Election Law Commons^™

Not Gill-Ty: Challenging And Providing A Workable Alternative To The Supreme Court's Gerrymandering Standing Analysis In Gill V. Whitford, Colin Neal

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

A New Old Solution: Why The United States Should Vote By Mail-In Ballot, Annie Barouh

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Constitutionalism And Africa's Agenda 2063: How To Build "The Africa We Want", John Mukum Mbaku

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In 2013, Africans, under the leadership of the African Union, set out to develop a “strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over the next 50 years.” This new development program was expected to “accelerate the implementation of past and existing continental initiatives for growth and sustainable development.” This transformative program, called Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, was officially adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2015. The heart of this ambitious development initiative are seven aspirations, which Africans hope to achieve by the …

The Legal History Of State Legislative Vacancies And Temporary Appointments, Tyler Yeargain

Journal of Law and Policy

We love paying attention to special elections. They operate as catharsis for opposition parties and activists, easily serve as proxies for how well the governing party is doing, and are ripe for over-extrapolation by prognosticators. But in thirty states and territories throughout the United States, state legislative vacancies are filled by a combination of special elections and temporary appointments. These appointment systems are rarely studied or discussed in academic literature but have a fascinating legal history that dates back to pre-Revolutionary America. They have substantially changed in the last four centuries, transitioning from a system that, like the Electoral College, …

A Review Of The D.C. League Of Women Voters Project To Educate Sister Leagues Around The Country, Anne Anderson, Linda Beebe

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

The League of Women Voters of the District of Columbia ("LWVDC"), a chapter of the League of Women Voters of the United States ("LWVUS" or the "League"), has long been a staunch supporter of equality for the District of Columbia ("D.C." or the "District") by advocating for voting rights in Congress, promoting local control of local affairs, and supporting a Constitutional amendment when it was proposed. Statehood for the People of D.C., as it is currently constructed, is a newer idea that has been shrouded in much confusion and misunderstanding for people in other parts of the country. In 2015, …

The Great Holdup: How The Senate And The Filibuster Thwart Gun Legislation Most Americans Want, William G. Dauster

Legislation and Policy Brief

No abstract provided.

A More Perfect Electoral College: Challenging Winner-Takes-All Provisions Under The Twelfth Amendment, Eric T. Tollar, Spencer H. Kimball

Legislation and Policy Brief

No abstract provided.

Daniel Pule And Others V Attorney General And Others Selected Judgment No. 60 Of 2018, James Kayula

SAIPAR Case Review

No abstract provided.

Generals & General Elections: Legal Responses To Partisan Endorsements By Retired Military Officers, Hannah M. Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

Retired generals and admirals of the U.S. military appear to be endorsing partisan political candidates in greater numbers, with more visibility. This Note argues that the practice represents a clear danger to civilian control over the military and weakens military effectiveness. It explains that while retirees remain subject to military jurisdiction, the existing array of statutory and regulatory restrictions on political activity cannot adequately address the problem. Neither can professional norms be expected to shore themselves up to solve it. This Note describes how political restrictions on service members have evolved over time in response to novel challenges to civilian …

Are Two Minorities Equal To One?: Minority Coalition Groups And Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act, Kevin Sette

Fordham Law Review

Following Jim Crow, vote dilution is the second-generation barrier standing between minority voters and the polls. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) protects racial and language minorities from these vote dilution practices. To sustain a section 2 claim, a protected “class of citizens” must satisfy the criteria laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court in Thornburg v. Gingles. First, the class must constitute the majority of a hypothetical single-member voting district. Second, the class must be politically cohesive. Third, the minority class’s preferred candidate must be defeated by a white majority voting bloc. What the …

Voter Fraud As An Epistemic Crisis For The Right To Vote, Atiba R. Ellis

Mercer Law Review

Despite the antidiscrimination frameworks contained in the constitutional and statutory protections for the right to vote, access to the American ballot box is generally perceived as heavily contested. More precisely, many right-to-vote advocates (and their popular supporters) believe that the right to vote is in a crisis of exclusion so extreme that it represents a resurgence of Jim Crow racial exclusion from the franchise. Advocates for election integrity initiatives and their supporters claim that because of impending threats by “illegal voters” who will distort election results, initiatives like voter identification laws, proof of citizenship laws, and voter purges are necessary, …

Chester Arthur’S Ghost: A Cautionary Tale Of Campaign Finance Reform, Anthony J. Gaughan

Mercer Law Review

Chester Arthur may not be the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of major figures in the rise of campaign finance law. But despite his obscurity, he deserves to be ranked among the leading reformers in American history. As President, he signed into law a reform that cleared the way for the modern system of campaign finance to take root.

