Touch screen voting and legal
challenges One of the issues I have not been able to keep up with because
of the recall and the BCRA (McCain-Feingold litigation) are legal challenges
to touch screen voting. A number of jurisdictions are moving to touch screen
voting, which lets one use a device like an ATM machine to cast a vote.
I have received a great deal of e-mail from people who distrust such machinery,
out of concern about fraud. One of the issues is whether there is a paper
trail to verify how people voted; another is whether these systems may be
hacked into and votes changed. There have also been allegations made of
improper conduct by companies who make such machines, including claims that
some research into voting technologies has been funded by these companies.
I confess I have very little knowledge of the merits of such claims, but
hope to link to more on this issue and to learn more about it. In the meantime,
there is a lawsuit pending in the Ninth Circuit over the use of punch card
machines. Oral argument in Weber v. Townsend will be heard on October
8 in the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena. The plaintiff, Susan Marie Weber, has
this web page
devoted to the lawsuit. Weber, a non-lawyer, is representing herself pro
se.
"Political Use of Tax Exempt
Groups is Cited in Study" The New York Times offers this report.
(Thanks to Steven Sholk for the pointer.) See this
Washington Post article.
Voting rights for ex-felons
The Christian Science Monitor offers this report
(thanks to How Appealing
for the pointer).
"Recall Finds Loopholes In
Campaign Finance Law; Money Flowing for Davis, Candidates" The Washington
Post offers this
report.
New Book on American Election Reform
Oxford University Press has just released Rethinking the Vote:
The Politics and Prospects of American Election Reform, edited by Ann
N. Crigler, Marion R. Just, and Edward McCaffery. The volume grew out of
a post-Bush v. Gore conference at USC focused not so much on the case
itself but on what lessons Florida 2000 teaches us about election reform.
I've got a chapter in the book entitled: "After the Storm: The Uses, Normative
Implications, and Unintended Consequences of Voting Reform Research in Post-Bush
v. Gore Equal Protection Challenges." It certainly will need updating
in light of current events.
--
Rick Hasen
Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow
Loyola Law School
919 South Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211
(213)736-1466
(213)380-3769 - fax
rick.hasen@lls.edu
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html
http://electionlaw.blogspot.com