elections

Supreme Court Ends Texas Elections Lawsuit against Four States

By
Lisa Soronen
|
Monday, December 14, 2020 at 09:22 AM

On Friday night the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Texas’s lawsuit challenging the results of the presidential election in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.  

Texas filed its lawsuit directly in the Supreme Court rather than in a lower court first relying on a constitutional provision giving the Supreme Court “...

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Pennsylvania Absentee Voting Challenge

By
Lisa Soronen
|
Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 09:14 AM

Yesterday, in a one-sentence statement containing no recorded dissents, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to strike down Pennsylvania’s no-excuse absentee ballot scheme. December 8, 2020, was the “safe harbor” deadline for the votes of Pennsylvania’s presidential and vice-presidential electors to be included in the counting of electoral votes.

Challengers...

SCOTUS Leaving Stay-At-Home Orders Alone; Disallowing Judge-Made Changes to Election Laws

By
Lisa Soronen
|
Monday, August 31, 2020 at 12:11 PM

Since April 2020 the Supreme Court has handled numerous emergency requests related to COVID-19. Requests involving stay-at-home orders and judge-made changes to elections laws are of most interest to states and local governments. The trends in both categories of cases is clear but the reasons are murky. Oftentimes none of the Justices announce, much less explain, their vote.

In these emergency requests the challenger isn’t asking the Supreme Court to decide the case on the merits. Instead, it is either asking the Supreme...

As fall 2020 election nears, states prepare for big changes in how people vote

By
Tim Anderson
|
Monday, June 22, 2020 at 05:34 PM
CSG Midwest
In the weeks leading up to Nov. 3, Illinois will be preparing for a general election expected to be like none other in the state’s history. That date will be a state holiday, in part to help secure alternative polling sites as some locations become unavailable due to pandemic-related health concerns. On Election Day, individuals as young as age 16 will be poll workers, and election officials will have the authority to administer curbside voting.
And perhaps most noteworthy of all, the state is likely to have a huge jump in the number of people who vote by mail. Every person who has voted over the past two years will receive a mailing to make them aware of this option, and then will receive an absentee-ballot application.
All of those changes are the result of SB 1863, legislation passed earlier this year to help authorities in Illinois conduct an election in the midst of a public health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. “The law is for one year only, and that gave people more comfort in knowing that it was a one-time change,” says Illinois Sen. Julie Morrison, who helped lead legislative efforts on SB 1863.
Across the Midwest, big changes already have occurred in 2020, the result of primaries being held when people were being told to socially distance, avoid crowds and stay home whenever possible.

Too Low State Law Campaign Contribution Limits May be Unconstitutional SCOTUS Warns

By
Lisa Soronen
|
Monday, November 25, 2019 at 12:21 PM

Following Thompson v. Hebdon states with low individual-to-candidate or individual-to-group campaign contribution limits may want to review their constitutionality.

In a per curiam (unauthored) opinion the Supreme Court instructed the Ninth Circuit to decide again whether Alaska law, which limits the amount an individual can contribute to a candidate for political office or to an election-oriented group other than a political party...

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