Election Law Commons^™

The Current State Of Election Law In The United States, Mark Rush

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

One Person, One Vote: Gerrymandering And The Independent Commission, A Global Perspective, James Ruley

Indiana Law Journal

In 1863, on the hallowed fields at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln encapsulated a core principle of democracy by describing our system as a “government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people.” This definition accurately depicts the ideal of democracy—that supreme power is vested in the citizenry, not in the government itself. Since the American model is based on representative democracy instead of direct democracy, extreme scrutiny must be placed upon the system of choosing representatives if government is to accurately represent the will of the people.

One of the greatest abuses of a citizen’s voting rights is gerrymandering. …

Voting, Spending, And The Right To Participate, Robert Yablon

Northwestern University Law Review

While the law governing the electoral process has changed dramatically in the past decade, one thing has stayed the same: Courts and commentators continue to view voting in elections and spending on elections through distinct constitutional lenses. On the spending side, First Amendment principles guide judicial analysis, and recent decisions have been strongly deregulatory. On the voting side, courts rely on a makeshift equal protection-oriented framework, and they have tended to be more accepting of regulation. Key voting and spending precedents seldom cite each other. Similarly, election law scholars typically address voting and spending in isolation.

This Article challenges the …

A Left Of Liberal Interpretation Of Trump's "Big" Win, Part One: Neoliberalism, Duncan Kennedy

Nevada Law Journal Forum

Trump’s narrow victories in swing states could have been caused by any number of factors, but it is still significant that there was a nation-wide shift of the non-college white electorate, male and female. Many non-college Democrats who had voted for Obama did not turn out for Hillary and some voted for Trump; many Republicans who had not voted for Romney turned out for Trump. This article proposes, as part of the explanation, a rebellion of non-college whites against the consequences for poor communities, in red states or in red pockets in blue states, of four decades of neoliberal selective …

Hegelian Dialectical Analysis Of U.S. Voting Laws, Charles Edward Andrew Lincoln Iv

Student Scholarship

This Comment uses the dialectical paradigm of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1833) to analyze the progression of United States voting laws since the colonial foundations of a participatory democratic process in this country. This analysis can be used to interpret past progression of voting rights in the United States as well as a provoking way to predict future trends in United States voting rights - as an ongoing "progressive" political process or rhetorical method of erasing categories or classifications and eliminating distinctions amongst persons.

The Case For State Attorney General Enforcement Of The Voting Rights Act Against Local Governments, Perry Grossman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The summer of 2016 showed that racial discrimination in voting is alive and well, as federal courts across the country struck down state statutes that disproportionately disenfranchise minority voters, including voter ID laws, restrictions on early voting, and racially gerrymandered legislative districts. However, at the local level, discriminatory practices in the nation’s approximately 89,000 political subdivisions have gone largely uninvestigated and challenged. Recent conflicts between communities of color and law enforcement have highlighted the failure of local governments in places like Ferguson, Missouri to adequately represent the interests of minority voters. These failures of representation, which occur in progressive states …

Concealed Motives: Rethinking Fourteenth Amendment And Voting Rights Challenges To Felon Disenfranchisement, Lauren Latterell Powell

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Felon disenfranchisement provisions are justified by many Americans under the principle that voting is a privilege to be enjoyed only by upstanding citizens. The provisions are intimately tied, however, to the country’s legacy of racism and systemic disenfranchisement and are at odds with the values of American democracy. In virtually every state, felon disenfranchisement provisions affect the poor and communities of color on a grossly disproportionate scale. Yet to date, most challenges to the provisions under the Equal Protection Clause and Voting Rights Act have been unsuccessful, frustrating proponents of re-enfranchisement and the disenfranchised alike.

In light of those failures, …

“Why Should I Go Vote Without Understanding What I Am Going To Vote For?” The Impact Of First Generation Voting Barriers On Alaska Natives, James Thomas Tucker, Natalie A. Landreth, Erin Dougherty Lynch

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This article explores the many forms of discrimination that have persisted in Alaska, the resulting first generation voting barriers faced by Alaska Native voters, and the two contested lawsuits it took to attain a measure of equality for those voters in four regions of Alaska: Nick v. Bethel and Toyukak v. Treadwell. In the end, the court’s decision in Toyukak came down to a comparison of just two pieces of evidence: (1) the Official Election Pamphlet that English-speaking voters received that was often more than 100 pages long; and (2) the single sheet of paper that Alaska Native language …

