Election Law Commons^™

Black Women And Girls And The Twenty-Sixth Amendment: Constitutional Connections, Activist Intersections, And The First Wave Youth Suffrage Movement, Mae C. Quinn

Seattle University Law Review

On this 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment—and on the cusp of the fiftieth anniversary of the Twenty-sixth Amendment—this article seeks to expand the voting rights canon. It complicates our understanding of voting rights history in the United States, adding layers to the history of federal constitutional enfranchisement and encouraging a more intersectional telling of our suffrage story in the days ahead.

Thus, this work not only seeks to acknowledge the Twenty-sixth Amendment as important constitutional content, as was the goal of the article I wrote with my law student colleagues for a conference held at the University of Akron …

Does The Woman Suffrage Amendment Protect The Voting Rights Of Men?, Steve Kolbert

Seattle University Law Review

This Article—part of the Seattle University Law Review’s symposium on the centennial of the ratification of the Woman Suffrage Amendment—examines that open possibility. Concluding that the Nineteenth Amendment does protect men’s voting rights, this Article explores why and how that protection empowers Congress to address felon disenfranchisement and military voting. This Article also examines the advantages of using Nineteenth Amendment enforcement legislation compared to legislation enacted under other constitutional provisions.

Part I discusses the unique barriers to voting faced by voters with criminal convictions (Section I.A) and voters in the armed forces (Section I.B). This Part also explains how existing …

Georgia’S Runoff Election System Has Run Its Course, Graham P. Goldberg

Georgia Law Review

Georgia requires candidates to earn a majority of
votes in their party’s primary to win elected office. The
majority-vote requirement—passed by the General
Assembly in 1964—is stained by racially-fraught
politics of the era, and even its alleged “good
government” goals are now antiquated. This Note
explores the history of Georgia’s majority-vote
requirement, examines two legal challenges to the law,
and analyzes its flaws and virtues. Finally, this Note
demonstrates that more appealing alternatives to the
majority-vote requirement exist and recommends that
Georgia replace its current runoff election system with
either ranked choice voting or a forty-percent
threshold-vote requirement.

Fighting Back To Protect Student Voting Rights, Joaquin Gonzales

Faculty Articles

Many people bemoan the relatively low voter-turnout rates in the United States, particularly among younger generations. However, student voters face a wide variety of obstacles that can deter them from democratic participation. Some of the oft-discussed obstacles include jurisdictions not accepting student ID cards for the purposes of voting and making it difficult for students to register to vote at their university addresses. An additional problem that deserves further attention is the lack of on-campus voting opportunities for college and university students, and the intentional efforts in some jurisdictions to further limit those opportunities. This essay examines the problem through …

The Political Process Of Preemption, Paul A. Diller

University of Richmond Law Review

Preemption, particularly of the state-city variety, has become a hot topic. State legislatures in many states over the last decade have preempted a wide swath of areas in which cities and counties were previously free to govern. In addition to the sweeping nature and frequency of preemption, the increasingly aggressive methods of enforcing preemption have drawn notice. The threat of fiscal penalties, removal of local officials from office, and even criminal sanctions constitute what one scholar has dubbed the phenomenon of “hyper preemption.”

How Many Votes Is Too Few?, Rebecca Green

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Independent State Legislature Doctrine, Federal Elections, And State Constitutions, Michael T. Morley

Georgia Law Review

The U.S. Constitution does not confer authority to regulate
federal elections on states as entities. Rather, it grants that
authority specifically to the “Legislature” of each state. The
“independent state legislature doctrine” teaches that a state
constitution is legally incapable of imposing substantive
restrictions on the authority over federal elections that the U.S.
Constitution confers directly upon a state’s legislature. Over the
past 130 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly adopted
conflicting positions on this doctrine without recognizing its
deep historical roots or normative justifications.
The independent state legislature doctrine reflects the
prevailing understanding of states, Congress, and other …

Restraining Judicial Application Of The "Safe Harbor" Provision In The Electoral Count Act, Derek T. Muller

Journal Articles

The Electoral Count Act of 1887, as codified in part at 3 U.S.C. § 5, includes a "safe harbor" for states to resolve disputes in their choices of presidential electors. Congress will treat as "conclusive" a "determination" about "any controversy or contest concerning the appointment" of presidential electors, if that determination is made "at least six days" before the time the electors are to meet. This is a rule governing how Congress handles "the counting of electoral votes as provided in the Constitution."

