"Americans want voting practices to change, poll reveals"

The Toledo Blade offers this report, which begins: " Results of a bipartisan poll released yesterday, the eve of Election Day, found that nearly two-thirds of those surveyed think the American way of voting needs to be changed, but no majority emerged in favor of weekend voting." If anyone has a link to the actual survey, please send it along.

"Record amount raised for initiatives"

The San Jose Mercury News offers this report.

Worries About a Recount in Va. Governor's Race

See here.

Panel on Nominations and Judicial Politics

The Ohio State Law Journal is holding a symposium tomorrow, "The Madness in the Shadows of Modern Life: Judicial Security and Politics in the 21st Century." The second panel is on nominations and judicial politics.

FEC Commissioners Debate Internet Exemption

Commissioner Toner's comments are here and Commissioner Thomas's response is here. Bob Bauer weighs in here.

New book on redistricting

Brookings has published Party Lines: Competition, Partisanship, and Congressional Redistricting edited by Tom Mann and Bruce Cain. Here is the description:

The legitimacy of the American electoral system depends on sustaining reasonable levels of fairness, accountability, responsiveness, and common sense. Recent Congressional elections fly in the face of those requirements, however, with a startling lack of competition, growing ideological polarization, and a fierce struggle between the parties to manipulate the electoral rules of the game. Party Lines addresses these problems head on in an authoritative and timely analysis of redistricting in the United States.


The practice of state legislatures redrawing district lines after the decennial census has long been a controversial aspect of our governing system. Recent developments have added new urgency to earlier debates. The sorry spectacle of mid-decade partisan gerrymandering in Texas renewed public attention to the potential problems of redistricting, reinforcing the view that it is unfairly dominated by self-serving elected officials and parties. The perfunctory character of Congressional elections is another growing problem: in 2002, only four House incumbents were defeated in the general election, the lowest in American history. Despite a hotly contested presidential contest in 2004, that number increased by only three.


In Party Lines, eminent political analysts explain the legal and political history of redistricting since the one person–one vote revolution in the 1960s and place it in the larger context of American politics. The authors document the impact of redistricting on competition, polarization, and partisan fairness, and they assess the role technology played in the redistricting process. The final chapter analyzes options for reform, including most importantly the use of independent redistricting commissions as an alternative to the normal state legislative process. Redistricting reform is no panacea but it is a start toward ensuring that American voters still have the largest say in who will represent them.


Contributors include Micah Altman (Harvard Universtity), Bruce Cain and Karin MacDonald (University of California, Berkeley),Cherie Maestas (Texas Tech), Sandy Maisel (Colby College), Thomas Mann (Brookings), Michael McDonald (George Mason University), Nathaniel Persily (University of Pennsylvania), and Walter Stone (University of California, Davis).

When Your Computer and TV are One

I have expressed here some concerns about the failure to have any regulation of political communications over the Internet once there is no dividing line between the two media. Apropos this discussion, A.P. offers Yahoo, TIVO to Blend TV, Web Services. The day is not far off.

Georgia Voter ID Controversy Makes Doonesbury

See here.

-- 
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