Opinions on VRA Reauthorization

See National Council on Disability Statement Regarding the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization, which begins: "NCD wishes to express its strong support for reauthorizing the provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) set to expire in 2007."

The Gainesville Times (Ga.) editorializes If Voting Rights Act still needed, apply it evenly. It ends: "If the provisions of the Voting Rights Act are to be renewed -- and we're not convinced they are necessary given the other protections of the Voting Rights Act and the 15th Amendment -- they should be made applicable nationwide."

The Commercial Appeal (Tn.) ran a number of editorials and commentaries on Sunday, including New voting rights crisis: disfranchisement, Voting Act Again on the Ballot, and Small turnout; smart choices.

For those wondering about the promised guest bloggers: I'm still waiting for the technology to be put in place to allow this to happen.

Finally: Election Results are Final; Officials Will Focus on What Went Wrong"

See this report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

"Absentee ballots' popularity growing"

The San Jose Mercury News offers this report.

Gallup Has a Very Interesting Poll on American Attitudes about Corruption

These numbers are of more than academic interest, given that the "appearance of corruption" can serve to justify certain campaign finance laws. There's been some interesting empirical work looking at the connection between campaign finance laws and public confidence in the election process, including this piece by Persily and Lammie and this piece by Primo and Milyo. (I talk a bit about the evidentiary standard related to "the appearance of corruption" here.)

"Evenly Spreading Partisan Votes May Be the Key to Winning"

The Washington Post offers this report, which begins: "With Democrats locked out of the White House and in the minority in Congress, it might seem that there just aren't enough Democratic voters to win elections. But political scientist Gary Jacobson says the problem is actually more complicated: The distribution of Republican voters is more politically effective across the nation.

Jacobson's research shows a little more than half of all the nation's 435 congressional districts over recent decades consistently favored Republican presidential candidates. A little less than 40 percent went for Democrats. (The remainder had a mixed pattern.) Jacobson, at the University of California at San Diego, said this is due to an "inefficient" distribution of Democratic voters, with many concentrations of 60 percent or more in urban areas and places with large numbers of minorities. Republicans, he found, are distributed more evenly, yielding more districts in which GOP voters have a slimmer but sturdy majority.

"How to Improve the Presidential Campaign Fund"

Rep. Steny Hoyer has written this Roll Call oped (paid subscription required). A snippet:

That changed in 2004. To attract the widest possible audience, the Democratic Party scheduled its convention in late July, before the Summer Olympic Games began. In contrast, the Republican Party held its convention in the last week of August. The result was a six-week gap that forced Kerry to finance his campaign with public money while Bush continued to raise and spend money from private contributors.

Let me stress that I no more fault the Republican Party for scheduling its convention as late as it did than I do the Democratic Party for holding its convention in July. Each sought to avoid competing against the Olympics and with one another. But in my judgment, the timing of the conventions should not have had the effect of putting the candidate who was nominated first at a disadvantage.

Had this been a one-time problem, I would not feel moved to act. But it was not. Except in those years when the summer games are held south of the equator, the two major parties can expect to face the same challenges they did in 2004, forced to schedule their conventions around the “Summer Olympics as well as around one another.

To solve this problem, I have introduced H.R. 850, which would establish a uniform date for the release of public payments. H.R. 850 would designate the Friday of Labor Day weekend in a presidential election year as the day on which the party nominees receive public funds and must discontinue raising and spending private dollars.

New Website from IFES and Six Partners Definitely Worth Checking Out

The following information arrived via e-mail about a new website that looks quite promising:

Partners Launch New ACE Electoral Knowledge Network
The ACE Electoral Knowledge Network ( www.aceproject.org ) -- the next generation of the Administration and ost of Elections Web site-- is now live. With the launch of the Network, we make available new tools and resources for electoral practitioners around the world. The new Web site provides a ready environment for professionals to generate, share and apply knowledge on managing elections.

New features include:

* An updated ACE Encyclopaedia that includes authoritative resources on electoral administration;
* An interactive Comparative Data Section that allows you to compare data from different countries;
* An online collection of Electoral Materials that includes reports, manuals and other hands-on materials from around the world that is searchable by region, document type or topic area;
* An online newsletter (Elections Today) that provides the latest news on elections around the world;
* Access to Regional and Country-level Resources; and
* An Online Demonstration of several features that enable professionals to interact and build knowledge on elections administration.

Visit ACE today at www.aceproject.org . To receive additional information about the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network, please visit http://ace.at.org/registration .

The ACE Electoral Knowledge Network is a joint effort of seven organizations involved in the electoral assistance profession, including:

Elections Canada (www.elections.ca/ ): a non-partisan organization responsible for the conduct of federal elections, by-elections and referendums.

EISA (www.eisa.org.za/ ): a non-profit company based in Johannesburg, South Africa, that promotes credible elections and democratic governance in Africa.

Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) (www.ife.org.mx ): a public, independent institution responsible for organizing and conducting federal elections in Mexico.

IFES (www.ifes.org ): an international non-governmental organization that supports the building of democratic societies.

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) (www.idea.int/): an intergovernmental organization that promotes sustainable democracy worldwide.

United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) (www.un.org/esa/): a body that organizes U.N. conferences on global policy issues and serves as the Secretariat to the Economic and Social Council.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (www.undp.org/): The United Nation’s global development network, which advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.

New CRS Report on Political Activities of Non-profits

OMBWatch has posted the report here. >From the summary:

Recently, significant attention has been paid to the political activities of tax exempt organizations. In particular, the activities of IRC § 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, § 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations, § 501(c)(5) labor unions, § 501(c)(6) trade associations, and § 527 political organizations have been scrutinized.

This report discusses the limitations that the Internal Revenue Code places on political activity, including lobbying and campaign intervention, by tax-exempt organizations. It focuses on the above organizations, but also discusses the restrictions on the other types of tax-exempt organizations. The report ends with a summary of the information that tax-exempt organizations must report to the Internal Revenue Service about their political activities and whether the information must be made publicly available.

-- 
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