Major Supreme Court Campaign Finance Case, NRSC, Likely to Be Heard By Supreme Court at Its December Sitting
See this letter from the court-appointed amicus.
Second Circuit Unanimously Reverses Conviction in Mackey (“Ricky Vaughn”) Case, Finding Insufficient Evidence of a Conspiracy to Deprive People of Their Right to Vote By Tricking Them into Voting By Text
You can find the court’s opinion at this link. The sole basis for the reversal was lack of sufficient evidence that defendant Mackey had conspired with others to deprive people of their right to vote.
The Court did not address… Continue reading
Raderstorf & Parsons on Proportional Representation
Protect Democracy’s Ben Raderstorf and FairVote’s Mike Parsons have written this piece on the lessons that today’s reformers can learn from the wave of electoral systems reform that swept through American cities between 1915 and 1950, when many cities adopted… Continue reading
SAVE ACT Still a Priority for Some Activists
From the Democracy Docket, we get this warning on the SAVE Act. The Save Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when they are registering to vote in federal elections.
According… Continue reading
Brennan Center Analysis on Online Ad Spending in the 2024 Election
The Brennan Center has conducted this analysis, concluding that at least $1.9 billion was spent on online ads in the 2024 election.
From the report:
Political advertisers spent $1.9 billion on online ads for the 2024 election on the four… Continue reading
Musk’s New Political Party
The prospect of a new political party by Elon Musk is garnering considerable attention. The question for me is whether the focus on third parties will also begin to undermine the American aversion to proportional representation. Ross Douthat has… Continue reading
WaPost and Ranked-Choice Voting
The Washington Post‘s Editorial Board is taking local officials in DC to task for refusing to implement a voter initiative to use ranked-choice voting in the District. Voters in the District overwhelmingly approved an initiative that adopts ranked-choice voting and… Continue reading
“Pay the Voter: A Legal, Economic, and Policy Analysis of Financially Incentivizing Political Participation”
Andrew Albright has published this student note in the California Law Review. Here is the abstract:
This Note explores the idea of paying Americans to cast their ballots as a mechanism to increase electoral participation among lower income voters and… Continue reading
Heather Gerken Retires from the ELB Masthead as She Moves to Head Ford Foundation with a Focus on Protecting Democracy
Last week Rick Pildes covered the exciting news that Heather Gerken is going to head the Ford Foundation, after a successful stint as Yale Law School dean. And even better, as the NYT headline puts it, Ford Foundation’s New Leader … Continue reading
Trump Administration Wants to Enter into a Consent Decree that Would Allow Churches and Other Religious Organizations to Get More Directly Involved in Electoral Politics Despite the “Johnson Amendment”
In the lawsuit raising constitutional objections to limits on religious nonprofits being involved in endorsing candidates and doing other election related activities, a proposed joint consent decree, in which plaintiffs and the federal government would agree to what would… Continue reading
Rightward Shift Among Non-White Voters: A Comparative Assessment
There has been considerable attention to a slight shift to the right among some nonwhite voters in the 2024 Presidential election. See, for example, here, here, and here. Lenny Bronner and Andrew Van Dam have a story … Continue reading
On Gerontocracy
Politico‘s Michael Schaffer has this piece on the complications of covering our gerontocratic political representatives. The subject in this case is D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. The story also raises a question about the ethical responsibility of journalists when they… Continue reading
Thanks to Rick Pildes
Great thanks to Rick Pildes for doing a fantastic job on the blog this past week. As he mentioned, I’ll be your cruise director for the remainder of the week.
“Gov. DeSantis signs measure putting FSU Election Law Center into statute”
Florida Politics:
Florida State University’s Election Law Center now has a place in state statute, even if it didn’t receive full funding.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed legislation (SB 892) formally establishing the Center, which has existed since 2023 at… Continue reading