“U.S. government officials privately warn Musk’s blitz appears illegal”

February 5, 2025, 7:47 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

WaPo: The chaotic blitz by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has triggered legal objections across Washington, with officials in at least a half-dozen federal agencies and departments raising alarms about whether the billionaire’s assault on government is breaking the… Continue reading

Florida: “Russian, Uzbek nationals filed 132 fake voter registration applications in Pinellas County: DOJ”

February 5, 2025, 7:45 amchicaneryRick Hasen

WFLA: A Russian national and an Uzbek national have been arrested for allegedly submitting over 100 fake voter registration applications in Pinellas County, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday. Dmitry Shushlebin, 45, and Sanjar Jamilov, 33, were both charged… Continue reading

“The GOP keeps failing to make Nebraska a winner-take-all state. Now it might ask voters to do it”

February 5, 2025, 7:40 amelectoral collegeRick Hasen

AP: For decades Republicans in GOP-dominated Nebraska have tried and failed to upend the state’s unusual method of splitting its presidential electoral votes by congressional district. Now, with yet another winner-take-all bill likely to fail, they are proposing to put… Continue reading

“Georgia Republicans renew push for closed primary elections”

February 5, 2025, 7:32 ampolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

AJC: Top Georgia Republicans are renewing their push to only let voters who register as party members cast ballots in GOP primaries.It’spart of an attempt to guarantee more ideological purity among the nominees. The idea to end Georgia’s open primaries,… Continue reading

Three thoughts on the 4th Circuit’s decision in the North Carolina Supreme Court dispute

February 5, 2025, 5:41 amcourt decisions, election administrationDerek Muller

Rick H. linked to the unpublished per curiam decision in Griffin v. North Carolina State Board of Elections. Three brief thoughts on it. First, last week I noted that the case potentially implicated a significant shift in what kinds… Continue reading

Fourth Circuit, in Unpublished Unanimous Order, Won’t Intervene for Now in Dispute Over Winner of North Carolina Supreme Court Election

February 4, 2025, 2:51 pmjudicial electionsRick Hasen

The basis is federal court abstention, giving the state courts the first chance to work this out. But the court tells the lower federal district court to retain jurisdiction to deal with federal issues that could potentially still be in… Continue reading

Pennsylvania Republicans, in Jones Day Petition, Try Again to Get U.S. Supreme Court Interested in Second Guessing State Election Law Decisions Through Independent State Legislature Theory

February 4, 2025, 1:32 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

SCOTUS recently passed on taking up a case out of Montana, but Pennsylvania Republicans are trying again, with this cert petition involving a PA Supreme Court ruling allowing under state law those voters who filed a technically defective mail-in ballot… Continue reading

“Originalism, Election Law, and Democratic Self-Government”

February 4, 2025, 8:33 amSupreme Court, theoryRick Hasen

Joshua Sellers has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Florida Law Review). Here is the abstract: Originalism has a democracy problem. Among prevailing theories of constitutional interpretation–pragmatism, common-law constitutionalism, popular constitutionalism, and Elysian representation-reinforcement–originalism uniquely creates a legal environment in… Continue reading

UCI 2025 Forum for the Academy and the Public: “Facts Under Fire: Reporting in Impossible Times” on Feb. 7-8

February 4, 2025, 8:29 amcheap speechRick Hasen

I’m very much looking forward to participating in a panel on the 2024 U.S. elections at this event, with a terrific lineup, at UCI this Friday and Saturday.

“Jeffries Works With N.Y. Democrats to Weaken G.O.P. Control of the House”

February 4, 2025, 6:47 amchicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: When Albany Democrats began discussing a rewrite of New York’s special election law in recent days, seemingly out of the blue, they framed it publicly as a matter of good governance. But behind the scenes, their motivation was far… Continue reading

“DOGE’s access to federal data is ‘an absolute nightmare,’ legal experts warn”

February 4, 2025, 6:44 amauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

Politico: Elon Musk’s headlong rush to take control of crucial federal agencies and functions — and to dismantle some of them virtually overnight — has stoked widespread alarm in Washington about the aims of his Donald Trump-backed mission. The opaque… Continue reading

“Top-Two Runoff Elections (Uniquely) Dominate Plurality Rule”

February 3, 2025, 5:44 pmUncategorizedNed Foley

Nate Atkinson and Ezra Friedman have posted this paper on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: Should states retain plurality rule or adopt a different voting method? We study the class of sequential plurality procedures, covering all widely-used single-winner election methods… Continue reading

“The guy overseeing USAID was identified two years ago as a Jan. 6 participant who entered the Capitol through a broken window.”

February 3, 2025, 4:42 pmauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

Ryan Reilly (full NBC News story)

“Inside Musk’s Aggressive Incursion Into the Federal Government”

February 3, 2025, 4:24 pmauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

NYT: In Elon Musk’s first two weeks in government, his lieutenants gained access to closely held financial and data systems, casting aside career officials who warned that they were defying protocols. They moved swiftly to shutter specific programs — and… Continue reading