Citizens United and “Corporate Spending” on Elections

January 22, 2020, 8:44 amcampaigns, Plutocrats United, UncategorizedRichard Pildes

One of the important findings from yesterday’s major CFI Report on campaign finance that has gone unnoticed so far is that Citizens United did not lead to a significant increase in election spending by publicly-traded corporations. As the introduction to… Continue reading

“Trump is attracting a new crop of big donors, including many who have never given before”

January 22, 2020, 7:59 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

WaPo: Trump’s vaunted political money machine is helping drive record sums to the Republican National Committee, and not just from the same donors who supported him in 2016. Enticed by exclusive gatherings and ecstatic about the president’s tax cuts, an… Continue reading

“10 years after Citizens United: State races transformed by explosive growth in independent spending”

January 22, 2020, 7:53 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

New report from the National Institute on Money in Politics.

“Common Cause Files Complaint Against Pro-Bernie Sanders Group Our Revolution for Violating Soft Money Ban”

January 22, 2020, 7:51 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Release: Today, Common Cause filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging reason to believe that Our Revolution, a nonprofit political organization established by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2016 and now supporting his 2020 presidential campaign,… Continue reading

“As Americans Fear Foreign Interference, Federal Agencies Work To Secure Elections”

January 22, 2020, 7:48 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Pam Fessler for NPR: PAM FESSLER, BYLINE: Late last year, an election official in a small Texas county got a curious phone call. Someone claimed to be from Hart InterCivic, the vendor who supplied the county’s voting machines. The caller… Continue reading

“Election Security Boss: Threats To 2020 Are Now Broader, More Diverse”

January 22, 2020, 7:46 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

NPR: Threats to U.S. elections this year could be broader and more diverse than before, warns the spy world’s boss for election security — and she also acknowledged the limits of her ability to tackle them.Shelby Pierson, the intelligence… Continue reading

“Exclusive: Seattle-Area Voters To Vote By Smartphone In 1st For U.S. Elections”

January 22, 2020, 7:44 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

NPR: A district encompassing Greater Seattle is set to become the first in which every voter can cast a ballot using a smartphone — a historic moment for American democracy.The King Conservation District, a state environmental agency that encompasses Seattle … Continue reading

Wisconsin: “After rejection, conservatives try again to get voter purge case to Supreme Court”

January 22, 2020, 7:23 amThe Voting Wars, voter registrationRick Hasen

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. Update: The Court of Appeals opinion explaining its putting the purge on hold is here. (h/t Sam Levine)

“CFI’s Guide to Money in Federal Elections, 1974-2018”

January 21, 2020, 2:11 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Release via email about what will be a very useful compilation: This week marks the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That decision, together with its offspring, were the major catalysts for… Continue reading

“The Decade of Citizens United”

January 21, 2020, 9:12 amcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Reupping this Slate piece of mine that ran in December, on what the opinion has meant in the last decade: In 2010, the largest reported individual contributors to federal campaigns in American politics were Robert and Doylene Perry, owners of… Continue reading

“Citizens United at 10: Why fighting corruption is a racial justice issue”

January 21, 2020, 8:52 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Chris Kromm for Facing South.

“Celebrate the Citizens United Decade; The ruling has empowered small-dollar donors and political outsiders, not corporations.”

January 21, 2020, 8:14 amcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Brad Smith WSJ oped.

Criticisms of New Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) Hits New Los Angeles County Voting System

January 21, 2020, 8:11 amelection administration, voting technologyRick Hasen

So far, most of the coverage of BMDs (voting machines in which voters cast their votes on a touchscreen, the machine spits out a ballot listing the voter’s choices and produces a bar code/QR code for a ballot reading machine… Continue reading

New NPR Polling Shows Americans Worried About Fairness of Upcoming Election, Election Interference from the President

January 21, 2020, 7:59 amElection MeltdownRick Hasen

New polling from NPR/News Hour/Marist shows increasing distrust in fairness of the electoral process, and worries about the President encouraging election interference (themes of my upcoming Election Meltdown book).: Weeks before the first votes of the 2020 presidential election, Americans… Continue reading

Election Law Blog

The law of politics and the politics of law