Kondracke on Carter-Baker

Morton Kondracke writes this column in today's Roll Call (paid subscription required), entitled "Congress Should Get Busy Promptly on Election Reform." He mostly endorses the Carter-Baker recommendations for reform. It begins: "America is forever vowing “Never Again” — after an overseas genocide, a domestic disaster or a flawed election. Then, time passes, inertia sets in and only half-measures get taken. Down the line, the vows get repeated all over again. We’ll see whether the hurricanes of 2005 produce better disaster preparedness than the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks did, but one thing is certain: Another 2000 election debacle surely could happen again, because the reforms adopted afterward were inadequate."

My own oped on Carter-Baker in the Christian Science Monitor similarly observes that when it comes to hurricanes, earthquakes, or election meltdown, "advanced planning is the key to avoiding disaster."

Where does John McCain Stand on Regulation of Politics on the Internet?

See this entry at PowerLine. Here is an excerpt:

I asked Senator McCain about the impact of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act on bloggers. He replied that he wanted no government regulation of the internet. I followed-up, politely I hope, by noting that a court decision in litigation undertaken in his name was serving as the basis for proposals to regulate the bloggers. McCain responded that he was not aware that the litigation had raised the prospect of internet regulation, and that he would look into the matter. He then reaffirmed that there should be absolutely no regulation of the internet in the name of McCain-Feingold or campaign finance reform.

Very interesting.

"Two Towns, Two Votes?"

The Hartford Courant offers this interesting editorial.

"AG to Probe Claim of Ballot Fraud"

NJ.com offers this report.

Fertik on Univeral Voter Registration and Carter-Baker

See posts here and here.

"Carter-Baker election reforms imperiled by its partisan voter ID mandate"

The Christian Science Monitor will publish my oped on this topic in Thursday's newspaper. It begins:

The United States is in desperate need of serious election reform. We had an election meltdown in Florida in 2000, and a near-meltdown in Ohio in 2004 that was narrowly averted. Fortunately for the country, there were too many votes separating candidates Bush and Kerry in Ohio to make election litigation over the state's many problems worthwhile. Nonetheless, voter confidence in our election system is declining. And in the increasingly polarized US electorate, the possibility of another razor-thin presidential election ending up in court in 2008 is far from negligible. Indeed, the number of election cases in courts have more than doubled in the period since 2000 compared with the period right before 2000.

From this perspective, the National Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker looked perfect: a high profile, bipartisan effort to identify ways to fix America's decentralized, increasingly politicized, and underfunded election system. Unfortunately, by taking sides in a fight over voter identification requirements, the Carter-Baker Commission squandered its political capital, perhaps even setting back the cause for reform. That is unfortunate for the country.

It concludes:

If the Carter-Baker commission report is dismissed as a failure, and election reform issues are swept under the rug until 2008, it will be too late to fix problems in time to avert a potential election meltdown. Like dealing with hurricanes or earthquakes, advanced planning is the key to avoiding disaster.

Kelso on California Pre-Election Initiative Review

Clark Kelso offers his thoughts here in the California Bar Journal.

"For Redistricting Control, the Future Is Now"

CQ Weekly offers this report (paid subscription required).

"McCain Forces Frist Retreat"

The Hill offers this report, which begins:

Angry over what he considers a breach of Senate courtesy by GOP leaders, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has teamed with Democrats and centrist Republicans to force the leaders to back down on an effort to undermine fundraising limits he helped make law in 2002.

With assurance from Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that he would have the Democrats’ support, McCain confronted GOP leaders in private yesterday at the Senate Republican Caucus luncheon.

At issue was a rider attached to the treasury-transportation spending bill that would have allowed lawmakers to transfer unlimited sums from their leadership political action committees to party coffers.

-- 
Rick Hasen 
William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
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