It is not a judicially-enforceable rule for courts to heed. And it is a rule that state …

The Downfall Of "Incumbent Protection": Case Study And Implications, Jeffrey R. Adams, Lucas I. Pangle

University of Richmond Law Review

On January 9, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit struck down Virginia Code section 24.2-509— Virginia’s long-standing “Incumbent Protection Act” (or the “Act”). The Incumbent Protection Act was the only statute of its kind, and had endured criticism by grassroots commentators. Yet, the Incumbent Protection Act had long evaded scrutiny in the courtroom. Indeed, the Incumbent Protection Act’s courtroom history is labyrinthine, replete with interesting and significant commentaries on party rights, standing, and public policy preference for primaries. In fact, before its eventual demise, it had been implicated in several lawsuits bringing constitutional challenges to …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Notice, Due Process, And Voter Registration Purges, Anthony J. Gaughan

Cleveland State Law Review

In the 2018 case of Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, a divided United States Supreme Court upheld the procedures that Ohio election authorities used to purge ineligible voters from the state’s registration lists. In a 5-4 ruling, the majority ruled that the Ohio law complied with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) as amended by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). This Article contends that the controlling federal law—the NVRA and HAVA—gave the Supreme Court little choice but to decide the case in favor of Ohio’s secretary of state. But this article also argues …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Rwu Law Alum Elected Attorney General Of Maine 12-06-2018, Alex Acquisto, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Closed Meetings Under Foia Turn Fifty: The Old, The New, And What To Do, Tyler C. Southall

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is Groton The Next Evenwel?, Paul H. Edelman

Michigan Law Review Online

In Evenwel v. Abbott the Supreme Court left open the question of whether states could employ population measures other than total population as a basis for drawing representative districts so as to meet the requirement of "one person, one vote" (OPOV). It was thought that there was little prospect of resolving this question soon as no appropriate instances of such behavior were known. That belief was mistaken. In this Essay I report on the Town of Groton, Connecticut, which uses registered voter data to apportion seats in its Representative Town Meeting and has done so since its incorporation in 1957. …

The Question For Another Day: Hooker V. Illinois State Board Of Elections And Its Effect On The Vitality Of Citizen Ballot Initiatives And Redistricting Reform In Illinois, Thomas Q. Ford

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Like most states, Illinois is no stranger to political gerrymandering. Since 2010, redistricting reformers have made repeated efforts to change the way Illinois's political maps are drawn, essentially by minimizing or eliminating the role lawmakers play in the process. Polls show the vast majority of Illinoisans support such a change. Reformers have chosen Illinois's citizen ballot initiative as their vehicle to amend the redistricting process, but every proposed initiative has been struck down in court before reaching voters. Most recently, the Illinois Supreme Court rejected a proposed initiative in Hooker v. Illinois State Board of Elections. This Note argues …

The (Dunkin') Donut Hole: Fixing The Llc Loophole In State Campaign Finance Laws—A New Hampshire Exemplar, Brendan O'Neill

Seattle University Law Review

The campaign finance laws of New Hampshire (and other states) permit direct contributions to gubernatorial candidates from individuals or corporations of up to $7,000 per campaign cycle. However, no state campaign finance statutes discuss, define, or even mention LLCs. Each LLC is its own individual donor for the purpose of direct campaign contributions, regardless of who controls it. Thus, a wealthy individual can max out the $7,000 direct contribution to his or her preferred candidate through every LLC under his or her control, limited only by imagination and the ability to set up as many LLCs as legally feasible. A …

State Court Litigation: The New Front In The War Against Partisan Gerrymandering, Charlie Stewart

Michigan Law Review Online

Partisan gerrymandering is the process of drafting state and congressional districts in a manner that gives one political party an advantage over another. The end goal is simple: help your party win more seats or protect existing ones. The tactic is as old as the United States. In 1788, Patrick Henry convinced the Virginia state legislature to draw the 5th Congressional District to pit his rival James Madison against James Monroe. The term “gerrymander” itself is a hybrid: in 1810, democratic Governor Gerry signed a partisan redistricting plan into law—one that contained a district that infamously looked like a salamander. …

Howell V. Mcauliffe, L. Michael Berman

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Road To A Constitutional Convention: Reforming The New York State Unified Court System And Expanding Access To Civil Justice, Jonathan Lippman

Pace Law Review

This article will focus on the judiciary reforms and access to justice—starting with reforms to the structure of the Unified Court System and discussing other ways that a constitutional convention might serve to improve the operation of the courts. The article will then explore the state’s deficiency in providing its low-income citizens access to justice in civil matters relating to housing, family safety and security, and subsistence income, and how a convention can highlight these issues.

