Subject: news of the day 11/18/04
From: Rick Hasen
Date: 11/18/2004, 7:50 AM
To: election-law

"It's Rossi by 261; Recount is Next"

The Seattle Times offers this report on the Washington gubernatorial race.


"Suit Wants All Write-in Votes Tallied"

The San Diego Union-Tribune offers this report. See also this L.A. Times report.


"Democrats Take Up Fight Over Provisional Ballots"

The Cleveland Plain Dealer offers this report.


"McCain-Feingold Did Its Job"

Al Hunt offers this commentary in the Wall Street Journal. Thanks to Steven Sholk for the pointer.


"FPPC Curbs Gifts to Issue Panels"

The Sacramento Bee offers this report.


"How Much Money is Enough for a Safe Incumbent?"

Stuart Rothenberg tackles this question in his Roll Call column (paid subscription required).


Berkeley Study on Possible Florida Electronic Voting Problems

Today, researchers at UC Berkeley are holding a press conference raising questions about electronic voting in Florida 2000. From the media advisory: A research team at UC Berkeley will report that irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using traditional voting methods. Discrepancies this large or larger rarely arise by chance - the probability is less than 0.1 percent. The research team, led by Professor Michael Hout, will formally disclose results of the study at the press conference."


"Ohio Finds Possible Double Votes, Counts"

A.P. offers this report.


Justice Breyer on Campaign Finance Reform

Here is a draft of Justice Breyer's Tanner lecture delivered at Harvard Law School. At page 10, he begins a discussion of campaign finance reform, which looks like a continuation of his earlier work justifying the Court's upholding such laws under a "participatory self-government" rationale. (I discuss that rationale and its relationship to the Supreme Court's recent cases in this field here.). Thanks to How Appealing for the pointer. 
-- 
Rick Hasen
Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow
Loyola Law School
919 South Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA  90015-1211
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http://electionlawblog.org