early voting, Georgia RunoffTabatha Abu El-Haj

Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that a Georgia Trial court has granted the Democratic Party and Warnock Campaign’s request for a declaratory judgment and injunction to allow for early voting on Saturday, November 26. Order is embedded in the article. “Fulton… Continue reading

Reply Brief Filed in Moore v. Harper Case Before Supreme Court Oral Argument Dec. 7; Petitioners Make Clear that ISL Theory Should Not Be Used to Steal Elections

November 18, 2022, 1:40 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Here’s the brief. And here’s the relevant fn: 14 Some of Respondents’ amici make the scurrilous suggestion that Petitioners’ interpretation would enable state legislatures to change the result of a Presidential election by replacingpopularly chosen electors with their own slate.… Continue reading