Election-Campaign Law

That Perfect Present for Mother's Day -- Election Books!

Posted on May 06, 2008
Just in time for Mother's Day, you can buy two amazingly good books on elections. OK, this is a shameless plug for both of our new books.First, you can buy Electronic Elections: The Perils and Promise of Digital Democracy (only $21.56 from Amazon!) Here is what Tom Mann said about the book: Recent debates about voting technology and election reform have generated more heat than light, often leading to myopic views of security and premature policy fixes...

All eyes on Indiana ...

Posted on May 06, 2008
At this point (4:45pm Pacific), CNN has called NC for Obama. With 25% of the precincts reporting in Indiana, Clinton has a 57-43 lead. Going to be an interesting evening!

More early exit poll results: "Clinton leads on economy among Indiana voters ..."

Posted on May 06, 2008
This is from Bloomberg:Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leads among Indiana Democrats who say they are being affected by a U.S. economic slowdown, according to exit polls for television networks and the Associated Press.Barack Obama leads in North Carolina among those voters most concerned about the economy, the exits polls show...

Charlotte Observer: long lines in some parts of North Carolina

Posted on May 06, 2008
Here's the story from the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina:Mecklenburg County elections officials report a steady turnout of voters throughout the day. There were long lines at some precincts this morning, but voters who arrived in the mid-afternoon hours sometimes were able to vote in less than 10 minutes...

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Early exit poll results from Indiana and North Carolina

Posted on May 06, 2008
This was recently posted by the AP:WORRIED ABOUT THE ECONOMYThe economy was on voters' minds in Democratic primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. Two-thirds of Democratic primary voters in Indiana and nearly as many in North Carolina said the economy is the most important issue facing the nation...

Some confusion in North Carolina regarding party ballots

Posted on May 06, 2008
The Raleigh News and Observer is reporting that in Wake County, North Carolina, there was some confusion among registered Republican voters about whether they could vote the Democratic party ballot:Elections officials in Wake were dealing with confusion on the part of some Republican voters who asked for Democratic ballots, county Elections Director Cherie Poucher said...

"Indiana nuns lacking ID denied at poll by fellow sister"

Posted on May 06, 2008
Here's the story from the AP:About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow sisters at Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote...

AP video: long lines and energized voters in North Carolina

Posted on May 06, 2008
Here's the AP video:

Record number of absentee ballots in Indiana

Posted on May 06, 2008
From FOX News:According to the Secretary of State?s office by midnight last night a record-breaking 173, 525 absentee ballots have been received statewide?that number includes all early voting that ended yesterday at noon.

Scattered problems in Indiana primary

Posted on May 06, 2008
This is from Indianapolis (WTHR.com):As of 8:30 am, the county clerk's office reported the following problems:2-1 (IPS School 102, 1501 E. 10th St.) - Inspector did not show. Election Board deployed a back-up Inspector with materials as soon as possible...

Record early voting turnout in some North Carolina counties

Posted on May 06, 2008
This is from WSOCTV.com:Eyewitness News learned there was a record turnout in early voting in Mecklenburg County. Typically less than 1 percent of voters cast ballots in early voting, but in this primary it was 8 percent. The statistics show 85 percent of those people voted Democrat, even thought only 44 percent of voters in the county are registered Democrats...

AP survey finds 3.5 million new voters

Posted on May 06, 2008
The Associated Press surveyed voter registration figures throughout the U.S. and found that more than 3.5 million new registrants have been recorded. Here's a bit more:Voter excitement, always up before a presidential election, is pushing registration through the roof so far this year ? with more than 3...

Indiana primary: heavy turnout, lots of Republican crossover voters, some problems reported

Posted on May 06, 2008
The Indianapolis Star reports on turnout and crossover in today's Indiana primary:Amid heavy turnout, Republicans appeared to be crossing over in droves today in Marion County and suburban counties, where fewer Republican voters might impact down-ticket primary races...

EAC Commissioner to the FEC

Posted on May 06, 2008
This in from the AP:President Bush nominated two new Republicans and one new Democrat to the Federal Election Commission Tuesday in an attempt to break a Senate confirmation deadlock that had paralyzed the regulatory agency.Bush resisted efforts to withdraw the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department official whom he nominated in 2007 but who had not been able to win votes in the Senate to get confirmed...

New research paper: the effect of voting technologies on voter choices in a multiparty setting

Posted on May 05, 2008
There's a working paper that was recently posted to the VTP working paper archive by Gabriel Katz, Ernesto Calvo, Marcelo Escolar, Julia Pomares, and myself: "Assessing the impact of voting technologies on multi-party electoral outcomes: the case of Buenos Aires' 2005 Congressional Election...

