“Communicating with Voters to Build Trust in the U.S. Election System: Best Practices and New Areas of Research”

October 31, 2023, 8:30 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

New piece from OLIVIER BERGERON-BOUTIN • KATHERINE CLAYTON • THAD KOUSSER • BRENDAN NYHAN • LAUREN PRATHER. Summary: The stability of democracy depends in part on public belief in the legitimacy of elections, which has been called into question in… Continue reading

“Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Equality, Proportionality, and Our Abridged Voting Rights Regime”

October 31, 2023, 8:25 amalternative voting systemsRick Hasen

New from Michael Latner. Abstract: What constraints should the protection of political equality place on the design of electoral systems? With the exception of requiring approximate population equality across a jurisdiction’s districts, the U.S. voting rights regime accepts substantial disproportionality… Continue reading

Watch Archived Video of Safeguarding Democracy Project Conference: “The Law and Politics of Potentially Disqualifying Donald Trump from Running for President”

October 30, 2023, 5:01 pmballot access, election subversion riskRick Hasen

This virtual conference took place October 20. It was a great set of discussions with Julia Azari, Guy Charles, Edward B. Foley, Mark Graber, Rebecca Green, Gretchen Helmke, Sherrilyn Ifill, Sam Issacharoff, Kurt Lash, Lisa Manheim, Derek Muller, and Daniel… Continue reading

ELB Podcast 5:3: The Trump Prosecutions, the First Amendment, and Election Interference (Genevieve Lakier and Eugene Volokh)

October 30, 2023, 2:00 pmELB Podcast, election subversion risk, ethics investigations, First Amendment theoryRick Hasen

New ELB Podcast: Do gag orders against presidential candidate Donald Trump in his civil or criminal trials violate the First Amendment? What should we make of Trump’s claims that his actions to overturn the results of the 2020 elections are… Continue reading

“Pence joins Republicans eviscerated by contradicting Trump’s election lies”

October 30, 2023, 9:44 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

CNN: The rise of Rep. Mike Johnson in the House, coupled with the fall of former Vice President Mike Pence and the dominance of ex-President Donald Trump, shows that 2020 election denialism is a prerequisite for winning Republican power.… Continue reading

“Youngkin ‘purge’ removed nearly 3,400 legal Virginia voters from rolls”

October 30, 2023, 9:35 amfelon votingRick Hasen

WaPo: Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s elections team has admitted in the run-up to pivotal General Assembly elections that it removed nearly 3,400 qualified voters from the state’s rolls, far higher than the administration’s previous estimate of 270. Elections officials under Youngkin… Continue reading

“In Mississippi, most voters will have no choice about who represents them in the Legislature”

October 30, 2023, 7:44 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

AP: After being in office for over a decade, Mississippi state Sen. Dean Kirby got challenged in the Republican primary. He won with 70% of the vote. That was in 2003 — and it remains the last time Kirby faced… Continue reading

“Danger in Plain Sight: The Risk of Triggering a Contingent Election in 2024”

October 30, 2023, 7:43 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Beau Tremitiere and Aisha Woodward at Lawfare.

“Most Republicans say Trump didn’t even try to overturn the election”

October 30, 2023, 7:32 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Aaron Blake: Earlier this year, we learned about how the American political right’s most trusted news outlet proactively aired claims that its higher-ups understood to be baseless and false, and resisted fact-checking them. Fox News’s viewers were sold a fantasy… Continue reading

One year later – “What the litigation path of eligibility challenges to Donald Trump may look like”

October 30, 2023, 6:45 amballot accessDerek Muller

Just about one year ago, in November 2022, I wrote the following: If I had a crystal ball into the future of litigation surrounding Donald Trump’s candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, I would project something like this: In… Continue reading

“Federal Judge Reinstates Gag Order on Trump in Election Case”

October 29, 2023, 7:43 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: federal judge reinstated a gag order on former President Donald J. Trump on Sunday that had been temporarily placed on hold nine days earlier, reimposing restrictions on what Mr. Trump can say about witnesses and prosecutors in the case… Continue reading

Colorado trial court botches interpretation of Electoral Count Reform Act in rush to get Trump ballot access case to hearing

October 29, 2023, 3:07 pmelectoral collegeDerek Muller

Back in 2015, I suggested that courts should proceed with “caution” when exercising review over qualifications disputes involving presidential candidates. Other entities are involved in the process, and the state legislature may not have empowered a court or… Continue reading

“Pence Bows Out of 2024 Presidential Race That Trump Is Dominating”

October 28, 2023, 5:12 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: Former Vice President Mike Pence, who spent four years dutifully serving President Donald J. Trump but refused to carry out Mr. Trump’s demand that he block the 2020 election results, ended his presidential bid on Saturday, with a final… Continue reading

“After ‘Glimmer of a Moment,’ Mississippi Once Again Shuts Out Aspiring Voters”

October 27, 2023, 4:37 pmfelon votingRick Hasen

Bolts: Paloma Wu allowed herself a moment of celebration in August, when a panel of three federal judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a shock decision to strike down Mississippi’s longstanding practice of permanently stripping voting rights… Continue reading