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August, 2008

Below are postings from August, 2008. (See Archives | Recent Headlines)

State Seeks Damages for Defective Voting Machines

Aug. 7 - Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner filed a counterclaim against Premier Election Systems (formerly Diebold) yesterday (8/6) in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.  Secretary Brunner wants the court to find that Premier made false representations about its voting machines and failed to live up to contractual obligations and warranties.  The controversy surrounds votes which were "dropped" in recent elections by Diebold voting machines when information was uploaded to computer servers. Premier filed the lawsuit in May, seeking a ruling that it had satisfied the terms of its contract with the state and Cuyahoga County. 

Injunction Denied in Florida Voter Registration Case

Aug. 7 - U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia Altonaga denied the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction yesterday (8/6) in League of Women Voters of Florida v. Browning.  The plaintiffs had filed their action in an attempt to stop the enforcement of Florida's new laws concerning the handling of voter registration applications by third-party voter registration organizations. 

Commentary

Donald B. Tobin

FAQ on social welfare organizations

Donald B. Tobin

The Frank E. and Virginia H. Bazler Designated Professor in Business Law and a senior fellow at Election Law @ Moritz explains the nuances of social welfare organizations and federal regulations related to them.

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In the News

Donald B. Tobin

How Did The IRS Get The Job Of Vetting Political Activity?

Professor Donald Tobin was interviewed by the Boston NPR station on its show Here & Now about the Internal Revenue Service's investigation into groups classified as social welfare organizations (marked by the 501(c)(4) tax classification). The IRS was in search of groups that are not focusing primarly on the social welfare of the country, but have a strong political advocacy facet. Political advocacy groups might want to be classified as 501(c)(4) organizations because under that classification they do not have to disclose their donors.

"The key is if you going to be engaged in candidate-type advocacy, and if you're going to intervene in elections and engage in election advocacy, we want disclosure of who your donors are," Tobin said.

“What groups are trying to do here is avoid having to disclose,” Tobin continued. “By earning the classification of social welfare, they’re avoiding the campaign disclosure that’s required for political organizations. So that’s really the underpinning of why we have this mess of the IRS having to get in and investigate and figure out whether an organization is political or not.”

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Info & Analysis

Ohio House Committee Recommends Upholding Landis' Election Victory

Yesterday, an Ohio House of Representatives committee recommended 5-4 that the Ohio House uphold the election victory of Republican State Representative Al Landis over Democratic challenger Josh O'Farrell. In February, the Ohio Supreme Court sent the O'Farrell v. Landis record to the House for consideration. According to an article in the Canton Repository, committee chairman and State Representative Matt Huffman said he expects a vote by the full House later this month.

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