Election-Campaign Law

"When Voters Settle Nothing"

Posted on April 24, 2008
The Economist recently had an interesting article, "When voters settle nothing: why more and more ballots are inconclusive." The argument in the story is that an increasing number of democratic elections in the world are subject to post-election disputes...

New Book on Election Fraud: "Election Fraud: Detecting and Deterring Electoral Manipulation"

Posted on April 24, 2008
I received the following email from amazon.com this afternoon:Dear Amazon.com Customer,As someone who has purchased or rated books by R. Michael Alvarez, you might like to know that Election Fraud: Detecting and Deterring Electoral Manipulation (Brookings Series on Election Administration and Reform) will be released on May 1, 2008...

Party switching up in North Carolina in advance of their primary

Posted on April 23, 2008
Party registration switches are up in some North Carolina counties, according to a story in the Dunn Daily Record, "Party Switching Up In 2008 Primary". Here's some interesting data from the story:In light of North Carolina's significance to this year's primary election process, the concept of voters switching parties warrants closer observation...

Pennsylvania Dreamin'

Posted on April 22, 2008
A link to a posting I made on another website, "Blue Oregon" about Pennsylvania.My in laws from my current family are from the Keystone State (northeastern PA), as well as my in laws from my ex-wife's family (northwestern PA).I believe Michael has PA roots as well...

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More early exit poll data from PA: New Democratic voters for Obama, late deciders for Clinton

Posted on April 22, 2008
From CNN, "Exit polls: New Dems break for Obama, late deciders for Clinton":One out of every seven Democratic party voters was not registered as a Democrat at the beginning of the year, and 60 percent of them cast their ballot for Obama, according to the exit polls...

Problems reported in PA primary

Posted on April 22, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer has a story, "Machine, registration problems in Pa. primary elections." According to this story, most of the reports of registration problems seem to stem from voters who changed their party registration, and who were not on the rolls...

More Political "Pranks": Obama Website Hacked

Posted on April 22, 2008
Got this from ChannelWeb, "Obama Website Hacked: Users Redirected to Clinton Campaign." Here's some details:The attack, which took advantage of a cross site scripting vulnerability on Obama's Website, was launched on the eve of Pennsylvania's Democratic National Primary, which closes this evening...

"Early Pennsylvania Exit Poll Results"

Posted on April 22, 2008
From the AP, "Early Pennsylvania Exit Poll Results":Highlights of preliminary exit poll data in the Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary Tuesday:PARTY-SWITCHERSOne in 10 voters changed their party registration since the start of the year so they could vote in the hotly contested primary, which was open only to registered Democrats...

Ballot confusion in Palmer Township, Pennsylvania

Posted on April 22, 2008
"Palmer Twp. voter reports ballot confusion." Especially see jpg file of the sample ballot. The issue here is that the delegates listed in each column do not necessarily match the candidate at the top of the column.

Long lines in Northampton County (PA)?

Posted on April 22, 2008
"Voters might need to wait in ling longer":Retired Rabbi Jonathan Gerard, 60, of Easton, was concerned -- as were many voters -- that there was just one electronic voting machine in the polling place, where for years there had been two mechanical machines...

Video of voting in Lehigh County

Posted on April 22, 2008
Here's an archive of interesting videos from Pennsylvania.

"Political Hijinks" in Philadelphia?

Posted on April 22, 2008
Rod Kiewiet passed along this link, "South Philly Political Hijinks Already Under Way." The allegation is that misleading flyers were distributed directing voters to incorrect polling locations.

PA voters describe voting ...

Posted on April 22, 2008
From the AP: "Raw Video: Pa. Residents Describe Voting."

Record turnout expected in Pennsylvania today!

Posted on April 22, 2008
Here's a story from Fox: "Clinton, Obama Brace As Record Turnout Project in PA."And one from USA Today: "Pennsylvania Voters Go To The Polls."

Election Protection Press Release on Pennsylvania

Posted on April 22, 2008
The Election Protection Coalition reported receiving 1000 calls about election problems. They note that the calls were all over the board. Here is a key section of the report:Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections ofthe Lawyers' Committee's Voting Rights Project, said, "In this historicprimary season, voters across the country have turned out in droves toexercise their fundamental right to vote...

