Election Law Commons^™

Citizens Derided: Corporate Politics And Religion In The Roberts Court, Jamin Raskin

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Powers And Rights In Shelby County V. Holder, Corey Brettschneider

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Shelby County V. Holder And Preclearance As Legislative Injunction, Henry L. Chambers

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Voter Fraud, Michael D. Gilbert

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Toward An Alternative Theory Of Constitutional Design, Emily Zackin, Mila Versteeg

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Right To Vote Under State Constitutions, Michael T. Morley

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Chapter 280: Streamlined Vote By Mail Procedures For Today’S Majority Voting Method, Anthony Serrao

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Chapter 16: Combating Dark Money In California Politics, Patrick Ford

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sb 831: Bringing Political Reform Into The Twenty-First Century, Ryan Matthews

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Caps Act: Enacting New Barriers Between Elected Officials And Interest Groups, Elizabeth Kim

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Registering To Vote In Clark County, Rachel J. Anderson

Media & Informal Publications

In this publication, distributed by the Las Vegas chapter of the National Bar Association, Professor Rachel J. Anderson provides clear direction and information for Nevada voters on the process of registering to vote and information on special circumstances surrounding registration.

Disenfranchising America’S Youth: How Current Voting Laws Are Contrary To The Intent Of The Twenty-Sixth Amendment, Sarah Fearon-Maradey

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Laws attempting to suppress student voters are not a new advent. Since the Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen in 1971, states have been passing legislation that has challenged, restricted, and continuously narrowed the eligibility of students to vote. The reasoning behind these laws generally focuses on the belief that student voters dilute the power of permanent resident voters, tend to vote in democratic blocks, and are not sufficiently invested in the community. Regardless of the motivation, these voting laws often have the effect of disenfranchising non-informed students, who either miss the opportunity to vote …

A Perfect Storm -- The Negative Effects Of Felony Voting Laws And The Repeal Of Section 4 Of The Voting Rights Act On Minority Americans, Genevive Saul

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

A New Approach To Judicial Scrutiny Of Voter Registration Laws, David Feinstein

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

This Note argues that 3PVRO activities implicate First Amendment rights to a degree that merits substantial constitutional protection, and therefore more robust judicial scrutiny of laws regulating them. The applicable constitutional standard requires a court to ask whether the regulated acts constitute political activity within the meaning of the First Amendment. An approach that more accurately reflects the political nature of voter registration will likewise enhance the utility of that standard, and yield more consistent results. This Note further argues that in certain cases restrictions on voter registration activities severely burden core First Amendment rights, and should therefore be subject …

Democratic Capital: A Voting Rights Surge In Washington Could Strengthen The Constitution For Everyone, Jamin B. Raskin

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Citizens United And Social Welfare Organizations: The Tangled Relationships Among Guidance, Compliance, And Enforcement, Frances R. Hill

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Court For The One Percent: How The Supreme Court Contributes To Economic Inequality, Michele E. Gilman

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the United States Supreme Court’s role in furthering economic inequality. The Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 not only highlighted growing income and wealth inequality in the United States, but also pointed the blame at governmental policies that favor business interests and the wealthy due to their outsized influence on politicians. Numerous economists and political scientists agree with this thesis. However, in focusing ire on the political branches and big business, these critiques have largely overlooked the role of the judiciary in fostering economic inequality. The Court’s doctrine touches each of the major causes of economic inequality, …

The Right To Vote Under State Constitutions, Joshua A. Douglas

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article provides the first comprehensive look at state constitutional provisions explicitly granting the right to vote. We hear that the right to vote is "fundamental," the "essence of a democratic society," and "preservative of all rights." But courts and scholars are still searching for a solution to the puzzle of how best to protect voting rights, especially because the U.S. Supreme Court has underenforced the right to vote. The answer, however, is right in front of us: state constitutions. Virtually every state constitution includes direct, explicit language granting the right to vote, as contrasted with the U.S. Constitution, which …

Foreigners United: Foreign Influence In American Elections After Citizens United V. Federal Election Commission, Corey R. Sparks

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note argues that the majority’s decision in Citizens United allows foreign nationals to circumvent the Congressional ban on influencing American elections, and that Citizens United should be reconsidered in light of this fact, as well as the compelling government interest in preventing such circumvention, and preserving the integrity of the electoral process. Part II provides an overview of the Congressional ban and Citizens United’s relationship to its circumvention. Part III.A analyzes the methods by which foreign nationals can circumvent the ban in order to influence American elections. Part III.B proposes both judicial and legislative solutions to the problem of …

Perfect Is The Enemy Of Fair: An Analysis Of Election Day Error In Ohio's 2012 General Election Through A Discussion Of The Materiality Principle, Compliance Standards, And The Democracy Canon, Eric H. Kearney, Pavan V. Parikh, Bethany E. Sanders

