[EL] Tight Results

[Lowenstein, Daniel]

       At least we don't have to worry about Florida x 50, as would be possible if there were a national popular vote system in effect.

             Best,

             Daniel H. Lowenstein
             Director, Center for the Liberal Arts and Free Institutions (CLAFI)
             UCLA Law School
             405 Hilgard
             Los Angeles, California 90095-1476
             310-825-5148


________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Rick Hasen [rhasen at law.uci.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 9:45 PM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 1/4/12

The Lesson from Tonight’s Iowa Results for Election Law<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=27367>
Posted on January 3, 2012 9:40 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=27367> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Elections can sometimes be close.  Very very close (as in 5 votes close as I write this post).  So close that the margin of error in counting the votes can exceed the margin of victory.  Fortunately tonight’s results won’t lead to a recount (for how the non-binding caucuses work, see here<http://theweek.com/article/index/222942/the-idiosyncratic-iowa-caucus-rules-a-guide>); whether Romney or Santorum wins is more about bragging rights than anything else.

But this could happen in a presidential election again, in a state that matters.  And we haven’t done nearly enough to fix the problems in our elections that became apparent in the 2000 Florida fiasco.  As I will argue<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=22990> in great detail soon, we are not prepared for the next election meltdown.

[cid:part1.01070400.08000704 at law.uci.edu]<http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D27367&title=The%20Lesson%20from%20Tonight%E2%80%99s%20Iowa%20Results%20for%20Election%20Law&description=>
Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18> | Comments Off

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