Subject: Re: [EL] Reducing Congressional representation due to disenfranchisement of military personnel?
From: Justin Levitt
Date: 10/14/2010, 12:51 PM
To: "Scarberry, Mark" <Mark.Scarberry@pepperdine.edu>, Election Law <election-law@mailman.lls.edu>

I certainly want to provide every available incentive for eligible military voters to be able to cast valid ballots that are counted.  But would this abridgment of military voters' right to vote be constitutionally distinct from the abridgment of other eligible voters' right to vote based on other state electoral regulations that increase the difficulty that those electors have in casting valid ballots?  Put differently, should state representation be reduced across the board by the proportion of (registered) electors who attempt to cast a valid ballot but do not, military or otherwise? 

Justin
-- 
Justin Levitt
Associate Professor of Law
Loyola Law School | Los Angeles
919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA  90015
213-736-7417
justin.levitt@lls.edu
ssrn.com/author=698321

On 10/14/2010 10:38 AM, Scarberry, Mark wrote:
Cross-posted to the conlawprof list:
 
 
Glenn Reynolds posted the following item on his Instapundit blog (http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/107920/):
 
 
"FIRST NEW YORK, NOW THIS: Military ballots may not count in Illinois. [http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=1985148&spid=]

"The great way to address this would be to dock states a percentage of their total federal funding to match the percentage of military ballots that are not counted."

 

Reducing federal funding would be fine, but what about reducing Congressional representation as determined by the 2010 census per section 2 of the 14th Amendment?

Mark Scarberry

Pepperdine


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