New Common Ground Democracy essay: “Ohio’s partisan polarization is so severe that stronger medicine than Alaska’s new electoral reform is necessary to avoid the election of extreme candidates in the Buckeye State.” (The essay has details, including relevant data.)
“Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Revive Washington State Voting Map Said to Hurt Hispanics”
The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to reinstate a voting map for the Washington State Legislature that a federal judge had found discriminated against Hispanic voters.
As is the court’s custom when it acts on emergency applications, its brief order gave no reasons. There were no noted dissents.
The case arose from a lawsuit by Hispanic voters who challenged a voting district in the Yakima Valley region that had been drawn by the state’s independent redistricting commission after the 2020 census. The plaintiffs said the district violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting their ability to elect their preferred candidates.
The case had some unusual features, notably that a majority of the challenged district’s voting age population was Hispanic…..
“‘Start the Steal’: Trump Once Again Planning to Overturn an Election”
HERE IS A PLAN AFOOT to overturn the results of the November election, and for both parties it is fast becoming a major concern. The scheme is being hatched by Republicans on behalf of Donald Trump, who seeks to steal the election if Joe Biden defeats him again. The Biden campaign and an army of lawyers are working to thwart it.
Trump can win on November 5, and polls show he likely would if the election were held today. But if Biden defeats him, the man who would trample the country for his ego can be expected to use even more extreme means than he did last time to flip the result—because he’s trying to stay out of jail.
Trump will declare victory on election night before all the votes are counted, as he did in 2020—and as we know he had planned before election night.
What happens next, depending on how many complicit Republicans aid Trump and his lieutenants in battleground states, could take the nation to dangerous new territory.
Should Biden prevail, Trump will claim the results were tainted—by mail-in voting, machine voting, machine counting, ballot harvesting, corrupt election officials, liberal cities, and illegal immigrants.
The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee have been working on an upgraded version of plans they made before November 2020. In anticipation of every nightmarish contingency, squadrons of lawyers are already drawing up the necessary legal filings to avert what they expect will be an all-out assault on the election.
Trump won’t be president this time, and lacks the power of the federal government, so his best path to stealing an election is through the states, before the question comes to Congress on January 6, 2025….
“Covering Elections and Voting in 2024: A Media Guide”
Download the Guide
“Covering Elections and Voting in 2024” by Pam Fessler, a communications advisor for The Elections Group and former National Public Radio correspondent, serves as a comprehensive resource for journalists covering the intricacies of elections and voting processes in the United States. The guide emphasizes the pivotal role of accurate, informed journalism in sustaining democracy and public trust in the elections process. It outlines the variability in election laws and practices across states and localities, underlining the complexity of the U.S. voting system and the challenges reporters face in navigating misinformation, legal changes, and the logistical aspects of election coverage.
April 9 Safeguarding Democracy Project Event and Webinar: “Race and the Risk of Election Subversion”
I’m looking forward to moderating this event next week.
April 9, 12:15pm – 1:15pm Race and the Risk of Election Subversion
In-person at UCLA Law Room 1337 and Online
Sophia Lin Lakin (ACLU), Spencer Overton (George Washington University Law School), Sonni Waknin (UCLA Voting Rights Project)
“Kansas GOP lawmakers revive a plan to stop giving voters 3 extra days to return mail ballots”
Republican legislators in Kansas have revived a proposal to stop giving voters three extra days after polls close to return mail ballots after making key concessions in a bid to get enough votes from rural GOP lawmakers to overcome the Democratic governor’s potential veto.
Republicans have argued that allowing election officials to count ballots received after Election Day undermines people’s confidence in the results, through there’s no evidence that the practice has led to fraud or serious mistakes. The Republican-controlled Legislature expects to take final votes this week on a version of the proposal drafted Monday by GOP negotiators for the House and Senate.
The push to end the “grace period” arose as election conspiracy promoters gained influence within the Kansas GOP. They have spread baseless claims that elections are rife with fraud and amplified ex-President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
“RFK Jr. threatens to sue Nevada over ballot access”
CBS News:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is threatening legal action against Nevada over his petition to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate, his campaign said Monday, after CBS News reported that the signatures he had gathered could be … Continue reading
“Transforming Constitutional Doctrine Through Mandatory Appeals from Three-Judge District Courts: The Warren and Burger Courts and Their Contemporary Lessons”
Michael Solimine, who knows more about the use of 3-judge courts in election cases than anyone I know, has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming U Pitt. L. Rev.). Here is the abstract:
Judicial interpretations of the Equal Protection and… Continue reading
“The ‘Bounds’ of Moore: Pluralism and State Judicial Review”
Leah Litman and Kate Shaw have written this essay for the Yale Law Journal Forum. Here is the abstract:
In Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court rejected a maximalist version of the “independent state legislature theory” (ISLT), invoking state judicial… Continue reading
My New One at Slate: “2016 Election Fraudster ‘Ricky Vaughn’ Might Finally Be About to Face the Music”
I have written this piece for Slate. it begins:
On Friday, a federal appeals court in New York will consider a case with key implications for the 2024 election. At issue is whether it violates federal law to trick… Continue reading
“How Republicans texted and emailed their way into a money problem”
WaPo:
In the years after Donald Trump lost the presidency to Joe Biden, Trump sent so many emails and text messages asking for money that Republican consultants warned his mailing lists could become useless. The former president’s friends told him… Continue reading
“China’s Advancing Efforts to Influence the U.S. Election Raise Alarms”
NYT:
Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions and attacking President Biden ahead of the election in November, according to researchers and government officials.
The accounts… Continue reading
“From Pizzagate to the 2020 Election: Forcing Liars to Pay or Apologize”
NYT:
Michael J. Gottlieb can never remember the exact amount — it’s $148,169,000— that a jury ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay the Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. But Ms. Freeman’s words after the December 2023 victory… Continue reading
Federal court relies on Cook v. Gralike to find New Jersey ballot design likely violates the Elections Clause
Rick H. links to the story about the New Jersey ballot design case and a federal judge finding that the “party line” was unconstitutional. The first claim, unsurprisingly, is an Anderson-Burdick balancing test. But I wanted to draw attention to… Continue reading