Cleveland State Law Review

The continual change in and review of election systems have not overcome the reality that elections systems, including Ohio’s system, could not weather a close or controversial election without delay, litigation, or doubt as to the result. If such a conflict would arise, the actions taken in polling places across the state could be critical in determining a victor within the state and possibly the nation. Ohio, like many states, has responded to this circumstance with an incredibly technical and rule driven approach to election administration. This approach to elections administration is deficient for two primary reasons: (1) it refuses …

Citizens United, States Divided: An Empirical Analysis Of Independent Political Spending, Douglas M. Spencer, Abby K. Wood

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Leroy Pitzer: Citizen, Voter, Lunatic?, Rabia Belt

Studio for Law and Culture

In a 1905 Ohio case, In re South Charleston Election Contest, Leroy Pitzer was accused of being a “lunatic” or an “idiot” and thus unable to vote in a tight and contest election that ripped the town of South Charleston in half. After intense deliberations – and considering 29 different definitions of lunacy and idiocy – the court decided that something was wrong with Leroy Pitzer, but they could not figure out exactly what. They also could not determine who Pitzer voted for. Unfortunately, without his vote, the election result was a tie and the entire election was rerun.

The …

The Geography Of Racial Stereotyping: Evidence And Implications For Vra Preclearance After Shelby County, Douglas M. Spencer, Christopher S. Elmendorf

Faculty Articles and Papers

The Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) effectively enjoined the preclearance regime of the Voting Rights Act. The Court deemed the coverage formula, which determines the jurisdictions subject to preclearance, insufficiently grounded in current conditions. This Article proposes a new, legally defensible approach to coverage based on between-state differences in the proportion of voting age citizens who subscribe to negative stereotypes about racial minorities and who vote accordingly. The new coverage formula could also account for racially polarized voting and minority population size, but, for constitutional reasons, subjective discrimination by voters is the essential criterion. We demonstrate that …

Election Law's Lochnerian Turn, Ellen D. Katz

Articles

This panel has been asked to consider whether "the Constitution [is] responsible for electoral dysfunction."' My answer is no. The electoral process undeniably falls well short of our aspirations, but it strikes me that we should look to the Supreme Court for an accounting before blaming the Constitution for the deeply unsatisfactory condition in which we find ourselves.

How Strict Voter Registration Laws Will Affect Transgender Voters, Angela Sukurs

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

A Recount Of The Recount: Obenshain V. Herring, Maggie Bowman

Law Student Publications

Because of the infrequency of recounts and the lack of judicial institutional knowledge, a plain-English guide is needed to assist judges and attorneys involved in recounts. The purpose of this essay is to provide such a guide as a resource for future Virginia recounts. Part I outlines the process of a recount and discusses how a recount differs from an election contest. Part I also briefly discusses the history of election recounts in Virginia, highlighting the two most recent state-wide recounts, Deeds and Obenshain. Part II delves more deeply into the primary issues encountered by the three-judge panel in Obenshain, …

Citizens United, States Divided: An Empirical Analysis Of Independent Political Spending, Douglas M. Spencer, Abby Wood

Indiana Law Journal

What effect has Citizens United v. FEC had on independent spending in American politics? Previous attempts to answer this question have focused solely on federal elections, where there is no baseline for comparing changes in spending behavior. We overcome this limitation by examining the effects of Citizens United as a natural experiment on the states. Before Citizens United, about half of the states banned corporate independent expenditures and thus were “treated” by the Supreme Court’s decision, which invalidated these state laws. We rely on recently released state-level data to compare spending in “treated” states to spending in the “control” states, …

Voting Rights Law And Policy In Transition, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Guy-Uriel E. Charles

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Rationalizing Voter Suppression: How North Carolina Justified The Nation's Strictest Voting Law, Megan C. Raymond

Scripps Senior Theses

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in instances of Republican-dominated state legislatures proposing changes to election law that some see as protecting electoral integrity and others understand as intended to suppress votes of traditionally Democratic constituencies. This thesis is a detailed collection of the rationales used to justify these changes, as examined through a case study of North Carolina’s enactment of the omnibus Voter Information Verification Act of 2013 (VIVA). By also including the arguments proffered during the legislative process by opponents of the law, and after evaluating the merits of the arguments on both sides, I …

Partitioning And Rights: The Supreme Court’S Accidental Jurisprudence Of Democratic Process, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

In democracies that allocate to a court responsibility for interpreting and enforcing the constitutional ground rules of democratic politics, the sheer importance of the task would seem to oblige such courts to guide their rulings by developing an account of the nature and prominent features of the constitutional commitment to democracy. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has from the beginning refused to develop a general account – a theory – of how the U.S. Constitution establishes and structures democratic politics. The Court’s diffidence left a vacuum at the heart of its constitutional jurisprudence of democratic process, and like most vacuums, …