Election-Campaign Law

Chiming in on Dean Logan

Posted on July 09, 2008
Let me second Mike's congratulations to Dean Logan. While I have not worked with Dean as extensively as Mike have, I've met Dean at conferences a number of times, and he was a valued participant in Data for Democracy. I can think of a lot of adjectives to describe Dean: professional, courteous, informed, open, self-critical...

New Research Funding available to study non precinct place voting

Posted on July 09, 2008
Just announced by Pew/JEHT Make Voting Work:Washington, D.C. - 07/09/2008 - Make Voting Work (MVW), a project of the Pew Center on the States in partnership with the JEHT Foundation, has announced up to $400,000 in new funding available for research examining alternatives to precinct-based election day voting, including early in-person and absentee voting and vote by mail systems...

Dean Logan gets the job in LA County

Posted on July 09, 2008
Dean Logan will be able to take "Interim" out of his title, according to newspaper reports this morning. Dean's been "Interim Registrar/Recorder" in LA County since Conny McCormack retired, and during that time Dean weathered the "double-bubble" controversy which I wrote about in early February...

Video of election fraud and rigging from Zimbabwe and Russia

Posted on July 08, 2008
Folks have forwarded to me the following links:From Zimbabwe.From Russia.

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Is polling becoming more difficult?

Posted on July 08, 2008
I know this subject is slightly off-topic for many readers of our blog, but I thought it might be of interest to some, especially those interested in polling and the reliability of polling. A colleague sent along a link to this article in the Arizona Republic, "Election Pollsters Face New Challenges...

New VTP working paper, "Mobilizing Pasadena Democrats: Measuring The Effects of Partisan Campaign Contacts"

Posted on July 08, 2008
Along with Betsy Sinclair (University of Chicago, Political Science) and Asa Hopkins (Caltech, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy), we just finished a working paper version detailing a field experiment project we have been working on for some time, "Mobilizing Pasadena Democrats: Measuring the Effects of Partisan Campaign Contacts"...

Clarin: "En un bar porteño festejan la independencia norteamericana y registran votantes para las próximas elecciones"

Posted on July 08, 2008
One of my graduate students sent this link along, from Clarin.com. If you don't understand the Spanish headline, just go to the link and watch the video. You'll get the idea, and see how one organization is mobilizing voters abroad ...

Using GIS to Locate Early Voting Sites

Posted on July 06, 2008
Gary Smith of Forsyth County, GA has posted about this on the Data for Democracy blog. The graphs are pretty neat!

New push for no-excuse absentee balloting in MI

Posted on July 02, 2008
As reported in the Chicago Tribune. Unlike past (failed) efforts, it looks like this push has a chance. Opponents are raising the spectre of fraud, while proponents claim it will increase turnout and broaden the electorate.

On Thad and Checklists

Posted on July 01, 2008
Thad's revealed passion for checklists in fact has a long history. Back in the day, when he was a young and aggressive assistant professor, he'd produce long lists of research projects and progress on those projects. But if you take a look at his research productivity, you'll see that checklists can be a good thing in the right hands ...

Follow Up about Check Lists and Elections

Posted on June 30, 2008
I received an email from John Tanner, formerly of the Justice Department, about my recent posts about checklists. Tanner noted that checklists are quite valuable and are are required in most of the Department ofJustice's minority language consent agreements...

Intimidation in Zimbabwe presidential election

Posted on June 30, 2008
There's been a lot of coverage of the Zimbabwe presidential election, more than I could easily summarize here.In light of our recent book, Election Fraud, the events in Zimbabwe provide an interesting addendum to work in our book on electoral manipulation, providing vivid examples of what one chapter (written by Rod Kiewiet, Thad Hall, Jonathan Katz and I) called "low-tech election fraud...

CGS report on online signature gathering for ballot measures

Posted on June 30, 2008
Walter S. Baer and Roy Ulrich recently authored a report for the Center for Governmental Studies, "Online Signature Gathering for California Initiatives. Here's the summary:he Center for Governmental Studies commissioned "Online Signature Gathering for California Initiatives" as part of its recently-released Democracy By Initiative (2nd Edition)...

The Benefits of Check Lists

Posted on June 27, 2008
The World Health Organization is trying to get hospitals around the world to adopt check lists that are followed during surgeries. It turns out that following check lists keeps people from making dumb mistakes, like cutting out the wrong lung, but also counting all of the clamps and sponges keeps doctors from sewing up one inside of a patient inadvertently...