More on Russian election fraud

Posted on April 21, 2008
Peter Ordeshook passed along this link, with additional details regarding the Shpilkin analysis of election fraud in the recent Russian Elections: "Dmitri Medvedev votes were rigged, says computer boffin", from TimesOnline. The working paper by Ordeshook and Myagkov, "Russian Elections: An Oxymoron of Democracy" were apparently also discussed at the same seminar where Shpilkin presented his work.

North Carolina's "one-stop voting"

Posted on April 21, 2008
Here's a few snips from a WRAL story, in North Carolina, "Hundreds in Wake Cast Early Primary Ballots":Primary elections in presidential election years traditionally attract 16 to 31 percent of registered voters, but Bartlett predicted a turnout of more than 40 percent this year because of heightened interest in the tight Democratic race between presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton...

Russian Election Fraud

Posted on April 18, 2008
This is an interesting analysis of the Russian elections and the possibility of fraud in the recent presidential election.

NC Primary starts today

Posted on April 17, 2008
Early voting that is ...

Boston Globe: "New Voters Flood Primaries"

Posted on April 12, 2008
According to this story in the Boston Globe, a half million people have either registered to vote or have changed their registrations to participate in the upcoming Democratic presidential primaries.

Committee on House Administration: "2008 Presidential Primaries and Caucuses: What We've Learned So Far"

Posted on April 11, 2008
On April 9, the Committee on House Administration held an interesting hearing, and the webcast and most of the witness statements are are now available. Interesting testimony came from Cecilia Martinez, Executive Director of The Reform Institute. In her testimony, she discussed data collected by the 866-MyVote1 Consortium...

The 80s are over

Posted on April 10, 2008
And so are those Cosby sweaters.

Q+A with Pew's Michael Caudell-Feagan and electionline.org's Doug Chapin

Posted on April 10, 2008
Pew has a Q+A, "Experts Weight In on Election Reform", featuring Michael Caudell-Feagan and Doug Chapin. Interesting reading!

House Committee on Administration to hold hearings next week on UOCAVA voting issues

Posted on April 10, 2008
The U.S. House Committee on Administration is holding hearings next Tuesday, "Military and Overseas Voting: Problems and Progress in Ensuring the Vote." For background reading on UOCAVA voting issues, read "Military Voting and the Law: Procedural and Technological Solutions to the Ballot Transit Problem", a paper in the Fordham Urban Law Journal, April 2007, co-authored with Thad Hall and Brian F...

National Academies Report on Voter Registration: Recommendations

Posted on April 08, 2008
Here's the key recommendations from the NAS report on voter registration, "State Voter Registration Databases: Immediate Actions and Future Improvements, Interim Report:SHORT-TERM ACTIONS?PUBLIC EDUCATION AND DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION ? Raise public awareness about the legibility and the completeness of voter registration card information...

"Steps Could Improve Voter Registration Databases for November", Report from the National Academy of Sciences

Posted on April 08, 2008
This morning the National Academy of Sciences released an interim report, "State Voter Registration Databases: Immediate Action and Future Improvements, Interim Report." This report represents the work to-date of the NAS panel on state voter registration databases, of which I am a member...

21 days and 10 million dollars

Posted on April 07, 2008
Three weeks to go until the April 28th deadline for the EAC Data Collection Grant program.

Voting at Malls Coming to Ohio

Posted on April 07, 2008
To avoid the long lines that formed at the Summit County Board of Elections in the days before the March primary, the board might allow people to vote absentee at local malls in November.Is this early in person or absentee voting? Dedicated coders want to know...

Off to the Midwest Political Science Association!

Posted on April 03, 2008
Paul, Thad and I will be at the Midwest Political Science Association conference for the next few days. I have not yet had a chance to go through the program and link specific panels and papers from our blog, no doubt Paul, Thad and I will over the coming days!

Kudos to John Kauffman upon Retirement

Posted on April 02, 2008
John Kauffman, longtime elections director in Multnomah County, OR, retired this past Friday.John is well known and well respected in the elections field. He served on a number of regional and national advisory panels. John also deserves accolades from the academic community...

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