Election Law Commons^™

Documenting Discrimination In Voting: Judicial Findings Under Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act Since 1982, Ellen D. Katz, Margaret Aisenbrey, Anna Baldwin, Emma Cheuse, Anna Weisbrodt

Other Publications

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of one of the most remarkable and consequential pieces of congressional legislation ever enacted. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ("the VRA") targeted massive disfranchisement of African-American citizens in numerous Southern states. It imposed measures drastic in scope and extraordinary in effect. The VRA eliminated the use of literacy tests and other "devices" that Southern jurisdictions had long employed to prevent black residents from registering and voting. The VRA imposed on these jurisdictions onerous obligations to prove to federal officials that proposed changes to their electoral system would not discriminate against minority voters. Resistance …

The Presidency And The Meaning Of Citizenship·, Malinda L. Seymore

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing: Gaffney And The Improper Role Of Politics In The Districting Process, Robert A. Koch

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Supreme Court unanimously agrees that excessive partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional. A plurality of the Court, however, would hold partisan gerrymandering claims to be nonjusticiable due to the lack of a judicially manageable standard. This Note synthesizes the opinions of a majority of the Court in Vieth v. Jubelirer on the precise harms of partisan gerrymandering and argues that excessive partisan gerrymandering unconstitutionally burdens the representational rights of individual voters. This Note proposes a judicially manageable standard to address that representational harm based on the Court's standard in Shaw v. Reno.

Preparing For 2006: A Constitutional Argument For Closing The 527 Soft Money Loophole, Jeffrey P. Geiger

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Campaign Finance And Electoral Reform: A Feminist Economics Perspective, Kimberly Christensen

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

In "Campaign Finance and Electoral Reform: A Feminist Economics Perspective," we begin by examining the impact of the current regime of campaign finance on the American political system, in terms of the possibilities for corruption, for inegalitarian agenda-setting, and on the quality of representation by officeholders. We then briefly review attempts to regulate this system, from the Tillman Act of 1907 to the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act ("McCain-Feingold"). We examine and critique the extant proposals for change, including legislation and/or regulation to "plug the holes" in FECA (the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971), public financing of all federal …

The Not-So-Secret Ballot: How Washington Fails To Provide A Secret Vote For Impaired Voters As Required By The Washington State Constitution, Eric Van Hagen

Washington Law Review

Secrecy in voting ensures that elections represent the true will of the people by permitting a voter to freely express his or her convictions without fear of even the most subtle form of influence, ridicule, intimidation, corruption, or coercion. Article VI, section 6 of the Washington State Constitution protects this secrecy by requiring the legislature to provide every voter with a method of voting that will secure absolute secrecy in preparing and casting his or her ballot. To that end, Washington election law requires that new technology be implemented by January 1, 2006 to provide visually impaired voters with a …

Regulating Section 527 Organizations, Gregg D. Polsky, Guy-Uriel E. Charles

Scholarly Works

In this Essay, we consider whether the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has the authority to regulate independent 527 organizations (e.g., Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, Moveon.org, etc.) as political committees under the Federal Election Campaign Act. This issue, which was hotly debated during the last election cycle when it was considered and ultimately tabled by the FEC, is an extremely complex one that requires a deep understanding of election, tax, administrative, and constitutional law. After considering how these areas of law intersect, we conclude that the FEC lacks the authority to regulate independent 527 organizations as political committees.

Social Capital And Corruption: Vote Buying And The Politics Of Reform In Thailand, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

I offer a critical view of the social capital thesis, which frequently argues that more is better (and less is worse), by examining the ethics of social capital, using Pierre Bourdieu's understanding of networks as defined by their limits. I argue that social capital only assumes conceptual coherence when distinguished from its complementary opposite. I illustrate these theoretical points with a discussion of political reform in Thailand and the 2001 general election. The election exemplifies the benefits of the circulation of social capital: voter turnout and party membership were up, and civil society was active. Yet democratic achievements in Thailand …

The Myth Of Accountability And The Anti-Administrative Impulse, Edward Rubin

Michigan Law Review

The idea of accountability is very much in fashion in legal and political thought these days. To be sure, the term is used in a variety of different ways, but that is the nature of fashion. Colored cloth ponchos may be in fashion this season, for example, but they can be shaped and colored in a variety of different ways. It is differences of this sort that sustain a fashion trend. If the only poncho available were red and square, the fashion trend would display an impressive unity, but it wouldn't last very long. In order to make sales, clothing …