Opinion Piece on Absentee Voting

Posted on May 05, 2008
There is an interesting opinion piece (link above) on closing polling places and creating absentee precincts in Santa Clara County. It delves nicely into the pro's and con's of this move. Amusingly, one of the interesting aspects of in-person voting is that people really like the "I Voted" stickers...

Record Crowds in NC Early Voting

Posted on May 04, 2008
From the Charlotte Observer, early voting stations held extended hours to handle the crush of voters.

Ballot Snafu is causing controversy in Oregon

Posted on May 03, 2008
A ballot snafu in Oregon has some newly registered voters receiving two ballots, on non-partisan and one partisan.  If they accidentally vote on the first, non-partisan ballot, then their partisan ballot won't count.The Oregonian and Willamette Week both cover the story and suggest that this will hurt Obama in the state, since many Independents have (in other states) gone more for Obama...

Next NC Update

Posted on May 02, 2008
Our next update for NC Early Voting is on the web.A question for our dear readers: why does early voting climb during the week? the over the week early voting patterns obtain across all of the states we have looked at? With some small discrepancies, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and North Carolina all show a slow climb in the return rate of early ballots from Monday through Friday...

Early Voting Turnout in NC: No presidential contest in '04 = no voters

Posted on April 30, 2008
Comparative early vote returns (absentee only, but NC has a provision for "one stop" absentee voting) are now up for view at earlyvoting.net/states/nc.php.Thanks to James Hicks (with a thesis deadline just 48 hours away!) and Peter Miller (soon at be at UC Irvine) for getting these to work, and to the NC DoE for letting us know how to find the file...

The Unrecognized Process of Ballot Remarking

Posted on April 29, 2008
I just wanted to echo Mike's posting about ballot remarking. When I've described this process to state legislators and elections officials not from the West Coast, they're generally confused, shocked, and sometimes appalled. I don't know how many states have a "voter intent" law that allows for ballot remarking, but I find the practice fascinating as well, and look forward to any research or insight on the process.

Estimates of new voters in California: "Integration Potential of California's Immigrants and Their Children"

Posted on April 29, 2008
A report was recently issued by the Grantmakers Concerned With Immigrants and Refugees, "Integration Potential of California's Immigrants and Their Children: New Estimates of Potential New Voters at the State, County, and Legislative District Levels...

Oh Baby....Baby.....Vote for Me.....Please....

Posted on April 29, 2008
OK, so sometimes you just can't make this stuff up. Not only is Bill Clinton going to kick Gronke's ass in Oregon, but when Gronke is recovering, he can call up and find out about voting in Oregon....from really really hot babes!It turns out that being off one digit on an 800 number really makes a difference -- you go from Oregon election information to, well, phone sex...

Remember that problem with "decline-to-state" ballots in LA County?

Posted on April 28, 2008
Some of you may remember the controversy earlier this year over problems associated with the "decline-to-state" ballots in Los Angeles County, during the February Super Tuesday primary (see, for example, some of my earlier postings about this[January 29, 2008;February 1, 2008;February 12, 2008;February 13, 2008;February 29, 2008...

NC Early Voting Charts: Data Available?

Posted on April 28, 2008
We've gotten a few inquiries about whether we are going to replicate the charts that we made for Texas and Tennessee but up to now, we can't find data to download from the NC website. If anyone knows of a source of turnout data for NC absentee ballots, by party, we'd appreciate it if you'd drop us a line...

At a bookstore near you ...

Posted on April 28, 2008
Here is Electronic Elections on the shelf at my neighborhood Barnes & Noble ...

Supreme Court to Voters: Get an ID

Posted on April 28, 2008
The Supreme Court ruled in the Crawford Case that voters can be told to bring an ID to the polls. You can read the actual decision here and read the information about the background of the case on the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project page.

The Understudied Process of Ballot Remaking

Posted on April 28, 2008
As I wrote immediately after the Super Tuesday primary here in California, I had a chance to observe the ballot remaking process in Los Angeles County. It's an interesting part of the post-election process, one that is poorly understood and not well studied...

Farewell to Melissa!

Posted on April 28, 2008
Melissa Slemin, who for about the past three years has been the project manager for the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, who designed and maintained the VTP website, who was a frequent contributor to our Election Updates blog, and who generally kept the trains running on time, has moved on to take a job working for Transamerica in Los Angeles, designing, developing, and managing their websites...

Clinton to Gronke: I am Going to Kick Your Ass

Posted on April 27, 2008
I think my fellow blogger Gronke was laying low this weekend, hoping that Bill Clinton's Secret Service detail didn't find him so that the ex-President could kick his....butt. Actally, he is going to have rural Oregonians drive to Portland and do it for him...

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