“How to safeguard against the worst possible outcomes in November”

July 23, 2020, 9:09 pmelection administration, Election MeltdownRick Hasen

David Ignatius WaPo column: What can U.S. citizens do to help protect the integrity of our November presidential election, after President Trump’s refusal last Sunday to pledge he’ll accept the outcome and his unfounded claims that the election could… Continue reading

“Biden predicts that Trump will try to ‘indirectly steal’ the election”

July 23, 2020, 9:00 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

WaPo: Joe Biden on Thursday night warned donors that President Trump will try to “indirectly steal” the 2020 election by making a case against mail-in ballots, a voting method that many are expected to use to avoid exposure to the … Continue reading

Michigan COVID Initiative Case Ends with a Whimper, Withdrawn at SCOTUS, Dismissed Below

July 23, 2020, 8:51 pmdirect democracy, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Michigan withdraws its request for emergency relief at the Supreme Court after plaintiffs dismiss their case with prejudice. Why? It appears that the plaintiffs inadvertently misrepresented how much signature gathering they had been able to do.

“Ranking Member Davis Sends Ten Oversight Election Letters To Problematic Localities”

July 23, 2020, 8:29 pmelection administration, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Release: Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) today exercised the committee’s oversight role of federal elections by seeking to engage with localities where significant issues occurred during recent primaries and where voters are likely to face significant… Continue reading

Eighth Circuit Reverses in Arkansas Initiative Qualification Case, Holding Trial Court Should Not Have Lessened Requirements Due to COVID-19: Weird Ideas about “Severe Burdens”

July 23, 2020, 8:26 pmdirect democracyRick Hasen

Opinion here. A snippet: Robert Allen is a registered voter in Arkansas undergoing chemotherapy to treat his stage IV bladder cancer. With the exception of medical appointments, Allen’s doctors advised him to stay home and limit in-person contact to his… Continue reading

Oregon: “Ninth Circuit Denies Motion to Keep Redistricting Reform off the 2020 Ballot”

July 23, 2020, 8:16 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Release: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today declined to halt implementation of a Federal District Court decision, in People Not Politicians Oregon v. Clarno, giving redistricting reform advocates more time to gather signatures with a lower… Continue reading

“Ex-congressman from Abscam scandal faces new vote-buying charges”

July 23, 2020, 8:13 pmchicanery, vote buyingRick Hasen

WaPo: An ex-congressman once convicted as part of the infamous Abscam investigation in the 1980s is facing new corruption charges for allegedly bribing a Philadelphia elections official to stuff ballot boxes.Michael “Ozzie” Myers, who was famously caught on a… Continue reading

“Why COVID-19 Threatens Student Votes in California”

July 23, 2020, 8:09 pmvotingRick Hasen

KQED reports.

Race-Blind Redistricting and Minority Representation

July 23, 2020, 12:22 pmUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

I linked yesterday to my forthcoming article with Jowei Chen on the implications of race-blind redistricting. In this post, I thought I’d provide some additional detail about our methods and findings. First, to conduct a non-racial line-drawing process, we used… Continue reading

Derek Muller on Bush v. Gore and the Electoral Count Act

July 23, 2020, 11:53 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

In this short piece, Derek Mueller makes an important point: the Supreme Court did not hold, in Bush v. Gore, that the Electoral Count Act mandates that all state counting or recounting processes in the presidential election must end… Continue reading

“Democracy by Deterrence: Strategic Self-Entrenchment in U.S. Elections”

July 23, 2020, 9:38 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Gretchen Helmke, Mary Kroeger, and Jack Paine have posted this new draft paper. Here is the abstract: If politicians and their political parties generally want to stay in power, why would they ever forgo using anti-democratic tactics to… Continue reading

“Democrats preparing for ‘nightmare scenario’ in which Trump challenges election results”

July 23, 2020, 9:33 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Reuters reports.

“New York’s Primary-Vote-Count Chaos Signals Trouble for November”

July 23, 2020, 9:24 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Jeff Toobin for The New Yorker.

Big (Quixotic?) Push to Get Supreme Court to Hold that Congress Has the Constitutional Power to Outlaw Super PACs

July 22, 2020, 9:34 pmcampaign finance, Plutocrats United, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

The cert petition in Lieu v. FEC is designed to get the Supreme Court to address an issue addressed by the D.C. Circuit in the earlier SpeechNow case but never addressed by the Supreme Court: is it constitutional for Congress… Continue reading