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Election Law @ Moritz

Election Law @ Moritz


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June, 2010

Below are postings from June, 2010. (See Archives | Recent Headlines)

IN Supreme Court upholds voter ID law

June 30 - The Indiana Supreme Court today (6/30) entered an opinion in the case of League of Women Voters v. Rokita ruling that the state’s voter identification law is constitutional. [See EL@M case page and Indianapolis Star article for more information.]

Georgia Challenges Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act

June 28 - The State of Georgia has filed this complaint against AG Eric Holder. The complaint seeks judicial preclearance of its voter verification process under Section 5 and, in the alternative, asserts that Section 5 is unconstitutional. DOJ had denied preclearance of the verification process last year and declined to withdraw its objection earlier this year. The case is worth watching not only because of the constitutional claim, but also because of the relative dearth of precedent on how Section 5 should be applied to election administration practices like this one. According to this story, Georgia's Attorney General Thurbert Baker refused to file suit, leading Governor Sunny Perdue to appoint a special attorney general to file on the state's behalf. [See EL@M case page for additional information]
 

New NY case citing violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act

June 28 - The New York State Conference of the NAACP and other civic groups have filed a complaint against the New York State Board of Election seeking a declaratory judgment that the overvote practice and procedure results or will result in the denial of NY citizens’ right to vote on account of race or color, in violation of Section 2 of the VRA. [See EL@M case page and New York Times article for additional information.]

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 are 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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