"A Top Dem Suggests Shelley Quit"

The San Francisco Chronicle offers this report. Should Bill Jones replace him? See my earlier post.

Oops!

BNA reports (paid subscription required): "The Federal Election Commission lost a required registration letter sent to the FEC last year by President Bush's inaugural committee, pledging to officially disclose all of its private donors and to forgo foreign donations, an FEC spokesman told BNA Jan. 24."

"Crackdown Unlikely on Felon Voters"

The Seattle Times offers this report.

San Diego Mayoral Update

See here.

"Officials' Sons Accused of Election Day Tire Slashings"

A.P. offers this report, which begins: "The sons of a first-term congresswoman and Milwaukee's former acting mayor were among five Democratic activists charged Monday with slashing the tires of vans rented by Republicans to drive voters and monitors to the polls on Election Day." See also this column on Milwaukee's election administration controversies.

Arizona's Prop. 200 Cleared By Justice Department

See this report in the Arizona Republic, which begins: "The U.S. Justice Department on Monday cleared the way for counties across the state to carry out the voting provisions of Proposition 200, the anti-illegal immigration measure approved by Arizona voters in November....New voters would have to present proof of citizenship with a birth certificate, passport or other identification to register. All voters would have to show identification at the polls."

"New Election System Tests on Hold"

The Chicago Tribune offers this report.

Bauer on Regulating 527s

Bob Bauer comments here on proposed legislation in Congress to regulate more 527 organizations as political committees.

Could Jones Whom Shelley Succeeded Succeed Shelley?

Via Dan Weintraub, BoifromTroy and commenters are debating whether the California Constitution would allow Gov. Schwarzenegger to appoint Bill Jones to succeed Kevin Shelley if Shelley retires. Article V, Section 5(b) gives the Governor the power to appoint, subject to confirmation by both houses of the state legislature. Because Jones appears to be termed out (see Article V, Section 11 ["No ... Secretary of State... may serve in the same office for more than 2 terms."]), the answer may hinge on an exception to term limits contained in Article XX, Section 7 ("Those [term] limitations shall not apply to any unexpired term to which a person is elected or appointed if the remainder of the term is less than half of the full term.").

I don't know anything about the legislative history of this provision, but it does appear to apply as a textual matter to the Jones case. Perhaps a bigger obstacle is the appearance of a conflict of interest: As reported in this San Jose Mercury News article from June 2004, shortly after leaving office Jones became a paid consultant for Sequoia Voting Systems, and has lobbied local governments to adopt Sequoia's electronic voting systems. It seems to me any person to replace Shelley must be above even the appearance of a conflict of interest---trust and nonpartisanship should be the key toward restoring public faith in California's process.

Jaffee on McConnell Case

Erik S. Jaffe has written McConnell v. FEC: Rationing Speech to Prevent "Undue" Influence in the 2003-2004 Cato Supreme Court Review.

San Diego Mayoral Election Contest Trial to Begin Jan. 31

See this A.P. report.

Interesting Book on Post-Florida Election Reform

For my research on election administration reform, I've just been going through Election Reform: Politics and Policy (Palazzolo and Ceaser, eds. 2005). Here is the description:

Election Reform: Politics and Policy is the definitive work on the manner in which policymakers responded to the crisis that emerged from the 2000 presidential election. Editors Daniel Palazzolo and James Ceaser address two fundamental questions: How did the states and Congress respond to the problems in election law and administration that became apparent in the 2000 election? What factors explain the variety of ways in which different states responded? The book includes a theoretical framework for explaining election reform, an account of the Help America Vote Act, and in-depth studies of election law reform in eleven selected states. Anyone interested in the election crisis of 2000 and in the lessons learned from a major transformation of our electoral institutions will find this book essential reading. The book also contributes to the academic literature on policy innovation in the United States.

List of Contributors
Bruce Cain, James W. Ceaser, Doug Chapin, Joshua Dyck, James Gimpel, Mathew Gunning, David Kimball, Martha Kropf, Glen Krutz, R. Doug Lewis, Sarah Liebschutz, Todd Lochner, Karin MacDonald, Susan A. MacManus, Jerome Maddox, Daniel J. Palazzolo, Robert Montjoy, Gary Moncrief, Elizabeth Peiffer, Randall Strahan, John T. Whelan

A very useful set of case studies.

-- 
Professor Rick Hasen 
Loyola Law School 
919 Albany Street 
Los Angeles, CA  90015-1211 
(213)736-1466 - voice 
(213)380-3769 - fax 
rick.hasen@lls.edu 
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html 
http://electionlawblog.org