Another Lawsuit in Ohio

This one is brought by Republican challengers and the Ohio Attorney General to the Ohio Supreme Court. Petitioners seek an order directed to the Ohio Secretary of State to rescind existing rules about the number of challengers per voting location and to allow more challengers per location. The documents are here.

These final lawsuits, including the appeals to the Sixth Circuit in separate litigation raising related questions, are surely taxing the judiciary in Ohio to the limit. We could have even more confusion on election day if either the Sixth Circuit or the Ohio Supreme Court change the rules some time late this evening.

"The Case That Could Have Altered 'Bush v. Gore'"

Tony Mauro writes this fascinating article (registration required) in Legal Times on a 1912 recently discovered (by Green Bag editor Ross Davies) in-chambers opinion by two Justices stemming from an electoral college dispute between supporters of Teddy Roosevelt and Howard Taft. A snippet:

[Justices] Pitney and Van Devanter agreed the dispute over the electors raised a federal question. But in words that could resonate soon, they went on to say, "As courts are reluctant to interfere with the ordinary course of elections, whether primary or otherwise, as the rights asserted are not clear, but doubtful, and as the injury and public inconvenience which would result from a supersedeas or any like order, if eventually the judgment of the state court should be affirmed or the writ of error dismissed, would equal the injury which would otherwise ensue, we think no supersedeas or kindred order should be granted."
The terminology is dated, and the phrasing would have benefited from an editor, but the essence of the decision is this: In the midst of an election dispute, if ruling in favor of one side is likely to cause the same "injury" as ruling for the other side, the Supreme Court should just keep out of the dispute until the state courts sort things out.

You can find the opinion itself posted here on the Green Bag's website.

My NPR Commentary on the Need for Universal Voter Registration and Voter I.D.

You can listen here.

Overton on Provisional Ballots

You can access a five-page analysis, "How Conflicts Over Poll Challengers and Provisional Ballots May Impact the 2004 Election" by Spencer Overton on his web page.

-- 
Professor Rick Hasen 
Loyola Law School 
919 South Albany Street 
Los Angeles, CA  90015-0019 
(213)736-1466 - voice 
(213)380-3769 - fax 
rick.hasen@lls.edu 
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html 
http://electionlawblog.org