This Article puts the current debate over money in politics in historical context by examining the first major campaign finance reform in American history. The 1883 Pendleton Act is remembered today for establishing a professional, nonpartisan civil …

You’Ve Got (Political) Questions? We’Ve Got No Answers, Michael R. Dimino

Mercer Law Review

In Rucho v. Common Cause, the Supreme Court of the United States held that partisan-gerrymandering claims present non-justiciable political questions. The decision seemingly settled a controversy that had existed for decades, during which the Court was simultaneously unwilling to declare partisan-gerrymandering claims non-justiciable and unable to agree on a judicially manageable standard for adjudicating those claims. In Rucho, for the first time, a five-Justice majority definitively concluded that there are no judicially manageable standards to determine the constitutionality of partisan gerrymanders, and therefore held that federal courts lacked jurisdiction to hear cases raising such claims.

Although the Court …

Rucho For Minimalists, Benjamin Plener Cover

Mercer Law Review

In one of last term’s most consequential cases, Rucho v. Common Cause, the Supreme Court of the United States decided, 5–4, that “partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.” This limits the power of the federal courts to address what many, this author included, consider a significant threat to American democracy: the manipulation of electoral maps to favor certain voters or candidates. Federal courts may still intervene to vindicate the one-person-one-vote principle, enforce the Voting Rights Act (VRA), or invalidate racial gerrymanders. But not to limit partisan gerrymandering. Writing for the majority, Chief …

Federal Oversight Of State Primaries: The Troubling Drift From Equal Protection To Association, Jacob Eisler

Mercer Law Review

The latter half of the twentieth century saw a dramatic transformation in the degree and quality of federal judicial oversight of the voting process. With the one-person, one-vote jurisprudence, the Supreme Court of the United States imposed a basic requirement of personal equality in district line-drawing. In the context of race, Gomillion v. Lightfoot became the beachhead in the premise that racial discrimination will not be tolerated in voting procedure. A few decades later, Davis v. Bandemer suggested that fair district line-drawing could require non-discrimination on the grounds of party identification. In each of these domains of court-led intervention, one …

Racially Neutral In Form, Racially Discriminatory In Fact: The Implications For Voting Rights Of Giving Disproportionate Racial Impact The Constitutional Importance It Deserves, Gary J. Simson

Mercer Law Review

In two decisions in the mid-1970s, Washington v. Davis and Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., the U.S. Supreme Court made clear that proving that a law racially neutral on its face disproportionately disadvantages racial minorities does not establish a violation of the Equal Protection Clause or even create a presumption that such a violation has occurred. Disproportionate racial impact “is not irrelevant,” the Court explained, but “it is not the sole touchstone of an invidious racial discrimination forbidden by the Constitution.” The key, according to the Court, lies in proving that the law was the …

Voter Suppression Post-Shelby: Impacts And Issues Of Voter Purge And Voter Id Laws, Lydia Hardy

Mercer Law Review

The old adage that history repeats itself is no truer than when considered in the context of contemporary voting and election law. The history repeating itself within a new wave of legislation is voter suppression that mirrors many issues in the voting rights history of the United States. Since the landmark Shelby County v. Holder case in 2013, there has been a marked increase in the passage of new voting laws as well as corresponding court challenges to these laws. Unlike the discriminatory tactics and laws of the Jim Crow era that were banned and declared unconstitutional after the enactment …

Election Spotlight: Nearly Twenty Years After Hanging Chads, Problems Persist In Florida, Christopher Wood

Mercer Law Review

The right to vote is as close to sacrosanct as almost any right in our constitutional system. The election-battleground state of Florida has time and time again come under the national spotlight due to its vote counting practices. Florida fell under immense national scrutiny as the entire nation awaited the resolution of the 2000 presidential election. Bush v. Gore highlighted many of the inherent issues with the Florida system of allowing individual counties free rein to enact their own election procedures. The lack of any central guidance in election procedures has, in large part, persisted. The latest iteration concerns the …

The State Attorney General’S Duty To Advise As A Source Of Law, Winthrop Jordan

University of Richmond Law Review

This Comment seeks to help fill that gap by considering how a state attorney general’s duty to advise functions as a source of law, by proposing six general models of how the opinions of a state attorney general can alter the legal rights, duties, and relations of persons. In doing so, this Comment still seeks to acknowledge and respect the fact that each state’s individual constitution and traditions will create a unique role for its attorney general’s duty to advise in shaping state law.

Challenging Congress's Single-Member District Mandate For U.S. House Elections On Political Association Grounds, Austin Plier

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.