Election-Campaign Law

Alabama: voter registration up by 58,000 in 3 months

Posted on February 02, 2008
The Birmingham News reports: Alabama voter rolls swelled by nearly 60,000 in the three months leading up to next week's Super Tuesday presidential primaries. Perhaps fired up by a flurry of visits by presidential hopefuls, frenzied voter registration drives and...

Alabama: updated article on Jefferson County ruling

Posted on February 02, 2008
The Birmingham News reports: A Jefferson County judge declined to act Friday on an emergency request to block officials from certifying the votes in Tuesday's special election for the Jefferson County District 1 commission seat. In a four-page order, Circuit...

"Irregularities" at the RNC

Posted on February 02, 2008
The Washington Post's The Trail blog reports: The FBI has been notified and asked to investigate allegations of financial fraud at a fund-raising arm of the House Republicans, capping a week of bad news for the beleaguered minority party. In...

Alabama: Speaker to push 2 campaign-finance bills early in session

Posted on February 01, 2008
The Birmingham News reports: The leader of the state House of Representatives said Thursday that he will ask House members next week to quickly pass five bills dealing with ethics and campaign finance, to kick off what he hopes will...

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Alabama: Jefferson County may end up with too many commissioners

Posted on February 01, 2008
The Birmingham News reports: Jefferson County residents in District 1 could have two commissioners claiming a right to represent them after Tuesday's election for the commission seat. The scenario hinges on several variables, including the outcome of the election and...

Alabama: state judge refuses request to stop special commission election [court docs attached]

Posted on February 01, 2008
The Birmingham News website reports: A Jefferson County judge Friday afternoon did not decide on an emergency request to block officials from canvassing the votes in Tuesday's special election for the Jefferson County District 1 commission seat. In a four-page...

"Money matters, but it doesn't decide"

Posted on February 01, 2008
AP reports: Money helped winnow the presidential field. It hasn't determined who each party's nominee will be. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have proven to be mega-fundraisers, operating at near parity in their own stratosphere. Each raised $100...

Human Rights Watch criticizes Western governments for allowing show elections by other counties

Posted on February 01, 2008
The New York Times reports: The advocacy group Human Rights Watch on Thursday said that the Bush administration was giving lip service to the promotion of democracy around the world by endorsing suspect elections while allowing human rights violations in...

Symposium on Electoral College Reform

Posted on January 31, 2008
The Michigan Law Review’s companion journal First Impressions today published an online symposium on Recent Proposals for Electoral College Reform. Several proposals for changing the manner in which electoral votes are assigned have been increasingly debated since the 2008 presidential...

Obama can't stop them, so they help him

Posted on January 30, 2008
The New York Times reports: After months of denouncing the influence of special-interest money in politics, Senator Barack Obama is nonetheless entering a critical phase of the presidential campaign benefiting from millions of dollars being spent outside campaign finance rules...

Alabama: early voting heavy in two Mardi Gras counties

Posted on January 30, 2008
AP reports: The turnout Wednesday by voters in Mobile County may signal a lively ballot battle statewide Feb. 5 in the tightened Democratic and Republican presidential primary fields. Mobile County Democratic Chairman Brad Warren said he was impressed with Wednesday's...

West Virginia: Senate committee kills National Popular Vote

Posted on January 30, 2008
The Register-Herald reports: An attempt to lead West Virginia into a new era of voting for president by tying the hands of electors to the popular vote got nowhere Tuesday with the Senate Judiciary Committee. For nearly 45 minutes, senators...

Tennessee: DOJ and State reach UOCAVA agreement

Posted on January 30, 2008
From a press release by DOJ: The Justice Department today announced that it has reached an agreement with Tennessee officials to help ensure that military servicemembers and other U.S. citizens living overseas have an opportunity to participate fully in the...

Virginia: bill to create independent redistricting commission approved in Senate committee

Posted on January 30, 2008
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports: Boosted by support from Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a bill to create an independent redistricting commission sailed through a Senate committee yesterday. Currently, the parties that control the state...

Maryland: Wynn alleges Edwards coordinating her campaign with other groups

Posted on January 30, 2008
The Washington Post reports: The campaign of U.S. Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D-Md.) filed a complaint yesterday with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that his leading primary opponent has illegally coordinated her campaign efforts with independent organizations that support her...