Mccutcheon V. Federal Election Commission And The Supreme Court's Narrowed Definition Of Corruption, Mikala L. Noe

Maine Law Review

On June 17, 1972, five men were caught attempting to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. The first link between this break-in and President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign funds was discovered when a $25,000 cashier’s check, earmarked for Nixon’s re-election fund, was found to have been deposited into the bank account of one of the men involved in the break-in. Shortly thereafter, reporters revealed that then U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell controlled a secret campaign fund used to gather information about the Democratic Party. During the resulting Watergate investigation, the …

Dismantling The Unitary Electoral System? Uncooperative Federalism In State And Local Elections, Michael T. Morley

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Aviram V. Minister Of Justice, Neal Hendel, Isaac Amit, Uzi Vogelman

Translated Opinions

A petition concerning whether the Knesset is required to ensure that a member of the opposition serves on the Judicial Selection Committee (hereinafter: the Committee) at all times. Background: The two Members of Knesset sitting on the Committee are elected by the Knesset by secret ballot. Since 1990, the Knesset has elected at least one Committee member from the ranks of the opposition. This was also the case in the last elections, with the election of MK Ilatov to the Committee. MK Ilatov was a meber of Yisrael Beitenu, which then sat in the opposition. Shortly thereafter, Yisrael Beitenu joined …

More Public Education Needed On Changes To Ep System, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The office of Singapore’s Elected President is often misunderstood. Although it has been part of our system of institutional checks and balances since 1991, a popular misconception is that the President is a centre of political power unto itself.

Domicile, Student Voters And The Constitution, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "The wisdom of using the Electoral College to choose our president is a hot topic. For the second time in 16 years (and the fifth time in our history), the "winner" of the national popular vote lost the presidential election in the Electoral College. To many, this "undemocratic" outcome seems wrong."

Odni Statement On Declassified Intelligence Community Assessment Of Russian Activities And Intentions In Recent U.S. Elections, United States Senate

United States Senate Documents

ODNI Statement on Declassified Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections, January 6, 2017

On December 9, 2016, President Barack Obama directed the Intelligence Community to conduct a full review and produce a comprehensive intelligence report assessing Russian activities and intentions in recent U.S. elections. We have completed this report and briefed President Obama as well as President-elect Trump and Congressional leadership. We declassified a version of this report for the public, consistent with our commitment to transparency while still protecting classified sources and methods. The Intelligence Community did not make an assessment of the …

Political Gerrymandering: Was Elbridge Gerry Right, C. Daniel Chill

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judges As Politicians: The Enduring Tension Of Judicial Elections In The Twenty-First Century, Richard Lorren Jolly

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

Elections transform the basis of judicial legitimacy. Whereas a permanently appointed judiciary finds support in its supposed neutrality, the democratic judiciary demands responsiveness. Yet while this is obvious to scholars, the electorate, and most judges—and is in fact confirmed by much statistical data—the Supreme Court and others continue to insist that judicial campaigns can be sculpted to ensure robust democratic debate without compromising the bench’s impartiality. This Essay rejects the notion that the court can be both democratic and disinterested. It reviews the volatile history of judicial elections as well as the modern web of distinctions between protected and proscribable …

Legal Solutions To A Political Party National Committee Undermining U.S. Democracy, 51 J. Marshall L. Rev. 107 (2017), John Baglia

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Corporation In The Marketplace Of Ideas, 51 J. Marshall L. Rev. 19 (2017), Matthew Telleen

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Post-Shelby Landscape: Using Universalism To Augment The Remaining Power Of The Voting Rights Act, Jesús N. Joslin

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

Making Democracy Harder To Hack, Scott Shackelford, Bruce Schneier, Michael Sulmeyer, Anne Boustead, Ben Buchanan, Amanda N. Craig Deckard, Trey Herr, Jessica Malekos Smith

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

With the Russian government hack of the Democratic National Convention email servers and related leaks, the drama of the 2016 U.S. presidential race highlights an important point: nefarious hackers do not just pose a risk to vulnerable companies; cyber attacks can potentially impact the trajectory of democracies. Yet a consensus has been slow to emerge as to the desirability and feasibility of reclassifying elections—in particular, voting machines—as critical infrastructure, due in part to the long history of local and state control of voting procedures. This Article takes on the debate—focusing on policy options beyond former Department of Homeland Security Secretary …