Unusual “Politics As Usual”: The 2017 Ballot Proposition Calling For A Constitutional Convention In New York, Peter J. Galie

Pace Law Review

The first task of constitutional reformers is to make the people of the state aware that they live under a constitution that, for better or worse, affects their everyday lives whether they live on in remotes sections of the Adirondacks routes in villages or a teeming megalopolis. Until this is done, the people are not likely to demand or even accept the more thoroughgoing revision so badly needed in New York.

The Amending Clause In The New York Constitution And Conventionphobia, Gerald Benjamin

Pace Law Review

The amending clause is the nineteenth of the New York State Constitution’s twenty articles. Followed only by the enacting clause, for all intents and purposes this is the document’s final word. Well, maybe not the final word. An alternative is to think of this amending clause as a part of an ongoing several-centuries-long conversation. The clause is a message from one past group of designers and drafters of New York’s governing system, the 1846 Constitutional Convention majority, to all of us who gave them the charge to “secure [for us] the blessings of freedom,” that is to “we the people” …

How To Unlock The Voting Block: Oregon’S Sweeping Solution To Poor Voter Turnout: Automatic Registration, Gavin Rynard

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

One Person, One Vote: Gerrymandering And The Independent Commission, A Global Perspective, James Ruley

Indiana Law Journal

In 1863, on the hallowed fields at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln encapsulated a core principle of democracy by describing our system as a “government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people.” This definition accurately depicts the ideal of democracy—that supreme power is vested in the citizenry, not in the government itself. Since the American model is based on representative democracy instead of direct democracy, extreme scrutiny must be placed upon the system of choosing representatives if government is to accurately represent the will of the people.

One of the greatest abuses of a citizen’s voting rights is gerrymandering. …

The Case For State Attorney General Enforcement Of The Voting Rights Act Against Local Governments, Perry Grossman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The summer of 2016 showed that racial discrimination in voting is alive and well, as federal courts across the country struck down state statutes that disproportionately disenfranchise minority voters, including voter ID laws, restrictions on early voting, and racially gerrymandered legislative districts. However, at the local level, discriminatory practices in the nation’s approximately 89,000 political subdivisions have gone largely uninvestigated and challenged. Recent conflicts between communities of color and law enforcement have highlighted the failure of local governments in places like Ferguson, Missouri to adequately represent the interests of minority voters. These failures of representation, which occur in progressive states …

Navigating The Post-Shelby Landscape: Using Universalism To Augment The Remaining Power Of The Voting Rights Act, Jesús N. Joslin

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

Inventing Equal Sovereignty, Leah M. Litman

Michigan Law Review

The Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder relied on the “fundamental principle” and “historic tradition” of equal sovereignty to hold one of the Voting Rights Act’s key provisions unconstitutional. Yet almost three years after Shelby County, and despite a recent wave of equal sovereignty challenges to major federal programs, the equal sovereignty principle remains largely unexamined. This Article seeks to provide some clarity—both to establish the contours of the equal sovereignty doctrine and to evaluate whether it is a sound rule of constitutional federalism. The principle of equal sovereignty, as initially articulated by courts and subsequently …

Campaign Finance Advisory Opinions At The State Level, Allen Dickerson, Zac Morgan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Election Law Federalism, Justin Weinstein-Tull

Michigan Law Review

This Article provides the first comprehensive account of non-Voting Rights Act federal voting laws. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act—long the most effective voting rights law in American history—was disabled by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is in the crosshairs. As the Supreme Court becomes more hostile to race-based antidiscrimination laws like the Voting Rights Act, Congress will turn to race-neutral, election administration-based reforms to strengthen the right to vote. Indeed, many proposals for reform post-Shelby County have taken this form. The federal laws this Article examines—the National Voter …