Not Enough Of A Minority?: Arab Americans And The Language Assistance Provisions (Section 203) Of The Voting Rights Act, Brenda Fathy Abdelall

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

With the Voting Rights Act set to expire in 2007, debate has ensued regarding the protections it provides for minority groups. Section 203 of the Act protects language minorities, but under these protections, only four minority groups are afforded bilingual access to voting materials. This Note argues that the Act is imperative to the protection of minority voters, especially those belonging to a language minority group. This Note further argues that not only should the Voting Rights Act be renewed, but § 203 should be revised to include Arab Americans. The Note focuses on the Arab American community because it …

Judging The Law Of Politics, Guy-Uriel Charles

Michigan Law Review

Election law scholars are currently engaged in a vigorous debate regarding the wisdom of judicial supervision of democratic politics. Ever since the Court's 1962 decision in Baker v. Carr, the Court has increasingly supervised a dizzying array of election-related matters. These include the regulation of political parties, access to electoral ballots, partisanship in electoral institutions, the role of race in the design of electoral structures, campaign financing, and the justifications for limiting the franchise. In particular, and as a consequence of the Court's involvement in the 2000 presidential elections in Bush v. Gore, a central task of election …

The Case For Federal Anti-Gerrymandering Legislation, Brian O'Neill

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Partisan gerrymandering is a political tradition the United States can no longer afford. Due in part to the effects of partisan gerrymandering, very few congressional elections are meaningfully competitive. This Note argues that partisan gerrymandering damages both the quality of American democracy and the federal system of the United States. This Note concludes that the important federal interests at stake warrant action by Congress to halt partisan gerrymandering. The Note further concludes that any action by Congress should incorporate the principles of federalism by resisting the temptation to micromanage and Congress should instead require state commissions to draft the boundaries …

The Judicial Nominations Wars, William P. Marshall

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Do Exit Polls And Flu Vaccine Shortages Have In Common?, Albert A. Foer, Robert H. Lande, F.M. Scherer

All Faculty Scholarship

What do exit polls and flu vaccine shortages have in common? Both involve situations where society has come to rely excessively on too few entities. When even one company makes a mistake society can suffer significantly. This short piece advocates that we abandon our almost laissez faire tolerence towards high concentration, and rely upon competition, rather than on monopoly or a small number of producers.

Regulating The Mother's Milk Of Politics: Why Washington's Campaign Finance Law Constitutionally Prohibits State Parties From Spending Soft Money On Issue Ads, Scott Holleman

Washington Law Review

The possibility that elected officials may exchange their votes on pending legislation for donations to help their re-election campaigns poses a serious threat to democratic government. To alleviate this risk, governments at the state and national levels regulate how politicians finance their campaigns. However, these regulatory efforts have been challenged on First Amendment grounds. In Buckley v. Valeo, the United States Supreme Court upheld certain campaign contribution limits, while declaring certain expenditure limits unconstitutional. The Washington State Supreme Court relied on the Buckley opinion in Washington State Republican Party v. Washington Public Disclosure Commission, when it ruled that …

Instant Runoff Voting: A Cure That Is Likely Worse Than The Disease, James P. Langan

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

After Georgia V. Ashcroft: The Primacy Of Proportionality, Felix B. Chang

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This Note argues that the majority in Ashcroft have left courts with an unadministerable standard-not so much for reasons that Justice Souter articulated in his dissent, but rather because the Court provided no guidance on navigating around the myriad of factors in the convoluted totality analyses. Part I examines two cases after Ashcroft which represent different degrees of racial vote dilution: Shirt v. Hazeltine and Session v. Perry. Through other post-Ashcroft cases, Part II teases out the differences (i) between influence districts as injury and remedy and (ii) between a jurisdiction's Section 5 and Section 2 obligations--details closely related …

What Is A Tragedy Of The Commons? Overfishing And The Campaign Spending Problem, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The 2000 Presidential Election Shattered The Myth That Every Vote Is Counted, 23 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 491 (2005), Richard C. Balough

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

A lot of things have changed since the early memories of going into the voting booth, which at that time was the old mechanical machines, and pulled those levers down. It was taught that you have to vote because each vote was going to make a difference, each vote was going to be recorded and tallied. The voting which was done on Election Day, the way one voted was going to affect our democracy. Of course during that time there were also a lot of other things happening that ran counter to this ideal, stories including police intimidation especially in …

"Electronic Voting Rights And The Dmca: Another Blast From The Digital Pirates Or A Final Wake Up Call For Reform?", 23 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 533 (2005), Doris E. Long

