" No '527' Restrictions This Year"

Brad Smith has this interesting post on RedState.

"House prepares to debate renewal of Voting Rights Act"

This article originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune. See also this Roll Call report (paid subscription required). It looks like C-SPAN's Washington Journal will feature Reps. Norwood and Watt before the debate begins on the House floor Thursday. Rep. Watt also has written this Roll Call oped (paid subscription required), "Don't Play Politics with Voting Rights Act Reauthorization." In the same issue, Keith Gaddie has written Myths, Realities, of Norwood's VRA Amendment.

Overton on Voter Identification

Spencer Overton has written Voter Identification (forthcoming, Michigan Law Review). Here is the abstract:

In the wake of closely contested elections, calls for laws that require voters to present photo identification as a condition to cast a ballot have become pervasive. Advocates tend to rely on two rhetorical devices: (1) anecdotes about a couple of elections tainted by voter fraud; and (2) "common sense" arguments that voters should produce photo identification because the cards are required to board airplanes, buy alcohol, and engage in other activities. This Article explains the analytical shortcomings of anecdote, analogy, and intuition, and applies a cost-benefit approach generally overlooked in election law scholarship. Rather than rushing to impose a photo identification requirement for voting, policymakers should instead examine empirical data to weigh the costs and benefits of such a requirement. Existing data suggests that the number of legitimate voters who would fail to bring photo identification to the polls is several times higher than the number of fraudulent voters, and that a photo identification requirement would produce political outcomes that are less reflective of the electorate as a whole. Policymakers should await better empirical studies before imposing potentially antidemocratic measures. Judges, in turn, should demand statistical data to ensure that voter identification procedures are appropriately tailored to deter fraudulent voters rather than legitimate ones and do not disproportionately exclude protected classes of voters.

This is going to be a rather important article, I think, as voter identification cases work their way through the federal appellate courts and, more than likely, to the Supreme Court.

"2006 ACS National Convention Plenary Panel Explores 'Revitalizing Democracy'"

Streaming video available here with a terrific panel.

Witnesses Announced for Tomorrow's Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on VRA Renewal and LULAC Case

Expect fireworks.

-- 
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