Election Law Commons^™

White V. Weiser, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Party Reform, The Winner-Take-All Primary, And The California Delegate Challenge: The Gold Rush Revisited, James F. Blumstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

The legal issues underlying the California delegate challenge at the 1972 Democratic National Convention are the subject of this Article. The Article briefly will sketch some of the recent constitutional developments in party reform litigation. It will argue that winner-take-all primaries, especially in California because of its size, are violations of equal protection as interpreted by the voting rights cases decided during the past 40 years. Finally, it will take the superficially paradoxical position that despite its unconstitutionality, California's winner-take-all primary did not violate the rules governing delegate selection to the 1972 Democratic National Convention; therefore, unless declared unconstitutional by …

Wilkins V. Bentley: Getting Out The Student Vote In Michigan, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The right to vote is one of the most precious constitutional rights. The Supreme Court has described it as preservative of all rights, a fundamental matter in a free and democratic society, and a bedrock of our political system. Justice Black once stated, "No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live." It supports not only the individual's personal interest in self-government, but also the collective societal interest in broadly based consensual representation. The magnitude of these …

The 1969 United Mine Workers Election: Why No Pre-Balloting Investigation By The Secretary Of Labor, Edwin S. Hopson

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Regulation Of Campaign Funding And Spending For Federal Office, Roscoe L. Barrow

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article will detail significant data on campaign funding and spending, describe the major laws for regulating campaign funding and spending, analyze the constitutional issues raised by these laws, and propose changes to render the laws safer from attack on grounds of unconstitutionality and more effective in achieving a viable election process.

Constitutional Standards Applicable To Voter Registration Closing Dates, Jeffrey M. Petrash

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Judicial pronouncements during the last decade on the relationship between the state, the voter, and the Federal Constitution have circumscribed the power states formerly enjoyed to impose restrictions on availability of the franchise. Nevertheless, all states but one maintain voter registration systems, one element of which is a closing date which cuts off registration at a stipulated point in time prior to election day. While in a statistical sense large scale de facto disfranchisement results from the use of closing dates, a distinct issue is presented as to whether this disfranchisement is of a type that is proscribed by the …

The Constitutionality Of Candidate Filing Fees, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Early in the twentieth century a "progressive impulse" captured the energies of this country's burgeoning urban middle class. Sickened by the corruption and scandals of the nineteenth century and fearful of the rising influx of European immigration, the so-called Progressives began working for political reform. The emphasis of this reform was primarily structural. Rather than by a remodeling of the citizenry, reform was to be achieved by "a careful and scientific adjustment of the machinery of government for the correction of prevalent evils." Progressives pushed such reforms as initiative, recall, referendum, and frequent elections in the belief that these measures …

Reapportionment--Nine Years Into The "Revolution" And Still Struggling, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Malapportioned legislative districts traditionally have inhibited the effective working of government at the federal, state, and local levels. By 1960, the population disparities among legislative districts had attained such great magnitude "that the integrity of representative government was in many instances endangered." The underrepresented victims of malapportionment sought relief through the courts. Initially the Supreme Court, ever hesitant to enter the "political thicket," declined to address itself to reapportionment controversies. This era of judicial inaction ended in 1962 with the Court's ruling in Baker v. Carr, in which the plaintiffs overcame the formidable barrier posed by the political-question doctrine. …

Pipefitters Local Union No. 562 V. United States, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Elections--County Court May Validate An Invalid Election Committee List

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federalizing Through The Franchise: The Supreme Court And Local Government, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

Decisionmaking at the local government level has been significantly affected by both national legislation and federal court decisions seeking to protect the right to vote. Indeed, Professor Sentell feels that the Supreme Court, through decisions invalidating restrictions on the franchise, has involved itself to an unparalleled degree in heretofore purely local affairs. In examining these decisions, the author queries if legitimate voting regulations may be now imposed by local governments. In so doing he focuses upon the Court's equal protection analysis of extraordinary majority vote requirements and elections restricted to certain segments of the electorate and upon the expansive judicial …

One Man-One Vote In The Selection Of Presidential Nominating Delegates By State Party Conventions

University of Richmond Law Review

If any conclusion can safely be drawn from the presidential nominating conventions of 1968, it is that the success of potential third party movements looms as a substantial threat to the traditional two party system in the United States. To a large degree, this fact may be attributed to the lack of balanced voter participation inherent in the nominating processes now employed by the two major parties. This lack of participation has engendered a sense of futility in the minds of the individual party members, causing them to limit their support for the slate of candidates their party ultimately chooses.

A Survey Of Election Law Reform In Virginia, H. Emory Widener

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Effective Representation And Multimember Districts, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The Supreme Court has not decided a case involving an assertion of the claim that a multimember district denies the right of effective representation since Fortson and Burns. However, there have been several subsequent challenges in lower courts to the validity of such districts, and these challenges have generally failed because the factual evidence did not demonstrate conclusively that the voting strength of a legally cognizable racial or political element had been minimized or cancelled. In Chavis v. Whitcomb, however, a three-judge federal district court in Indiana found that the plaintiff had presented sufficient factual evidence to sustain …

Judicial Sanctions And Legislative Redistricting In Washington State, W. Basil Mcdermott

