Fascinating Election Law Controversy from the 1800 Election

Bruce Ackerman and David Fontana have written, "How Jefferson Counted Himself In; Something was funny about the Georgia ballot during the 1800 election. Did Thomas Jefferson act properly in making himself President in 1801? A historical detective story." This appears in the March 2004 issue of The Atlantic, beginning at page 84. (It is not available online for nonsubscribers.) A longer version of the article will appear in the Virginia Law Review. The article is of more than historical interest, as the end of the article makes clear. A must read.

California Secretary of State and Four Counties to Be Sued Monday for Violating Voting Rights of the Disabled

A coalition of disabilty rights groups will be filing a suit on Monday. Here are some details from the press release:

The suit, on behalf of California voters with vision and manual dexterity impairments, will be filed against California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley and the counties of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and Santa Barbara. The suit will allege violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and other state and federal laws.

The suit will demand accessible touchscreen voting machines for voters with disabilities for the November, 2004 elections and will challenge the legality of the Secretary of State’s November 2003 Directive requiring touchscreen voting machines to include voter verified paper audit trails.

Note: I have nothing to with this lawsuit; the Western Center for Disability Rights is housed at Loyola Law School.

Common Cause Comes Out for Electronic Voting Paper Trail

See their statement here.

-- 
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://electionlawblog.org