| Subject: [EL] Electionlawblog news and commentary 4/21/11 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 4/21/2011, 8:25 AM |
| To: Election Law |
That's the sentiment
of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial board. I too
have trouble seeing the reason for the recount at this point,
though it is certainly Ms. Kloppenburg's right to request one at
state expense given the margin of the election.
NJ.com reports.
See here.
In my work on vote
buying I came across a number of jurisdictions (including
California) that allow payments for turnout (though not in
elections with federal candidates on the ballot). But all of
those laws prohibit paying for voting for a specific result.
Under similar logic, I find it hard to believe any state makes
it legal to pay people to sign a ballot measure petition. Any
Wisconsinites who can shed light on this?
The LA
Times reports that "Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and a
group of reform advocates will file suit in federal court, along
with rulemaking petition at the Federal Election Commission,
Thursday morning that seeks disclosure of secret contributions
flowing to political campaigns." Check out the
complaint, and the FEC rulemaking
petition. See also this
press release.
I had been thinking for some time that a lawsuit like this makes
sense. The question is whether any relief, if available, will
come in time for the 2012 election season.
This
item appears at the Corporate Political Activity Law blog.