Reform Institute issues report on presidential-candidate ballot-access rules

Posted on January 30, 2008
From a Reform Institute press release: Raising large sums of money, building an organization and attracting grassroots support are among the many challenges facing those who seek the highest office in the land. However, one of the greatest obstacles to...

Florida: DOJ observers in Broward today

Posted on January 29, 2008
The Miami Herald reports: The Justice Department will be monitoring the presidential primary election in Broward on Tuesday to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act. Justice Department personnel will monitor polling place activities in Broward...

Ohio: ACLU sues to block touch-screens (court docs linked)

Posted on January 29, 2008
UPI reports: A rights group filed a legal challenge on voting technology to be used in and around Cleveland in the March 4 presidential primary elections. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed the challenge Monday in U.S. District...

California: Wanted -- unmotivated, suspicious voters

Posted on January 29, 2008
The New York Times reports: The conventional political wisdom in delegate-rich California is that the roughly three million registered voters without a party affiliation are ripe for the picking by the Democratic candidates for president. Democrats began allowing independents to...

Alabama: historic win by black candidate

Posted on January 29, 2008
The Cullman Times reports: Democrats appear to be headed for a historic win by James Fields in the Alabama House District 12 special election With 20 of 38 precincts reporting, Fields leads his Republican opponent, Wayne Willingham, with 1,929 votes....

Texas: film on voter I.D. fight

Posted on January 29, 2008
Gerry Hebert emails: The Lone Star Project in DC has produced this 12 and a half minute video on the fight over the voter ID bill in Texas during the 2007 legislative session. It is a tribute to the courage...

"Low complexity wins elections"

Posted on January 28, 2008
The Washington Post reports: Mitt Romney wants to round up 12 million illegal immigrants and deport them. John Edwards wants to put an end to lobbyists. All the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates rail against the ways of Washington. The...

"Races Entering Complex Phase Over Delegates"

Posted on January 28, 2008
The New York Times reports: The presidential campaign is entering a new phase as Democratic and Republican candidates move beyond state-by-state competition and into a potentially protracted scramble for delegates Congressional district by Congressional district...

Scotland: Vote-counting firm refuses to appear before Scottish parliamentary committee

Posted on January 27, 2008
The Sunday Herald reports: THE FIRM that provided the e-counting technology at last year's botched Holyrood election is refusing to appear before a parliamentary inquiry into the fiasco. DRS, which supplied the equipment for scanning and reading the ballot papers,...

Alabama: federal court clarifies its order on Riley's appointment of Jefferson County Commissioner [court docs attached]

Posted on January 26, 2008
The Birmingham News reports: Three federal judges who ruled Gov. Bob Riley needed federal approval before naming a Jefferson County Commission replacement issued a clarification Friday outlining how long appointee George Bowman can remain in the position...

Michigan: Feiger to get recusal information in his campaign finance trial

Posted on January 25, 2008
The Detroit News reports: A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to tell indicted Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger why U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy and two of his top officials disqualified themselves from overseeing Fieger s criminal investigation...

North Carolina: federal court hears GOP arguments to stop legislative primaries

Posted on January 25, 2008
AP reports: Elections must be delayed in North Carolina because boundaries for dozens of state House and Senate voting districts are unconstitutional, a lawyer representing a group of Republican voters told federal judges Friday. The voters' lawsuit accuses state lawmakers...

Colorado: governor calls for all-paper election

Posted on January 24, 2008
The Daily Sentinel reports: Gov. Bill Ritter asked lawmakers Wednesday to require counties to conduct the 2008 election using paper ballots so that the election will be secure. “We have a bipartisan agreement struck in the Legislature that would take...

Florida: DOJ approves 3 laws tightening voter I.D. requirements

Posted on January 24, 2008
The St. Petersburg Times reports: Six days before Florida's statewide presidential preference primary, the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday approved three recent changes to state election laws and took no action on a fourth because it is the subject...

Alabama: Riley likely to appeal federal court ruling on power to appoint Jefferson County commissioner (court doc attached)

Posted on January 24, 2008
The Birmingham News reports: Gov. Bob Riley on Wednesday said he likely will appeal a ruling by a panel of three federal judges that said Riley needed approval from the U.S. Justice Department to appoint George Bowman to the Jefferson...

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