"The DeLay Verdict: Campaign-finance law abets political revenge."

The WSJ offers this editorial.

"Tea Party Caucus Takes $1 Billion in Earmarks"

See here.

"Waters ethics trial in jeopardy for this year"

AP offers this report. See also House ethics chairman approved leave by Rep. Waters investigators. There's got to be a lot more to the latter story which will eventually come out.

After "Gun Shy" DOJ Declines to Prosecute Sen. Ensign, and FEC Finds No Violation, What Will the Senate Ethics Committee Do?

The NY Times explains the DOJ decision. Roll Call ponders an Ensign reelection campaign.

Watchdogs team up with Tea Party to defend ethics office from calls to close"

The Hill reports.

What's Happened to the Norm Eisen Nomination to Be Czech Ambassador?

The Czech News Agency reported on Nov. 19 that Eisen's nomination was now considered "unlikely" because of a hold by Senator Grassley. I cannot find any recent U.S. reports to corroborate or refute this report. Eisen is currently serving as the White House ethics czar.

A Very Basic Question on the Rangel Episode

A vote on censure will happen later today. I find it difficult to understand why Rangel, at this point, cares about whether he has a public censure or written reprimand. Peter Overby interviews former House members who talk about how the public censure makes them uncomfortable. But it seems to me that Rangel's legacy is tarnished, and whether or not he has an additional uncomfortable afternoon or not is not going to make a great deal of difference. What am I missing?

Alleged Absentee Vote Fraud Leads to Arrest of City Councilman, Others, in Paterson, New Jersey

See these stories.

"Rejected ballots to be investigated"

The Cincinnati Enquirer offers this report, which begins: "It will likely be weeks before Hamilton County knows who was elected Nov. 2 to a juvenile court judgeship - in which the candidates were separated by only 23 votes - because of a federal court ruling Wednesday ordering an investigation into 849 rejected provisional ballots. A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday lifted a temporary stay on a Nov. 22 order by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott that ordered that the provisional ballots be looked at again to see if any of them were the result of poll worker error."

You can access the Sixth Circuit's order at this link.

"Dayton Campaign: Recount Lead Grows To 9,031 Votes"

The latest from Minnesota.

"Bush v. Gore: Still a Trip"

Joan Biskupic blogs.

"Judge sets expedited schedule for Senate vote lawsuit"

The latest from Alaska.

Quote of the Day

"If you can't demonstrate a number of questionable ballots that are equivalent to the margin of victory, it's a non-starter,...If the numbers aren't there, you can't win. [However,] if your goal is to delay -- not win -- you could plead the case to eat up time and run out the clock."

--Ned Foley, discussing the Emmer-Dayton Minnesota recount.

CCP Enages in Independent Express Advocacy for My Candidacy, Making Me Feel Grateful Despite the Lack of Coordination

Here. You've got to hand it to them for this bit of advocacy: "Why should you vote for Hasen? Well, why the hell not?"

"Prop. 14 foes ask state Supreme Court to block top-two primary rules"

The Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert" reports. More documents from the plaintiffs here. Briefing on the case will be done by December 9.

"How Do You Spell M-U-R-K-O-W-S-K-I? Part I: The Question of Assistance to the Voter"

Chad Flanders has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

The 2010 race for the Alaska Senate now seems to be over. After losing in the Republican Party Primary to Tea Party-backed candidate Joe Miller, Senator Lisa Murkowski staged a write-in candidacy and, bucking both U.S. and Alaska history, won the general election. Although much attention has been paid to Miller's post-election challenges to Murkowski write-in ballots, a major election law question was at issue prior to the election: to what extent can poll workers assist voters who need help in voting for a write-in candidate?

After Murkowski declared her write-in candidacy, the Alaska Division of Elections distributed a list of eligible write-in candidates to polling places, in case voters had questions about how to properly spell the name of a write-in candidate. Both parties, sensing this would benefit Murkowski, cried foul, and challenged the new policy in Alaska state court as a violation of the Division’s own regulations prohibiting the distribution of "information" about write-in candidates at polling places.

This essay examines four issues regarding voter assistance in the Murkowski litigation: (1) how to interpret statutes and regulations regarding voter assistance; (2) what kind of assistance is permissible and what kind is not; (3) whether the state can legitimately handicap the ability of voters to write-in the name of a candidate; and (4) how decisions on assistance to voters before the election might affect a court's disposition on cases that arise after the election.

I have not read this yet but I am a huge Chad Flanders fan.

A Statutory Interpretation Classic!

Don't miss The Case of the School Bus, the Stop Sign and the Missing 'At'.

Ninth Circuit Rejects Constitutional Challenge to Nevada's Single Subject Rule

See Pest Committee v. Miller. Particularly interesting to me (given this work) was the discussion of the vagueness challenge to the rule. The court wrote: "evidence that some ballot petitions have been successfully challenged does not demonstrate that the language of either the single-subject or the description-of-effect requirement is insufficient to provide persons of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to understand what is required for ballot initiatives and referenda, and the language of the statutory requirements provides sufficiently explicit standards for judges charged with reviewing their application."

"''The Law Is Good'': The Voting Rights Act, Redistricting, and Black Regime Politics"

I've just received in the mail a copy of this book by Steven Andrew Light.

COGEL Conference Starts This Sunday

Details here.

The Latest Edition of NCSL's "The Canvass" Newsletter Now Available

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