Election Law @ Moritz

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Commentary

Judicial Review of Electoral Mechanics After Crawford


Chris ElmendorfMay 6 (Chris Elmendorf)
Last December, I published an article that advanced two descriptive claims about nature of the Supreme Court’s Storer-Burdick (or “electoral mechanics”) jurisprudence. The first claim, which I thought perhaps so obviously true as to be uninteresting, was that in spite of the Court’s nominal rejection of “litmus paper tests” in favor of open-ended balancing in this area, the Court’s decisions actually manifest a strong preference for simple, formal threshold tests by which challenged requirements may be sorted into the twin categories of presumptively permissible and presumptively impermissible (and subjected to lax review or strict scrutiny accordingly). My second claim, which I thought more provocative, was that Burdick misleads where it indicates that that scrutiny levels are to vary with the severity of the burden on the plaintiff’s rights of political participation.

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Daniel P. Tokaji
Equal Vote is the nationally-acclaimed blog by Daniel P. Tokaji that focuses on election reform, the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act.

Information and Analysis

Major Election Law Reports Since 2004

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Page last updated 12/19/06


Below is an archive containing major election law reports issued by various agencies, institutes, watchdog groups and other groups since the 2004 presidential election. Check this page for further updates.

February 2008

A Ballot-Less Nightmare in the District

Congressional Research Service/Election Reform and Local Election Officials:  Results of Two National Surveys

December 2007

Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations/Trust but Verify:  Progress Report on Election Study

Ohio Secretary of State/EVEREST Voting System Review

U.S. Election Assistance Commission/2006 Election Day Survey

November 2007

electionline.org/ The Help America Vote Act at 5

Justin Levitt, Brennan Center for Justice/ The Truth About Voter Fraud

September 2007

University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute of Government/MyVote1 National Election Report:  Voice of the Electorate 2006

December 2006

U.S. Election Assistance Commission/ Election Crimes:  An Initial Review and Recommendations for Future Study    (Appendix)

October 2006

Brennan Center for Justice/ Investigator's Guide to "Voter Fraud"

National Committee for Voting Integrity/ Securing the Vote Project 2006

Electionline.org/ 2006 Election Preview:  What's Changed, What Hasn't and Why

The Century Foundation/ Voting in 2006:  Have We Solved the Problems of 2004?

Election Data Services/ Almost 55 Million, or One-Third of the Nation's Voters, Will Face New Voting Equipment in 2006 Election

August 2006

Election Science Institute/ DRE Analysis for May 2006 Primary in Cuyahoga County, Ohio

July 2006

Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Election Review Panel/ Final Report on May 2006 Primary

June 2006

The Brennan Center for Justice/ Machinery of Democracy:  Voting System Security, Accessibility, Usability and Cost

September 2005

US Government Accountability Office/ Federal Efforts to Improve Security and Reliability of Electronic Voting Systems Are Under Way, but Key Activities Need to Be Completed

July 2005

IBM Center for the Business of Government/ The Next Big Election Challenge:  Developing Electronic Data Transaction Standards for Election Administration

The Century Foundation/ Balancing Access and Integrity

February 2005

Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project/ Residual Vote in the 2004 Election