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Electronic voting machines are the new version of pirated music. Like digital music, electronic voting was designed to make voting rights easily available to the masses. However, technology has once again demonstrated how easy it is to circumvent a good idea through better “hacker” technology. In reality, any electronic voting software can be hacked no matter how good the encryption technology protecting it. The issue is not creating a fool-proof anti-circumvention system – an impossible task – but creating the necessary digital safeguards to make circumvention difficult, to make security breaches more readily detectable, and to provide back-up systems to …

The Machinery Of Democracy: Voting Technology In November 2004, 23 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 553 (2005), Doug Chapin

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

In general Election Day of 2004 proceeded surprisingly smoothly and although some problems were reported, by and large they were best characterized as “no big and lots of littles.” In the end, the margins of victory in most races during the 2004 election exceeded the margin of litigation, meaning the trouble that arose in many states would most likely not have changed the outcome. In the immediate aftermath of Election Day, however, a closer look at experiences around the country revealed widespread problems that, while immaterial to the outcome of the election, nonetheless indicate that much remains to be done …

Campaign Finance Reform, Electioneering Communications, And The First Amendment: Resuscitating The Third Exception, 38 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1315 (2005), Daniel B. Roth

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Natural Born In The U.S.A.: The Striking Unfairness And Dangerous Ambiguity Of The Constitution’S Presidential Qualifications Clause And Why We Need To Fix It, Sarah Helene Duggin, Mary Beth Collins

Scholarly Articles

This article explores the controversy surrounding the natural born citizenship proviso in order to demonstrate why a constitutional amendment is necessary to eliminate its inherent inequity and uncertain applicability, and to offer substantive recommendations for initiating such an amendment. Part I begins with a brief discussion of the historical and legal context of the natural born citizenship proviso. Part II explores the elusive nature of the term "natural bom Citizen," and Part III focuses on the perils of passively awaiting judicial resolution of its meaning. The structural and policy reasons why limiting the Presidency to natural born citizens is inconsistent …

If At First You Don't Succeed: A Critical Evaluation Of Judicial Selection Reform Efforts, Amam Mcleod

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Regulating Section 527 Organizations, Guy-Uriel Charles, Gregg D. Polsky

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Refocusing On Race, Grant M. Hayden

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This paper, prepared for a symposium on voting rights in the George Washington Law Review, is a call to refocus attention on the role of race in politics. In recent years, many voting rights scholars have shifted their attention away from the plight of minority voters. Indeed, the issue of race came up in this symposium only obliquely, if at all, as part of a discussion of other issues. And this is more than a bit unusual, for race has been a driving force in the development of much of the law of democracy over the last several decades.

Of …

Tax Exemption Of American Churches And Other Nonprofits: One Election Cycle After Branch Ministries V. Rossotti, Jerome Park Prather

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Felon Disenfrachisement Laws: Partisan Politics In The Legislatures, Jason Belmont Conn

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This examination of the institutional changes to state legislatures, synthesized with an analysis of the handling of felon disenfranchisement laws by state legislatures, presents a troubling realization about the law today: in the twenty-first century, partisan politics moderates decisions about even the most basic and fundamental principles of democracy. This Note suggests that because state legislators follow their party leadership and position, a state's traditional treatment of racial minorities, geographic location, and even ideology are not the strongest indicators of a state's disenfranchisement laws. Rather, partisan politics drives changes to the state laws governing felon voter eligibility.

After Georgia V. Ashcroft: The Primacy Of Proportionality, Felix B. Chang

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Note argues that the majority in Ashcroft have left courts with an unadministerable standard-not so much for reasons that Justice Souter articulated in his dissent, but rather because the Court provided no guidance on navigating around the myriad of factors in the convoluted totality analyses. In the face of this uncertainty, lower courts will rely increasingly on the proportionality standard of Johnson v. De Grandy, which marked the midpoint in the judicial shift from Justice Brennan's worldview to Justice O'Connor's world-view. Part I examines two cases after Ashcroft which represent different degrees of racial vote dilution: Shirt v. …

"Render Unto Caesar", Marie Failinger

Faculty Scholarship

“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” is as much a challenge as a command. It is a cryptic call to Christians to consider more thoughtfully what we owe to the state—and as importantly, what we do not—rather than, as we might want to pretend, a clear signal of the boundary between the governances of God’s left and right hands.

Modern Americans in mainstream Christian churches often forget, because we do not feel the heavy hand of the state upon our congregations, our worship, and our activities, that this Biblical challenge is effectively issued to us every day. The …