Archive for 2016

New Hampshire’s law banning “ballot selfies” – blocked late last year – reaches a federal appellate court today. The case turns on the clash between free-speech concerns and efforts to protect the integrity of the voting process, and may end up confronting the court with the familiar problem of how much credit to give a theoretical threat against voting when weighing an actual restriction based on that threat.

Late Friday, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, on a 2-1 vote, issued an injunction in a case challenging the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC)’s inclusion of state proof-of-citizenship laws on the federal voter registration form. The order likely settles this matter for now – but given the lengthy history of this dispute and a likely split at the EAC, not forever.

Earlier this week, David Becker and Amy Cohen – two well-known figures in the election community – announced that they had launched a new non-profit focused on continued improvements to the nation’s voting process. My friend and colleague Mindy Moretti sat down (virtually) with the two of them for a Q&A in the latest electionlineWeekly.

There’s been a lot of attention recently in the media on potential threats to the election system from hackers – but the focus has tended to be on what might happen or who plans to get involved. What’s been lacking up until now is a sense of what can be done about it; fortunately, members of the Election Verification Network (EVN) have developed a “Top Ten list” for election offices seeking to do something right now.

An appeals court handed down an opinion resulting from a court-ordered poll extension in Ohio in March following a serious traffic accident. It’s a must-read for anyone – but especially non-lawyers – interested in how our legal system interacts with the election process … especially on seemingly arcane issues like standing and mootness that can suddenly become important when it’s Election Day and problems arise.

Labor Day has come and gone, and with nine weeks – 63 days?! – to go until the big day on November 8 the key election law disputes across the nation are intensifying as the finish line nears. UC-Irvine law professor Rick Hasen has the latest roundup over at his (invaluable!) Election Law Blog. Here’s hoping all of the disputes get resolved sooner than later so Election Day can be as smooth as possible for everyone involved.

A new idea to bring ballots to voters in Idaho’s Ada County (Boise) seems like a fun outreach tool – but the concept was born of some hard thinking about Election Day disaster contingency planning.

A new piece in the Washington Post’s “The Fix” blog takes a critical look at the recent spate of (somewhat breathless) stories about “election hacking,” and gets some fantastic insight from Kennesaw State’s Merle King, who details what election officials do to protect the vote – and discusses the challenge of responding to allegations that are impossible to disprove.

Wisconsin’s voter ID law has been a moving target lately, with courts blocking then reinstating it in the last month – but now there is concern that the state’s procedure for making IDs available to people who lack them won’t actually work for voters this fall because of the time it will take to have them delivered.

California legislators took another step toward a major overhaul of the Golden State’s voting model with passage of SB450, which would move away from reliance on neighborhood polling places and toward the so-called “Colorado model” which involves a combination of mailed ballots, drop boxes and vote centers. The bill awaits Governor Jerry Brown’s signature.