Election Law Commons^™

Electoral Silver Linings After Shelby, Citizens United And Bennett, Ciara Torres-Spelliscy

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Elimination Dance, Sarah Jane Forman

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Jackals, Tall Ships, And The Endless Forest Of Lies: Foreword To Symposium On The Voting Rights Act In The Wake Of Shelby County V. Holder, Anthony Paul Farley

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Tiered Personhood And The Excluded Voter, Atiba R. Ellis

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The modern discourse critiquing vote denial policies in the United States has taken two distinct paths. The first and more recent path has been to critique the effects of legislation like voter identification laws, narrowed early voting opportunities, and similar enactments to hyper-regulate the voting process, effecting, as some argue, the ability for the poor, the elderly, and minorities to vote. The second strain of this voter suppression discourse relates to the express exclusion of persons who have been convicted of felonies from the exercise of the franchise. While both vote denial by effect or by express disenfranchisement have raised …

"The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself": The Constitutional Infirmities With Felon Disenfranchisement And Citing Fear As The Rationale For Depriving Felons Of Their Right To Vote, Erika Stern

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

Felon disenfranchisement, a mechanism by which felons and former felons are deprived of their right to vote, is a widespread practice that has been challenged on many grounds. However, felon disenfranchisement has not yet been properly challenged under the First Amendment. This Article argues that states implicate felons’ First Amendment rights through felon disenfranchisement without citing adequate or compelling rationales to justify this severe intrusion. In fact, at least one rationale, a rationale based on the fear of the way felons might vote, is itself inconsistent with First Amendment principles. Disenfranchising felons based on a fear of the way that …

Election Law—Introduction, Jessica A. Levinson

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

Remedial Equilibration And The Right To Vote Under Section 2 Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Michael T. Morley

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Minority Groups: Can Two Different Minority Groups Bring A Coalition Suit Under Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act Of 1965, Sara Michaloski

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Race Or Party?: How Courts Should Think About Republican Efforts To Make It Harder To Vote In North Carolina And Elsewhere, Richard L. Hasen

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

An Analysis On The Effects Of Voter Id Laws And Minnesota’S Decision To Vote Against It, Amy Asell

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In recent years, the topic of voter identification has been a hotly contested issue in state legislatures around the country. Since 2003, nearly 1,000 bills concerning voter ID have been introduced in a total of forty-six states. In 2012 alone, voter ID legislation was pending in thirty-three states. On November 6, 2012, the citizens of the state of Minnesota voted on whether they supported an amendment to the state Constitution that would require all voters to present a valid photo ID in order to vote. Despite poll numbers indicating that a majority of Minnesotans supported the amendment the voter ID …

Lifting The Fog: Ending Felony Disenfranchisement In Virginia, Dori Elizabeth Martin

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Shelby County V. Holder And The Voting Rights Act: Getting The Right Answer With The Wrong Standard, Michael James Burns

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Shadow Citizens: Felony Disenfranchisement And The Criminalization Of Debt, Ann Cammett

Scholarly Works

The disenfranchisement of felons has long been challenged as anti-democratic and disproportionately harmful to communities of color. Critiques of this practice have led to the gradual liberalization of state laws that expand voting rights for those who have served their sentences. Despite these legal developments, ex-felons face an increasingly difficult path to regaining the franchise. This article argues that, for ex-felons in particular, criminal justice debt can serve as an insurmountable obstacle to the resumption of voting rights and broader participation in society. This article uses the term “carceral debt” to identify criminal justice penalties levied on prisoners, “user fees” …

Outsourcing Democracy: Redefining The Public Private Partnership In Election Administration, Gilda R. Daniels

All Faculty Scholarship

“We are left with a system in which almost every state still outsources its elections to what are actually private organizations.”

Federal, state and local governments are deeply indebted to private organizations, political parties, candidates, and private individuals to assist it, inter alia, in registering voters, getting citizens to the ballot box through get out the vote campaigns (GOTV), assisting limited English proficient (LEP) citizens, and monitoring Election Day activities. In a recent Supreme Court case, Crawford v. Marion County, Justice Souter recognized that voting legislation has “two competing interests,” the fundamental right to vote and the need for governmental …

Voter Deception, Gilda R. Daniels

All Faculty Scholarship

In our recent electoral history, deceptive practices have been utilized to suppress votes in an attempt to affect election results. In most major elections, citizens endure warnings of arrest, deportation, and even violence if they attempt to vote. In many instances, these warnings are part of a larger scheme to suppress particular voters, whom I call “unwanted voters,” from exercising the franchise. Recent advancements in technology provide additional opportunities for persons to deceive voters, such as calls alerting citizens that Republicans (Whites) vote on Tuesday and Democrats vote (Blacks) on Wednesday. In spite of this resurgence of deception, the statutes …

