William & Mary Law School | Election Law Society
By: Dorronda Bordley
On March 27, 2015, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Delaware sued the Red Clay Consolidated School District in Chancery Court. The ACLU asserted that Red Clay violated, among other things, the Delaware Constitution guaranteeing “free and equal” elections.
By: Victoria Conrad
The phrase “I am from Missouri. You have got to show me” struck a new chord to voters this June.
June brought a new era for elections in Missouri: voters are now required to show identification to fill out a ballot. After decades of battling over a voter identification law, Republicans in the state legislature finally got their way. [Read more…] about Show-Me Your Voter ID
By: C. Rose Moore
Round two of the “drive-by voting” battle in New Hampshire ended on September 16th, 2015 when the New Hampshire Senate failed to override Governor Maggie Hassan’s veto of Senate Bill 179. That proposal would have required potential voters to be domiciled in the state for at least thirty days prior to an election. This was the second initiative purportedly aimed at combatting this type of fraud, which can be illustrated by the actions of Vice-President Joe Biden’s niece. While “she didn’t break the letter of the law… many people think she violated the spirit of it” by voting in the 2012 elections in New Hampshire after only working on the campaign there for a short time.
[Read more…] about Trying to Stop Drive-By-Voting in New Hampshire
By: David Schlosser
Over the summer of 2015, a Massachusetts law banning lying in campaign ads was struck down by that state’s highest court. This decision mirrors that of an Ohio federal judge last year, a case previously covered on this blog by Sarah Wiley. Like the Ohio law, the Massachusetts law criminalized telling lies about candidates for political office, and was as on the books for several decades before being successfully challenged in court. The lawsuit arose when a Democratic state representative alleged that a right-leaning PAC lied in a campaign brochure. The brochure in question alleged that Rep. Brian Mannal sponsored a bill that would “help convicted sex offenders” because he—as a defense attorney who had represented sex offenders in the past—stood to profit. Mannal maintained that he never provided legal representation to sex offenders. One of the bills in question would make GPS tracking devices optional for sex offenders on parole, rather than mandatory. After filing the bill in 2013, Mannal reported that he received death threats.
[Read more…] about Massachusetts Rules against Ban on Lying in Campaigns