Weekly Wrap Up

January 21, 2010

– The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United has been released, and it’s a doorstopper.  Weighing in at over 180 pages, the decision gives corporations, unions, and non-profits more power to spend freely in federal elections.  Of course, Citizens United has sparked quite a bit of controversy.  Rick Hasen, a leading election law scholar and member of the William and Mary Election Law Program Advisory Board,  posted a scathing critique of the opinion on Slate, and an examination of the possible future of campaign finance on the Huffington Post.  Ironically, Hasen’s book was cited in the majority opinion.

– Senator Chuck Schumer  is rumored to be working on a “universal voter registration” bill.   Originally, rumors had pegged Barney Frank as the author of the bill, sparking a mild controversy on the Hill and a fierce denial by Frank.   The possibly fictional bill would automatically register millions of people to vote.

– State of Elections has published several articles about felon disenfranchisement over the past few weeks, all of which have supported the restoration of felon voting rights.  In the interest of balance, here’s an editorial opposing the restoration of felon voting rights, written by Hans A. Von Spakovsky and John Park and published in the Richmond Times Dispatch.

– State of Elections is working on a new article, possibly a series of articles, about voting machines.  Specifically, we will be looking at New York City’s recent decision to replace its old lever operated machines with modern electronic voting machines.  If you have any information about NYC’s process for selecting a company to provide its machines, or any special knowledge about voting machines in general, please contact us at editor@stateofelections.com.

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