| Subject: news of the day 12/3/04 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 12/3/2004, 8:24 AM |
| To: election-law |
I received the following announcement via e-mail:
Washington, December 1, 2004 - The Center for Public Integrity and the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University will hold a joint news conference and discussion on Thursday, December 16 at 10 a.m. in the Holeman Lounge of the National Press Club.
The subject of the news conference will be: The 527 phenomenon: Its impact on the 2004 election.
Specific issues to be addressed are:
* What impact did 527s have on the 2004 election
* How effective were the messages of the 527s
* How did the 2004 election differ from previous elections in terms of
527s
* What is the future of 527s
The Center for Public Integrity will present an analysis of the 2003-04 election cycle, including the final reports filed in early December. The findings are based on the Center's database, which includes all four years in which 527s have been required to file.
The Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy will present findings from its research on the 2004 election, focusing on the strategies of the 527 organizations and the effectiveness of their messages and advertising.
Participants will be Charles Lewis, executive director, and Aron Pilhofer, database editor, of the Center for Public Integrity; and David Magleby, senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.
For more information about the media conference, contact Ann Pincus at (202) 481-1234 or Nathan Kommers at (202) 481-1221; to reach Dr. Magleby, call Adam Segal at (202) 422-4673.
The Washington Post offers this
report,
with the following subhead: "Democrats Got More Money Than GOP for 1st
Time Since '70s." The article references a Public Citizen press release
that you can access here. See
also this
New York Times report.
The San Diego Union-Tribune offers Suit
challenging Frye's candidacy to be argued in Santa Ana court today
and Frye
in position to score a victory whether she fights on or bows out.
The latest issue of Election Administration Reports notes that Nevada had only 38 statewide undervotes for President. It attributes the extraordinarily small number to a "None of the Candidates" option, which garnered 3,688 vote (0.44 percent of all voters).
No doubt, the None of the Candidates option is part of the story of low undervotes, but there may be another. Nevada used electronic voting this election. It may be that electronic voting itself spurs people to choose a candidate who otherwise would have deliberately abstained from voting. This is an understudied subject that needs more attention.
Consider the statistics Michael McDonald gathered on undervoting in
the California recall election on the question whether or not Governor
Davis should be recalled (paper available here,
table on page 5):
Self-reports of non-voting through exit polls: 2.6%
Statewide undervote rate: 4.7%
Punch card county undervote rate: 7.2%
Optical scan undervote rate: 2.8%
DRE: 1.4%
Consider especially the contrast on this question in the undervote rate between Alameda County, using touch screens (0.74%) with L.A. County, using punch cards (just under 9%). These statistics don't prove that electronic voting causes deliberate undervoters to vote, but it is worth further examination. (On the legal problems created by punch card voting disparities, see my earlier analysis.)
If, indeed, the method of voting by touch screen encourages people
to choose a candidate who otherwise would abstain, should anything be
done about it?
-- 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