Uncategorized

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.

[UPDATED to correct that this is in St. Louis city, not County] A close primary in St. Louis has generated a dispute that centers on an unusual subject: envelopes – or rather the lack of them. A challenger is claiming that in-person absentee ballots are not permitted – a dispute which highlights both the degree to which statutes structure the electoral process and the challenges that arise when technological developments and/or evolving practice outstrip the letter of the law.

This week’s electionlineWeekly features a guest column by Inyo County, CA registrar Kammi Foote, who writes about her “wilderness civics effort” focusing on outreach to hikers on the many trails passing through her beautiful Southern California county.

Last year, California enacted legislation protecting people with disabilities from losing their right to vote when they are placed under a court guardianship by establishing the presumption that they are competent to vote unless proven otherwise. That bill passed and went into effect in 2016 – and now there is a push for affected individuals previously stripped of their rights to get them back in time for this year’s election.

In most communities across America, election officials are in the final stages of preparing for this fall’s vote, and likely aren’t thinking much beyond November 8. In the Massachusetts city of Lynn, however, a funding dispute over a new elections position has left the city with more than a little uncertainty over who’s in charge – and for how long.