Protecting The Right To Vote: Oversight Of The Department Of Justice's Preparations For The 2008 Election - Statement Of Gilda R. Daniels Before The Senate Judiciary Committee, September 9, 2008, Gilda R. Daniels

All Faculty Scholarship

In 2000, we witnessed faulty voting machines with hanging chads and dimpled ballots. We also experienced error-filled purges and voter intimidation in minority neighborhoods. Since the 2000 Presidential election the voting rights vocabulary has expanded to include terms such as, voting irregularities and election protection and created a new debate regarding voter access versus voter integrity. Despite the debates and new legislation in the form of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and the continued enforcement of other voting statutes such as the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act, (NVRA), problems persist in the operation of our …

Lessons Learned From The 2004 Presidential Election: Testimony Of Gilda R. Daniels Before The House Judiciary Subcommittee On The Constitution, Civil Rights And Civil Liberties, July 24, 2008, Gilda R. Daniels

All Faculty Scholarship

Since the 2000 Presidential election the voting rights vocabulary has expanded to include terms such as, "voting irregularities" and "election protection" and created a new debate regarding voter access versus voter integrity. Despite the debates and new legislation in the form of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and the continued enforcement of other voting statutes such as the Voting Rights Act, and the National Voter Registration Act, (NVRA), problems persist in the operation of our participatory democracy.

What we have witnessed since 2000, particularly during the 2004 election, gave us some reason to hope but also reason for concern. …

Let's Not Jump To Conclusions: Approaching Felon Disenfranchisement Challenges Under The Voting Rights Act, Thomas G. Varnum

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 invalidates voting qualifications that deny the right to vote on account of race or color. This Article confronts a split among the federal appellate courts concerning whether felons may rely on Section 2 when challenging felon disenfranchisement laws. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals allows felon disenfranchisement challenges under Section 2; however, the Second and Eleventh Circuits foresee unconstitutional consequences and thus do not. After discussing the background of voting rights jurisprudence, history of felon disenfranchisement laws, and evolution of Section 2, this Article identifies the points of contention among the …

A Vote Delayed Is A Vote Denied: A Proactive Approach To Eliminating Election Administration Legislation That Disenfranchises Unwanted Voters, Gilda R. Daniels

All Faculty Scholarship

In an effort to determine voter eligibility and access to the voting booth, our democratic system has allowed political forces, to develop laws that would meet their aims of either granting or denying access to the franchise. Caught in this web of regulations, practices and procedures is the "unwanted voter" - the disabled, elderly, poor, and minority voter. New millennium models of exclusion, such as overly restrictive identification requirements, unwarranted voter purges, restrictive voter registration rules, increasing costs for underlying documents to support citizenship and eligibility for voting, are creating a caste system in the electoral process. The practice of …

Applying Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act To Single-Member Offices, Edward J. Sebold

Michigan Law Review

This Note questions whether an exemption for single-member offices is justified. Part I provides a brief overview of the Voting Rights Act and the types of discrimination in the political process to which it applies., Part I then reviews the decisions on single-member offices, including the courts' attempts to define single-member offices. This Part concludes neither Congress nor the Supreme Court dictates an exemption for single-member offices. Instead, single-member offices should be open to challenge if they hamper the achievement of section 2's goals. Part II identifies the goals of section 2 by developing a number of theories to give …

The Ex-Convict's Right To Vote, David H. Getches

Publications

No abstract provided.

Political Thickets And Crazy Quilts: Reapportionment And Equal Protection, Robert B. Mckay

Michigan Law Review

If asked to identify the two most important cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in the twentieth century, informed observers would be likely to name, in whichever order, Brown v. Board of Education and Baker v. Carr.

Legislative Apportionment And Representative Government: The Meaning Of Baker V. Carr, Jo Desha Lucas

Michigan Law Review

In three recent cases the Supreme Court has reopened the question of the extent to which federal courts will review the general fairness of state schemes of legislative apportionment. It is a question on which the Court has had nothing to say for over a decade, leaving the bar to patch together the current state of the law from the outcome of cases disposed of without opinion considered against a backdrop of language used in earlier decisions.

Residency Requirements For Voting And The Tensions Of A Mobile Society, John R. Schmidhauser

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this article to determine the extent to which persons otherwise qualified to vote are disenfranchised by the complex of state residency requirements and to assess the practical and constitutional aspects of any statutory prospects for change.

The Administraton's Anti-Literacy Test Bill: Wholly Constitutional But Wholly Inadequate, William W. Van Alstyne

Michigan Law Review

The nature of American national government has undergone a profound metamorphosis, moving from the near oligarchy which characterized the system as established in 1789 to the imperfectly representative government which it is today. At the time the Constitution was ratified, all restrictions then imposed by the several states on the right to vote for state and federal electors were preserved. These various limitations on the franchise restricted the active body politic to approximately four percent of the total population. Disfranchisement applied then, as now, to those under twenty-one, to those lacking sufficient residence in a given community, to the insane, …