“How Elon Musk Has Planted Himself Almost Literally at Trump’s Doorstep; For much of the period since Election Day, the billionaire has been staying at a $2,000-a-night cottage at Mar-a-Lago, giving him easy access to the president-elect.”

December 31, 2024, 6:36 amcampaign finance, Plutocrats UnitedRick Hasen

NYT: Elon Musk plays many roles with President-elect Donald J. Trump. He is Mr. Trump’s most important donor, most influential social media promoter and a key adviser on policy and personnel. For most of the time since Election Day, he… Continue reading

“Vote-swapping returned in 2024 amid protest movement, but fell short of its aims again”

December 31, 2024, 6:29 amvote buyingRick Hasen

Votebeat: Progressives determined to defeat Donald Trump but unsatisfied with Kamala Harris’s position on the war in Gaza were offered an 11th-hour voting option this year: In October, a group called Swap Your Vote began offering to match voters in… Continue reading

REN webinar on new book

December 30, 2024, 6:15 pmUncategorizedNed Foley

Reform Elections Now hosted a webinar on Electoral Reform in the United States:Proposals for Combating Polarization and Extremism (edited by Larry Diamond, Rick Pildes, and me.). This webinar offers a useful introduction and overview of the book’s content and includes… Continue reading

“State Law and Federal Elections After Moore v. Harper”

December 30, 2024, 4:11 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Carolyn Shapiro has written this article for the NYU Law Review. Here is the abstract: In Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court rejected the extreme proposition that state legislatures operate free from state constitutional constraints and judicial review when they… Continue reading

“Elon Musk’s Political Influence Wears Down Global Resistance to Starlink”

December 30, 2024, 4:06 pmPlutocrats UnitedRick Hasen

Bloomberg reports.

“The 118th Congress passed the fewest laws in decades”

December 30, 2024, 3:54 pmlegislation and legislatures, political polarizationRick Hasen

Axios: If measured by the number of bills signed into law, the 118th Congress was by far the most unproductive since at least the 1980s, according to data from public affairs firm Quorum. Why it matters: That is not the… Continue reading

Remembering Jimmy Carter and His Legacy for Election Law

December 30, 2024, 7:48 amelection administration, election law bizRick Hasen

President Jimmy Carter died at 100. He was a moral, decent man, committed to the cause of justice. One of his passions was for democracy. His work with the Carter Center helped to ensure fair elections around the world. He… Continue reading

“Some Justice Department Lawyers Look for Protection—and the Exits”

December 30, 2024, 7:33 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

WSJ: ustice Department lawyers who have angered President-elect Donald Trump and his allies are facing tough decisions about whether to stay in government—and how to best protect themselves from threats of retribution after Inauguration Day. Dozens of prosecutors and agents… Continue reading

“Kansas once required voters to prove citizenship. That didn’t work out so well”

December 30, 2024, 7:32 amelection administration, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

AP: Republicans made claims about illegal voting by noncitizens a centerpiece of their 2024 campaign messaging and plan to push legislation in the new Congress requiring voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Yet there’s one place with a GOP… Continue reading

Sixth Circuit finds no standing for Michigan legislators to challenge ballot initiative under Elections Clause

December 27, 2024, 10:46 amElections Clause, voter initiativesDerek Muller

Opinion in Lindsey v. Whitmer by Chief Judge Sutton, joined by Judges Bush and Murphy (excerpts lightly revised): In 2022, voters passed Proposal 2, which created new voter-identification options, state-funded prepaid postage for absentee ballots, secure ballot drop boxes, and… Continue reading

“A Razor-Thin House Majority Creates Headaches for Republicans”

December 27, 2024, 8:03 amlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

WSJ: They won, but barely. Republicans held on to control of the House of Representatives in November by one of the thinnest margins in the country’s history—even smaller than in the current Congress—a result that will have them walking a… Continue reading

“This Was the Year of the Influencer Political Takeover”

December 27, 2024, 7:29 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Wired: After years of sitting on the sidelines, content creators became a part of the mainstream political media this year, delivering election news, analysis, and political commentary to their online fans—all while sidestepping the traditional press. Eighty-one-year-old Joe Biden… Continue reading

“The Hill criticized for op-ed urging Congress to block Trump from taking office: ‘You people are sick'” (Spoiler: Congressional Democrats have already rejected doing this)

December 27, 2024, 6:57 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Fox News: Opinion columnists for The Hill called on Congress to invoke the 14th Amendment disqualification to block President-elect Trump from taking office next month. In a column published Thursday, Evan A. Davis and David M. Schulte argued that the 14th… Continue reading

“The Year of the AI Election Wasn’t Quite What Everyone Expected; Deepfakes were nothing like the political force in 2024 that many feared—but that doesn’t mean that generative AI didn’t profoundly affect elections all over the world.”

December 26, 2024, 10:51 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Wired reports: Earlier this year, WIRED launched the AI Elections Project to track instances of AI in elections around the world. An analysis of the WIRED AI Elections Project published by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University… Continue reading