Maybe You Can't Always Recount the Paper

Posted on June 25, 2008
One of the main arguments made by advocates of paper ballots is that you can always recount paper ballot; they have a certain infalibility in some people's eyes. Well this story from New Mexico may shatter your belief system. Reader discretion is advised!Ballots from the primary election are missing from two Cibola County voting places, which could create difficulties for an automatic recount expected in a razor-thin state Senate race...

Utah primary

Posted on June 24, 2008
We are still out in the field, at this point taking a coffee/Internet break. Hopefully folks are following our progress at twitter.com. Lonna Atkeson (University of New Mexico) has joined Thad and I this afternoon, as we headed to Box Elder and Davis Counties...

Utah primary - follow our progress

Posted on June 24, 2008
We are trying something new: follow our poll watching today at twitter.com

Primary election today in Utah

Posted on June 24, 2008
Today is primary election day in Utah, and this morning Thad and I have been visiting polling places in Davis County. More about our observations later ...

Ohio SoS report on March primary elections

Posted on June 18, 2008
Here's a link to the report.Here's the report's executive summary:The administration of elections in 2008 showed vast improvement from the 2004 presidential primary election. The first directive issued by this administration in February 2007, Directive 2007-01, established minimum qualifications for all directors and deputies (See Appendix III, page 263)...

New studies show that young voters engaged in primaries and caucuses

Posted on June 17, 2008
Two new studies, by CIRCLE and Pew, have found that young voters have been highly engaged in the primaries and cuacuses this election cycle. The studies are summarized in a great blog post at the Washington Post's "The Trail" blog:Some 6.5 million voters under 30 voted in this year's primaries and caucuses, according to data compiled by CIRCLE...

AP issues correction to story about EAC

Posted on June 17, 2008
The AP issued one correction to the story I blogged about yesterday. Here is what I blogged. Here is the correction:n a June 15 story about the Election Assistance Commission, The Associated Press erroneously reported the agency's current operating budget...

Louisiana's Voter Registration Issues

Posted on June 17, 2008
The NY Times had an article about the problems with voter registration drives there. Registrars were complaining about the forms submitted being incomplete, invalid or duplicates, all of which are problematic. As I read this I thought about the simple question: why do we make voter registration work the way we do? Election day voter registration, government-facilitated voter registration, or some other system would surely be better!

"Voting commission faces problems, lacking funds"

Posted on June 16, 2008
You can read all about the woes of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in this AP story.

Brunner comments on OH 2008 Election

Posted on June 15, 2008
Sigh. You just can't make headway on some issues.Sec'y of State Jennifer Brunner (OH) gave a wide ranging interview recently about the upcoming presidential contest. There's not a lot of new things in here, other than she's expecting 80% turnout in Ohio, which would be shockingly high...

It's Official: M. Mouse is not running for AG in Oregon Republican

Posted on June 13, 2008
I love the periphera of elections.It turns out that Multnomah County posts the official write-in results for elections where there is no party nominee.The Republicans didn't nominate anyone for Attorney General this May (a sad commentary on the statewide GOP in Oregon)...

Zimbabwe Election Photos

Posted on June 13, 2008
The Washington Post has a great photo gallery about the Zimbabwe election. There is a great story here that discusses the recent arrests of the opposition leaders too.

V.A. Ban on Voter Drives Is Criticized

Posted on June 13, 2008
It seems that the VA is banning voter registration drives.Voting rights groups are criticizing the Department of Veterans Affairs for its decision to ban registration drives among the veterans living at federally run nursing homes, shelters for the homeless and rehabilitation centers across the country...

Special issue of American Politics Research on voting technology and election administration research

Posted on June 13, 2008
American Politics Research is now publishing a special issue on election administration and voting technology research, co-edited by Richard Niemi and I. Here's a link to the electronic version of the special issue. The papers in the special issue include:David C...

97 Year Old Who Cannot Vote

Posted on June 13, 2008
Here is a woman who claims she cannot vote because of the voter ID law. Turns out that birth certificates were optional in 1910 in Kentucky.

CRS report, "The Constitutionality of Requiring Photo Identification for Voting."

Posted on June 12, 2008
Recently the CRS released a report, "The Constitutionality of Requiring Photo Identification for Voting: An Analysis of Crawford v. Marion County Election Board." The report concludes by asserting the following implications of the Crawford decision:In the wake of the Supreme Court?s ruling in Crawford, some commentators have speculated that more states are likely to enact laws requiring photo identification for voting...

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