Handing off blogging to Spencer Overton
Send your tips and questions to Spencer! I’m grateful for the opportunity to step in this week. And of course I’ll crop up now and again as Section 3 cases reach resolution….
German Constitutional Court decision on state subsidies to political parties
Sam Issacharoff passes along this interesting January ruling from the German Constitutional Court. It found unconstitutional an increase in state subsidies to political parties on the grounds that the parties had an obligation to prove commitment from their constituents. The… Continue reading
“How Florida Fixed Its Vote-Counting Problem After the 2000 Election”
Reason. Reminds me of this piece by Jeb Bush in the Wall Street Journal in 2020.
Clopton and Shaw on litigation and electoral time
New draft from Zachary Clopton (Northwestern) and Kate Shaw (Cardozo en route to Penn), forthcoming in the Wisconsin Law Review, is here, entitled Public Law Litigation and Electoral Time. Here’s the abstract:
Public law litigation is often politics by… Continue reading
Kokolis and Tremitiere on fusion voting
Another whitepaper at Protect Democracy by Cyrena Kokolis and Beau Tremitiere, Fusion Voting and a Revitalized Role for Minor Parties in Presidential Elections. Here’s the introduction:
The run-up to the 2024 presidential election is highlighting the deep dissatisfaction throughout… Continue reading
Mainwaring and Drutman on multiparty presidentialism
Scott Mainwaring (Notre Dame) and Lee Drutman (senior fellow at New America) have this new whitepaper at Protect Democracy, “The Case for Multiparty Presidentialism in the U.S.“:
For many Americans, anything besides our two-party electoral system is hard… Continue reading
Cervas, Grofman, Matsuda, and Kawa on partisan gerrymandering and state courts
New paper from Jonathan Cervas (Carnegie Mellon), Bernard Grofman (UC-Irvine), Scott Matsuda (NYLS), and Justine Kawa (NYLS), Partisan Gerrymandering Cases in State Supreme Courts in the 2020s Redistricting Round. The abstract:
After the U.S. Supreme Court opted out of… Continue reading
“How the battle for absentee ballots defined the Bridgeport election”
On the heels of the unusual court order for a new Democratic primary in the Bridgeport mayoral race, the Connecticut Mirror has this fascinating in-depth look at how the abstentee ballot war, at the heart of the corruption scandal,… Continue reading
“Trump confronts ‘scheduling nightmare’ as court cases collide with campaign”
Politico:
Donald Trump’s upcoming court calendar is creating a logistical headache for his presidential campaign.
“It’s a scheduling nightmare,” Trump senior adviser Susie Wiles told reporters Saturday. “There’s no way to sugarcoat that.”
Already ricocheting from the courtroom to… Continue reading
“Ron DeSantis wanted to change the way campaigns were funded. Then the fights started.”
Washington Post:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis entered the Republican presidential race with an unmatched war chest and a $269 million plan to change how campaigns are usually funded.
His first campaign manager, Generra Peck, developed the strategy and selected… Continue reading
Manheim on electoral sandbagging
Just published in the UC Irvine Law Review: Lisa Marshall Manheim (Washington), Electoral Sandbagging.
An insidious tactic threatens elections across the United States. Some refer to it as a “bait and switch.” Others recognize a form of “election sabotage.”… Continue reading
Stewart on voting machines
Charles Stewart III (MIT), Voting Machines: Friend or Foe? Here is the abstract:
Over ninety-nine percent of all ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election were counted by a computer. It is hard to imagine that underlying such a ubiquitous… Continue reading
Grewal on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act
Andy Grewal (Iowa), forthcoming in the Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum, Discriminatory Intent Claims Under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Here is the abstract:
This Article addresses a new controversy over whether Section 2 of… Continue reading
Fiss on voting rights
When I guest blog, I like to highlight some recent or forthcoming scholarship on the weekend. I’ll start here. Owen Fiss, Why We Vote, Oxford University Press (released January 2024):
In Why We Vote, renowned legal scholar Owen Fiss… Continue reading