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Can Consolidating Elections Help Increase Voter Turnout?

Election Law Society · April 15, 2020 ·

By: Joshua Wagner

Almost everyone agrees that low voter turnout is a serious problem throughout the country. The trouble is that liberals and conservatives often disagree about the best way for the states to address this issue. However, there is at least one proposed solution which has garnered bipartisan support (and bipartisan opposition) from state lawmakers: election day consolidation.

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Negative Campaigns in the U.S. and Voter Turnout

Election Law Society · April 16, 2019 ·

By: Yang Cao

The United States, as the world leader (for democratic countries at least), may excel in many fields, but in terms of voter turnout it trails far behind other industrialized countries. The voter turnout measured in terms of voting age population was only 55.7% in 2016, while the highest countries report that more than 80% of the voting age population actually votes. Studies show that demographics like education, income and age can help predict voter turnout; but, these factors cannot be the cause of such huge discrepancies in voter turnout between U.S. and countries that have highest voter turnout, as the U.S. should have similar demographics to those countries. On the other hand, some studies have concluded that, while the U.S. and countries like Sweden might have similar demographic, the U.S. has far more negative campaigns than Sweden and other European countries, and that rising negative campaign in the past decades is solely an American phenomenon. Given these facts, it is only natural to ask why politicians have to use negative campaigns instead of positive campaigns, which does not hammer voter turnout. Researchers have also proven that negative campaigns are more effective than positive ones, which means kind persuasion will not stop politicians from doing so. Meanwhile, outlawing negative campaigns is also unrealistic because of it would be content based and subject to strict scrutiny.

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Voting from the Mailbox

Election Law Society · January 2, 2019 ·

By: Matthew Catron

Voting can be cumbersome and inconvenient. Voters often experience long lines and crowded parking lots when they go to the polls to cast their ballots. Clearly, the inconveniences of voting can discourage voter turnout. Most people would consider this a small price to pay for democracy. However, Colorado is one of three states that has attempted to remedy this problem by conducting all-mail elections.

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Same Day Voter Registration in Hawaii

Election Law Society · February 23, 2018 ·

By: Avery Dobbs

The Hawaii legislature took an important step towards reducing barriers to voting rights in 2014 by voting to allow same day voter registration at the polls. This is a significant change from the state’s previous rule, which required voters to register at least thirty days before an election to be allowed to vote. The state sought this measure in hopes of addressing its chronically low voter participation rates and to make voting rights more accessible for all Hawaiian citizens. Hawaii’s Chief Elections Officer, Scott Nago, spoke in support of the bill at the time by saying, “any qualified person who wants to vote should be able to register and vote”. The state will soon start to see the benefits of this law as it takes full effect in 2018.

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How Puerto Rico’s Electoral System Sustains Its Multiple Parties

Election Law Society · February 7, 2018 ·

By: Aaron Barden

Before this blog post begins, I would feel remiss and disingenuous if I did not remind the reader of the humanitarian crisis currently happening on the island of Puerto Rico, full of 3.5 million American citizens, as it continues to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Maria. I also would suggest that anyone clicking these links use a web browser with a translate webpage tool.

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