Archive for the ‘ELECT Blog Archives’ Category
ELECT Blog Archives
Open Primaries, Good or Bad?
By Will Jordan Open Primary Elections: Freedom of Association or Freedom to Party-Raid? South Carolina provides for an open primary election system, meaning any qualified elector is allowed to vote in the party primary of his or her choice. Voters are, however, limited to voting in only one party primary during any single election cycle. […]
ELECT Blog Archives
History of the South Carolina Presidential Preference Primaries
By Rob Tyson As the South Carolina primary approaches, we’re taking a step back from our typical election blog fare (i.e., the legal mumbo jumbo) and looking at the practicalities of the South Carolina presidential primaries. Today, we’ll start with the basics. South Carolina Presidential Preference Primaries South Carolina law permits the Republican and Democratic […]
ELECT Blog Archives
What’s Happening with the South Carolina Presidential Primaries?
By Rob Tyson This week, the ELECT Blog will analyze the Democrat and Republican Presidential Preference Primaries. South Carolina is the hub of the political world for the next 10 days. Presidential candidates will be flocking into the State in their effort to convince South Carolinians they are the best candidate for becoming the next […]
ELECT Blog Archives
Legal Challenges to Congressional Redistricting Must be Referred to a Three-Judge Panel
By Rob Tyson At the end of last year, the US Supreme Court held in Shapiro v. McManus that any case challenging the constitutionality of the redrawing of congressional districts must be referred to a three-judge panel. Justice Scalia delivered the opinion for a unanimous court. In Shapiro, the plaintiffs claimed the Maryland congressional plan […]
ELECT Blog Archives
CENSUS 2020 – Closer than you think!
By Rob Tyson The United States Census Bureau is gearing up for the 2020 decennial census. At a recent National Conference of State Legislatures’ meeting, Deirdre Dalpiaz Bishop made a presentation on the Census Bureau’s plans to conduct a census of the United State population. The Census Bureau seeks “to count everybody once, only once, […]
ELECT Blog Archives
When Are Flawed Elections Voidable?
When are election irregularities so substantial as to void election results? That was the question before the Kentucky Court of Appeals in Adair County Board of Elections v. Arnold, No. 2015-CA-000661-MR, 2015 WL 5308132 (Ky. App. 2015). In Adair, Ben Arnold, an unsuccessful write-in candidate for mayor, and two voters, brought suit against the Adair […]
ELECT Blog Archives
The Ballot Selfie
Earlier this month, a federal court in New Hampshire struck down a 2014 enacted New Hampshire law that prohibited voters from taking and disclosing photographs of their completed ballots to let others know how they voted. The law was challenged on the grounds it infringed upon the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights. The Judge agreed and […]
ELECT Blog Archives
I Learned Something Today
Earlier this week, my “Word for the Day” was psephology. Dictionary.com frequently posts a word in its Word for the Day, and this is one that I am not familiar. However, psephology is a word that I figured I might have seen somewhere, but I cannot make such a statement with certainty. It is a […]
ELECT Blog Archives
The Meaning of “One Person, One Vote” to be Decided by the Supreme Court (Finally)
Attached is an interesting blog post by Lyle Denniston[1] about two redistricting cases the United States Supreme Court will hear in its Fall Term.[2] One case, arising out of Texas, will answer what population measure should be used—total population, total citizen voting age, total registered voters in a state—to ensure “one person, one vote” principle […]
ELECT Blog Archives
Where Did All the Voters Go?
Based on a recent report by the U.S. Elections Project,[1] Americans had the lowest voter turnout rate since 1942. Interestingly, the top two reasons given to the U.S. Census Bureau why people did not vote were: (1) too busy, and (2) not interested. Clearly, stopping this trend and engaging more persons to vote in future […]