"Congress likely to renew vote act"

The Washington Times offers this report. A.P. offers DOJ Official Urges Voting Rights Renewal.

"527s under scrutiny from states"

Stateline.org offers this story on this report from the Center for Public Integrity.

"The FEC's Third Strike"

Roll Call offers this editorial (paid subscription required), which begins: "The federal courts have now decisively struck down — three times — the Federal Election Commission’s rewrite of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. It’s now time for the FEC to stop fighting the law and start trying to enforce it. The third strike came Friday, when the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to review a three-judge panel’s refusal to overturn District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s October 2004 decision that declared invalid no fewer than 15 FEC regulations that she said 'would render the statute largely meaningless.'"

"FEC Declines to Seek Civil Penalties"

Roll Call offers this report (paid subscription required), which begins: "In an enforcement action considered perplexing by some campaign finance watchdogs, the Federal Election Commission declined to seek civil penalties in a recent case despite finding reason to believe that a company had “knowingly and willfully” engaged in a scheme to reimburse employees for donations to federal candidates."

IFES Launches Redesigned Website

The following message has arrived via e-mail:

IFES is pleased to announce that it has launched the new www.ifes.org website. We invite you to visit the site to take advantage of this innovative informational tool for democracy practitioners.

Civil society leaders, election officials, democracy activists, academics, donors and others in the justice sector who are working to advance democracy around the globe will benefit from the updated content and features of the new www.ifes.org.

The website features several enhancements including:
* A comprehensive inventory of IFES democratization initiatives across the globe.
* Streamlined accessibility to IFES publications and other resources such as the Arab Election Law Compendium, the IFES Buyer’s Guide to Election Suppliers, and IFES’ magazine, democracy at large.
* Helpful links to additional IFES websites, including Election Guide, Money and Politics, ACE and more.
* An updated design incorporating photo galleries, feature stories and a research survey database.
* An easy-to-use press site designed to give journalists quick and timely access to IFES experts, events information and the latest press releases.

IFES, one of the world’s leading providers of democracy solutions and elections assistance, has designed its website to connect democracy experts to valuable databases and research tools.

-- 
Rick Hasen
William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
919 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