Washington Law Review

This case study of the impact of Baker v. Carr on the State of Washington attempts to discern the nature of the role of the judiciary in the implementation of new reapportionment rules. Redistricting is usually thought of as a highly political area, outside the normal involvement of courts. Now that federal judges are under a mandate to consider the problems in this area, it is important to understand the capacity of the judicial system to discharge its role. By exercising their power with restraint, the federal judges in Washington sought to influence the political system to do its duty …

Constitutional Law—Voting Rights—State English Literacy Requirements Upheld.—Mexican-American Federation-Washington State V. Naff, 299 F.Supp. 587 (E.D. Wash. 1969), Anon

Washington Law Review

The four individual plaintiffs, who were participating in a voter registration project initiated by the plaintiff Federation, appeared on separate occasions in the offices of the deputy voting registrars for the towns of Zillah and Toppenish, Washington, intending to register to vote. Each time, the applicants were accompanied by an interpreter associated with the Federation, who informed the registration officers that the applicants wished to register to vote and that he would act as Spanish-English interpreter. But the registration officers insisted that the applicants present their requests in person and in English, and refused to register them when it became …

A Model Bill On The Reporting Of Campaign Contributions And Expenditures, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Public demand for strict and effective accountability of public officials engaged in political election campaigns has increased dramatically in recent times. Development of concrete measures to implement the objective, however, has been less quick to materialize. In this article, Professor Rodgers proposes model state legislation to require reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures by most political candidates and committees. The controlling principle of the proposed legislation is total disclosure of all aspects of political campaign financing. The Model Bill contains an effective procedure for administration and enforcement of its pro visions.

A Model Bill On The Reporting Of Campaign Contributions And Expenditures, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

Public demand for strict and effective accountability of public officials engaged in political election campaigns has increased dramatically in recent times. Development of concrete measures to implement the objective, however, has been less quick to materialize. In this article, Professor Rodgers proposes model state legislation to require reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures by most political candidates and committees. The controlling principle of the proposed legislation is total disclosure of all aspects of political campaign financing. The Model Bill contains an effective procedure for administration and enforcement of its provisions.

Memorandum Of Decision, United States District Court, Northern District Of California

Other Cases

No abstract provided.

Post-Census Redistricting--A Primer For State Legislators, Charles G. Williamson Jr.

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reapportionment--"One Man One Vote"--Local Government, Joseph H. Terry

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Durational Residency Requirements In State Elections: Blumstein V. Ellington, James R. Fisher

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Katzenbach V. Morgan And The 18 Year Old Vote, E. Rick Buell Ii

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Recently the 91st Congress passed the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970. The provisions of the statute include Title III which extended the right of suffrage to eighteen year old citizens in all federal, state, and local elections. The basis for enacting Title III was the belief of Congress that citizens between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, by being denied the right to vote, were being denied equal protection of the laws as required by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The purpose of this note is to briefly trace the historical development of Congress' power to …

Restrictions On Student Voting: An Unconstitutional Anachronism?, W. Perry Bullard, James A. Rice

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Using Michigan as a vehicle for analysis because it has a student voting process representative of many states, this note seeks to accomplish four purposes: (1) an examination of the case law often underlying the presumption against student registrability; (2) an analysis of recent constitutional developments in the due process and equal protection areas as they relate to the particular problems posed by the student voter; (3) a survey of the competing local and student interests in the student vote issue; and (4) a conclusion regarding the likelihood that thwarted student voters can follow the paths of other disfranchised groups …

Employee Interrogation As Inherently Destructive Conduct: A New Approach, Howard D. Venzie Jr.

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Bergman V. Minister Of Finance, Moshe Landau, Shimon Agranat, Yoel Sussman, Zvi Berinson, Eliyahu Manny

Translated Opinions

Section 4 of Basic Law: The Knesset, requires that elections to the Knesset shall be "general, nationwide, direct, equal, secret and proportional". Sections 4 and 46 of this Law require that any amendment to section 4 be approved by an absolute majority of the Knesset. In 1969, the Knesset passed a Law providing public financing of the election campaign for the seventh Knesset, scheduled to be held in 1970. According to the provisions of this Law, which was not passed by an absolute majority, such funding is granted solely to party factions which are represented in the outgoing Knesset.

The …

Elections--The Use Of Certificates Of Nomination, Ray Allen Byrd, Danny Lee Stickler

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law--Equal Protection--Property Ownership Qualifications On The Right To Vote In Special Municipal Elections--Cipriano V. City Of Houma, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a resident of Houma, Louisiana, who owned no real property, brought a class action seeking to prevent the city from issuing utility revenue bonds approved by a vote of the property taxpayers at a special election. He argued that the Louisiana statute restricting the right to vote in such elections to property owners was unconstitutional. Plaintiff relied on Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, in which the Supreme Court declared that Virginia's required payment of poll taxes for voting in general elections was a violation of the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. Harper, he claimed, …

Voting Rights Of Americans Abroad, Kenneth M. Davidson

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Union Political Involvement And Reform Of Campaign Financing Regulation, George P. Macdonald

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The spiraling costs of political campaigns 5 and the continuing significant role played by unions and corporations in the financing of those campaigns call for an examination of section 610's efficacy as a prohibitory statute. This article will focus on the use of labor union funds in the financial aspects of national politics. It will first discuss the loopholes in section 610: those loopholes created through narrow judicial interpretation of the statute and those resulting from its imprecise drafting. Particular emphasis will be placed upon an analysis of the sources of funds available to unions for political activities and the …