Getting on the Ballot Doesn’t Have to Be this Hard
By: Aidan Calvelli ’24 | November 30, 2021 Election law is having a moment. When Democrats took the House in 2018, their top priority was H.R. 1, a sweeping political reform bill. The 2020 election made the law of democracy scholars in–demand commentators. And this summer, the Supreme Court gave the Voting Rights Act its second judicial buzzcut of the decade in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee. This focus is a needed response to proliferating crises of democracy, like draconian voting barriers, unregulated dark money, and challenges to the legitimacy of elections. Still, in the midst of these crises, we […]
We Must Defend the Integrity of Vote Counting, Not Just Vote Casting
By: Mark Haidar ’23 | September 13, 2021 As Benjamin Franklin was exiting the Constitutional Convention in 1787, someone asked him, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” Franklin famously responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” If you can keep it. That is the critical challenge facing our democratic republic today some 234 years later. The actions of Congress over these next couple of months may well determine whether we are prepared in meeting this challenge. This year alone, over 400 bills have been introduced in state legislatures nationwide that make it harder to vote, […]
A Cry for Help: Civic Education in Today’s America
By Patrick O’Connor | April 18, 2021 There is a “deep flaw” in our nation’s education policies. “American democracy is in peril.” These are two statements made by U.S. District Court Judge William Smith in his decision to reluctantly dismiss a class action brought on behalf of Rhode Island students to establish public education as a right under the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs’ argument in Cook (A.C.) v. Raimondo,[1] is that the Constitution contains an implied right to an education that adequately prepares students to become capable citizens and participate in democracy. The lawsuit claims that, as a result […]
H.R. 1, Voter ID, and The Myth of Voter Fraud
By Catherine Walker-Jacks | April 11, 2021 H.R. 1—The For the People Act—is a bold piece of proposed legislation that would reform essential aspects of the American political system across campaign finance, voting rights, election security, ethics, and more. To strengthen voting rights, the bill aims to reduce many barriers to the ballot box, including by addressing states’ voter identification requirements. According to the bill’s drafters, identification requirements are “excessively onerous” and “disproportionately burden” minority communities. To mitigate these burdens, the legislation would require that all states permit eligible voters in federal elections to use “sworn written statement[s] to […]
Issue Explainer: The Filibuster
By Christina Coleburn | March 21, 2021 As legislative battles rage in Congress, discussions about the future of the Senate filibuster have taken center stage. With bills quickly advancing from the House to the Senate under unified Democratic control, political observers are debating whether to keep, weaken, or nix the Senate filibuster altogether. This tool could make or break — and as it stands today, break — ambitious laws, from voting rights, to infrastructure, to immigration from coming to fruition. Through the filibuster, a few senators whose views represent a minority of voters, could effectively kill legislation that […]
H.R. 1: Congress’s Plan for a Stronger Democracy
By Zachary Sorenson | March 7, 2021 Late Wednesday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, the “For the People Act,” for the second time in as many years. The nearly 800-page bill includes a sweeping set of voting rights, campaign finance, and good government reforms. And between the Covid-19 pandemic, the violent response to the 2020 election, and the upcoming post-Census apportionment, it couldn’t come at a more pivotal time for voting rights and election access and security. Even after the remarkable success of the 2020 election amidst unprecedented challenges, legislatures in a majority of […]
A Primer on Brnovich v. DNC: The Supreme Court’s Latest Voting Rights Case
By Omeed Alerasool | March 7, 2021 Described as the Supreme Court’s “chance to diminish the Voting Rights Act,” Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee was argued in front of the high court’s Justices on Tuesday, March 2, 2021. WHAT IS THIS CASE ABOUT? Brnovich involves two electoral policies in Arizona, enacted by Republicans ostensibly to promote election security. Voting rights advocates argue that these laws have the effect of denying minority voters the opportunity to vote. The first is a ban on third-party ballot collection (referred to as “ballot harvesting” by its critics), which effectively prohibits third-party collection […]
Lessons from Election Litigation in the COVID-19 Era
By Irfan Mahmud | November 15, 2020 In this heavily litigious election year, courts throughout the country have been frequently ruling on election law challenges. As state legislatures and courts worked in tandem to make voting more accessible during the unique context of a pandemic, friction resulted over the role of the courts in election law. Courts determine the constitutionality of election regulations by weighing the burden such regulations place on voters against the state interests they advance. Lower courts have generally been convinced by the weight of the practical burdens voters would face during a global pandemic to […]
The Democratic Paradox of Ballot Measures: In Order to Form a More Perfect Uber?
By Caroline Hansen | November 1, 2020 When U.S. voters receive their ballots this year on November 3 (or before, by mail), most have likely only been thinking about the very top of the ticket. Even the most responsible voters often don’t know – or care – about everything on their ballots, especially the seemingly inconsequential state and local “issue, proposition, measure and amendment” questions near the end. What’s more, the language of these questions is usually indecipherable to the average voter, leading to haphazard selection or blank answers. Those questions – innocuous at best, head-scratching at worst – […]
Courts of Appeals Limit Drop Boxes in Battleground States
By Christina Coleburn | October 25, 2020 An unprecedented election season is in full swing, bringing with it record-shattering turnout and legal controversies as millions of voters cast their ballots in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. With the virus disrupting traditional voting methods, cases litigating integral matters of election law have proliferated across the state and federal judicial systems, carrying far-reaching consequences for American voters. Due to the pandemic — the United States has had over 8.5 million cases and nearly 225,000 deaths thus far — changes have been made to election administration policy. These adjustments include counties […]