How Many Votes Are Likely at Stake in the PA Litigation Over Absentee Ballots for Which the RNC is Seeking Supreme Court Review?

October 26, 2024, 6:32 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

As Rick Hasen blogged yesterday, the RNC is going to seek Supreme Court action, based on the independent state legislature doctrine, of the PA Supreme Court decision in the Genser case. As his post explains, the PA court held that… Continue reading

Cass Sunstein on How the Electoral Count Reform Act Protects the Integrity of the Presidential Election

October 26, 2024, 4:06 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

This is from the WSJ, which is paywalled. Here’s an excerpt: The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, which amended the Electoral Count Act of 1887 … greatly reduces the risk of uncertainty and chaos after Americans vote… The Electoral… Continue reading

“Election Officials Face Torrent of Threats as Nov. 5 Looms”

October 25, 2024, 3:15 pmchicanery, election administrationRick Hasen

NYT: With less than two weeks until Election Day, law enforcement officials are confronting a rising wave of threats to election workers and political activists in a presidential contest hurtling toward a bitterly contentious coda and a potentially unsettled aftermath.… Continue reading

“Lancaster County officials hold onto crucial details of investigation over ‘fraudulent’ voter registration applications”

October 25, 2024, 3:10 pmchicanery, voter registrationRick Hasen

LNP: Thousands of voter registration applications submitted to the Lancaster County elections office are being reviewed because some of them may be fraudulent, District Attorney Heather Adams announced Friday. At a news conference alongside the Lancaster County Board of… Continue reading

Fifth Circuit in Bonkers Opinion Holds It Violates Federal Law for Miss. to Accept Ballots Postmarked by Election Day But Arriving After Election Day; Decision (for Now) Won’t Be Applied to This Year’s Election (Which Has Already Started)

October 25, 2024, 2:22 pmabsentee ballotsRick Hasen

You can find the opinion here, coming from the most radical panel of the judges on the Fifth Circuit (and that of course is saying something). I am on multiple deadlines, so a full analysis of the merits will… Continue reading

“Language Access and Voting Rights: An Overview of Federal, State, and Local Policies”

October 25, 2024, 1:52 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

New report from Angelo Ancheta of Demos.

State Legislatures Can No Longer Declare the Election to Have “Failed” in Their State Due to Natural Disasters and Then Appoint Electors

October 25, 2024, 12:59 pmUncategorizedRichard Pildes

One of the major (but less -well appreciated) accomplishments of the new, bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act is that it repealed the provision in federal law that permitted state legislatures to appoint electors if the presidential election had “failed” in… Continue reading

Republicans Plan to Go to U.S. Supreme Court Raising Independent State Legislature Theory to Seek to Block Pennsylvania Supreme Court Ruling Requiring Counting of Certain Provisional Ballots

October 25, 2024, 11:47 amabsentee ballots, legislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Are we about to see the Supreme Court weigh back into the application of the independent state legislature theory? Back on Wednesday, I wrote about a divided ruling of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that required the counting of provisional ballots… Continue reading

“Freedom Caucus leader says North Carolina should consider giving Trump its electors before votes are counted”

October 25, 2024, 9:49 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Politico: The chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus says the North Carolina legislature should consider allocating the state’s presidential electors to Donald Trump even before votes are counted in the swing state. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said Thursday that… Continue reading

I Spoke to the Diane Rehm Show: “How Secure is the 2024 Election?”

October 25, 2024, 9:39 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

You can listen here.

“Meet the Pennsylvania nuns falsely accused of voter fraud”

October 25, 2024, 8:24 amfraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

CNN: For a Republican canvasser going door-to-door to get out the vote in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, the address on East Lake Road in Erie must have seemed like Heaven-sent evidence of the sort of widespread voter fraud many… Continue reading

“A federal judge pauses Virginia’s voter removal program until after Election Day” (Governor Says He Will Appeal to 4th Circuit Next)

October 25, 2024, 8:23 amvoter registrationRick Hasen

NPR reports.

Report: About 252,000 Texans Lack Voter ID and Would Need to Fill Out a Reasonable Impediment Declaration to Vote (and More Stats on Georgia)

October 25, 2024, 8:22 amvoter idRick Hasen

See here. And in Georgia: “About 76,000 Georgian adult citizens (1%), do not have any of the documents they need to vote in Georgia.”

“Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC awards more $1 million prizes despite DOJ warning”

October 25, 2024, 7:48 amDepartment of Justice, vote buyingRick Hasen

WaPo: Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s pro-Trump political group awarded two additional $1 million prizes to swing-state voters Thursday night, despite warnings from the Justice Department that the daily giveaways could violate election laws. The day before, the Justice Department had … Continue reading

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The law of politics and the politics of law