State of Elections

William & Mary Law School | Election Law Society

Maryland & Indiana: A robocall showdown

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How different states are handling political robocall controversies.

by Ashley Ward

What thought comes to mind upon hearing the word “Robocall”? For most, the thought conjures ideas of annoying telemarketing. However, for Democrats in the Baltimore and Prince George’s Counties, robocalls received on the 2010 election night added new thoughts to the definition: voter confusion and suppression. Before the polls closed for the 2010 Gubernatorial Race, residents received a call from an unnamed woman who said: “I’m calling to let everyone know that Governor O’Malley and President Obama have been successful. Our goals have been met…The only thing left is to watch it on TV tonight. Congratulations and thank you.” Listen Here

The message seemed to imply that the Democratic candidate had already won the election and therefore the residents’ vote would be excessive and not needed. This implication was ill-gotten because there was no way to know at that time which candidate won. Many confused and upset residents contacted Gov. O’ Malley’s campaign center to complain.  Further investigation proved that the governor and his team had nothing to do with the calls. In fact, investigators determined that the members of the Republican candidate, former Gov. Eurlich’s team were responsible for the calls that have been considered by many to be a tactic to discourage the African American vote.
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Maine-iacs Mobilized: New Voter Registration Laws in Maine

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After thirty-eight years, a sleeping (political) giant is now awake in the Pine Tree State. In June of 2011, the Maine State Legislature repealed the long-standing law permitting Mainers to register to vote on the same day as elections, and replaced it with a new law prohibiting same-day voter registration.

Pursuant to LD 1376, Maine now requires that all in-person registrations occur no later than the third business day prior to the election date. Maine’s departure from being one of the country’s eight states to offer same-day voter registration was not a landslide victory. In the House, seventy-two representatives voted in favor, while sixty-five were opposed and thirteen representatives were absent, and the Senate showed a similar divide with seventeen votes in favor, fourteen against, and four excused. The close divide in both the House and Senate illustrates the partisan divide over same-day registration which was ultimately passed under Maine’s Republican majority. Reportedly, only one House Republican and two Senate Republicans voted with Democrats to oppose the legislation. [Read more…] about Maine-iacs Mobilized: New Voter Registration Laws in Maine

Pennsylvania voters get carded

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Pennsylvania voters may find themselves pulling out their wallets and scrounging through their purses for their driver’s licenses in upcoming elections if a recent bill makes it through the State Senate. House Bill 934 (the Pennsylvania Voter Identification Protection Act), sponsored by Republican State Representative Daryl Metcalfe, would require every voter to provide photo identification before voting. It passed the House just last June, and will soon make it to the floor of the Senate. As in many similar efforts across the country, the effort is largely Republican-led; not a single Democrat Representative in Pennsylvania voted for it.

This is Pennsylvania’s second effort at a voter identification bill. The first, which passed in the legislature in 2006, was vetoed by then-Governor Ed Rendell, a Democrat. But on an issue that tends to split down party lines, the effort this time stands a good chance. The Senate has  a Republican majority of 29-20, and the governor is a Republican. Moreover, the bill includes elements, most notably providing free photo identification, that the Supreme Court cited last March when it decided (6-1) to uphold a similar Georgia statute. In short, if the bill passes, it will be there to stay unless a future legislature repeals it.
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Weekly Wrap Up

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Supreme Court throws out voting machine judgment: The Supreme Court decided this week to throw out a suit against Dallas County over its use of iVotronic voting machines. The Democratic Party sued the county claiming that the confusing straight-party feature of the machines was not approved by the Justice Department. The Supreme Court considered the charge moot since the Justice Department has since approved the use of the machines.


Getting rid of the “winner-take-all” electoral system: Pennsylvania Republican Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi is looking to drop the winner-take-all method and adopt a split system for electoral voting. In the new system an electoral vote would be given to the winner of each of Pennsylvania’s 19 congressional districts with the remaining Senate votes given to the winner of the popular vote. Many PA Republicans, who lost the 2008 electoral vote, argue that a split system more accurately reflects the diversity of voters. Others have criticized the proposition stating that candidates will lose interest in the large battleground state if the vote is split.


South Carolina GOP to cover Primary Election Costs: The Republican Party in South Carolina has agreed to pay all additional costs of the primary election there. This comes after many in the state had expressed concern about covering the costs of the 2012 Republican presidential primary. Nevertheless, several counties have authorized their attorneys to use legal means to protect county interests and coffers. The Republican Party will cover “legitimate costs” over and above what the state Election Commission will reimburse counties for conducting their elections. The Democratic Party does not currently plan to conduct a primary election in South Carolina.

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Meet the new Editors!

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It’s a new year at William & Mary Law School, and that means State of Elections has a brand new editorial board! 1Ls Patrick Genova, John Loughney, and Brett Piersma will be taking the reins of the site and handling most editorial duties from here on out.

Here’s some information about the new editors:

Patrick Genova hails from the well-paved streets of Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is a recent graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia where he majored in psychology with a minor in creative writing. While at VCU Patrick was Treasurer and Membership Director of Psi Chi- the International Honor Society in Psychology. His interests include voter equality, and partisan redistricting. When Patrick isn’t blogging he enjoys fine foods and terrible music.

John Loughney is a graduate from the University of Maryland with a BA in French. He loves adventure novels, crossword puzzles, playing blues and jazz on his guitar, scuba diving, fencing epee, traveling, and writing love letters in French. He’s an old-school kind of guy who enjoys gin and tonics and quality conversation. He may be the only young person left who doesn’t use Facebook. His role models include Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai, Kermit the Frog, Eric Clapton, and Vladimir Putin. He hopes to practice law internationally, distill his own whiskey, and build custom guitars from scratch. He has experience as a journalist, editor, and translator, and contributes to the Election Law Society his great motivation to eradicate hanging prepositions.

Brett Piersma graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a B.A. in History and an M.Ed. in Education. He taught Advanced Placement American Government and European History in California for ten years before attending William and Mary Law School. He has facilitated the California History-Social Science Project, co-authored 11 workbooks for educators, and was a MetLife Fellow for the Teacher’s Network Leadership Institute. He has earned two Teacher’s Network Disseminator Grants, presented at several state and national conferences, and won the UCSB History Associates Outstanding History Instruction award. Among his many interests are the problems of non-voting, the unintentional consequences of political reform, and the impact of federalism and game theory on campaigns.

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