An Alternative Route to Voting Reform: the Right to Vote, Voter Registration, Redistricting and U.S. State Constitutions

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Martorano Miller ◽  
Keith E Hamm ◽  
Maria Aroca ◽  
Ronald D Hedlund
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
State Court ◽  
Voting Rights Act ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
State Constitutions ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right ◽  
Election Laws

Abstract The U.S. Constitution reserves to states the responsibility for regulating most aspects of elections. Recently, the Supreme Court has weakened the tools for federal officials to challenge state elections practices under the Voting Rights Act and signaled a great deal of deference to state authority over election law. As a result, state legislatures’ latitude to regulate elections is constrained primarily by state constitutions. With voter ID laws and partisan gerrymandering commanding considerable attention in recent years, it is important to investigate the importance of state constitutions in this area. In this article, we discuss recent efforts by voting and election reformers to utilize state constitutions to challenge restrictive voting laws and partisan gerrymandering, whether by enacting state constitutional amendments or relying on state constitutional provisions in state court litigation. We also highlight the diverse and often underappreciated landscape of voting and election laws in the states and the resources available to reformers at the state level by analyzing state constitutional provisions bearing on the right to vote, voter registration, and redistricting.

Anatomy of a Cartographic Surrogate: the Portrayal of Complex Electoral Boundaries in the Congressional District Atlas

2000 ◽  
pp. 66-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Monmonier
Keyword(s):  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
State Level ◽  
Voting Rights Act ◽  
Congressional District ◽  
Department Of Justice ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Recent Edition ◽  
Complex Boundaries

Compiled and published by the Bureau of the Census, the Congressional District Atlas describes the boundaries of the nation’s 435 congressional districts. Since its inception in 1960, the atlas has grown in length from 103 to 1,272 pages. The most noteworthy increase, between the 1987 and 1993 editions, reflects judicial pressure to equalize district population within a state as well as Department of Justice efforts to maximize the number of minority-majority districts. Single-district states like Delaware and Wyoming still consume a single printed page, and because county boundaries are documented elsewhere, a singlepage map is usually adequate for states in which district boundaries do not split counties. By contrast, non-traditional borders winding through multiple counties require numerous large-scale maps efficiently formatted as telescopically nested insets. In the most recent edition, published in two volumes in 1993, Florida and Texas individually account for more pages than the entire first edition, and North Carolina’s 12th district, which the Supreme Court ridiculed in Shaw v. Reno, stretches across 30 separate pages. Because of this parsimonious portrayal of boundaries, the atlas affords a convenient state-level descriptor of geographic complexity: the ratio of map pages to seats in the House of Representatives. Cartographic and statistical analysis of this index reveals a concentration of complex boundaries in the Southeast and other areas in which the Voting Rights Act mandates preclearance by the Justice Department. Not surprisingly, the index is a near-perfect predictor of judicial challenges to race-based redistricting

Stemming the Tide: Assisted Suicide and the Constitution

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl H. Coleman ◽  
Tracy E. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
State Level ◽  
Federal Courts ◽  
The State ◽  
Equal Protection ◽  
State Court ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Equal Protection Clause ◽  
The Right

On November 8, 1994, Oregon became the first state in the nation to legalize assisted suicide. Passage of Proposition 16 was a milestone in the campaign to make assisted suicide a legal option. The culmination of years of effort, the Oregon vote followed on the heels of failed referenda in California and Washington, and other unsuccessful attempts to enact state laws guaranteeing the right to suicide assistance. Indeed, in 1993, four states passed laws strengthening or clarifying their ban against assisted suicide. No doubt, Proposition 16 is likely to renew the effort to legalize assisted suicide at the state level.The battle over assisted suicide is also unfolding in the courts. Litigation challenging Proposition 16 on the grounds that it violates the equal protection clause is ongoing in Oregon. More significantly, three cases, two in federal courts and one in Michigan state court, have been brought to establish assisted suicide as a constitutionally protected right.

scholarly journals Constitutionalizing Access

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jessica Terkovich ◽  
Aryeh Frank
Keyword(s):  
Case Law ◽  
State Constitutions ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Explicit Recognition ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
The Government ◽  
Right To Information ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Access ◽  
The U.S

State constitutions receive relatively little academic attention, yet they are the source of significant substantive rights—and, when compared to the U.S. Constitution, they are relatively easily amended to comport with contemporary needs and values. Unlike the constitutions of dozens of other nations, the U.S. Constitution contains no explicit recognition of a right to information from the government, and the Supreme Court has declined to infer that such a right exists, apart from narrow exceptions. Conversely, seven states expressly memorialize the public’s right of access to government meetings and records in their constitutions. In this paper, the authors examine case law applying the constitutional right of access, concluding that the right is somewhat underutilized and rarely seems to produce an outcome clearly different from what a litigant could expect relying on state statutory rights alone. 

scholarly journals Do 40-Year-Old Facts Still Matter? Long-Run Effects of Federal Oversight under the Voting Rights Act

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-53
Author(s):  
Desmond Ang
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Voting Rights Act ◽  
Voting Rules ◽  
Minority Participation ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Newspaper Data ◽  
Democratic Support ◽  
Election Laws

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act that mandated federal oversight of election laws in discriminatory jurisdictions, prompting a spate of controversial new voting rules. Utilizing difference-in-differences to examine the act’s 1975 revision, I provide the first estimates of the effects of “preclearance” oversight. I find that preclearance increased long-run voter turnout by 4–8 percentage points, due to lasting gains in minority participation. Surprisingly, Democratic support dropped sharply in areas subject to oversight. Using historical survey and newspaper data, I provide evidence that this was the result of political backlash among racially conservative whites. (JEL D72, J15, K16)

The Right to Vote

Getting By ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 849-874
Author(s):  
Helen Hershkoff ◽  
Stephen Loffredo
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Voter Registration ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Vote Count ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right ◽  
Waiting Periods

This chapter discusses the right to vote. Democracy demands that every vote count and that every voter be able to shape social and economic policy. Equality of participation, however, is seriously undermined by the outsized role that money plays in American electoral politics—making the exercise of the franchise even more important for persons who are poor or have low income. The chapter discusses the legal and practical barriers that low-income citizens face when they go to the polls, including demands for identification cards, the need to take time off from work, and long waiting periods at the ballot box in neighborhoods that are poor or populated by persons of color. The chapter sets out the constitutional basis for the right to vote, locating current restrictions in past practices that excluded the poor and unpropertied, and impeded the political rights of African Americans after emancipation. Discussion focuses on conditions that states have attached to the right to vote, on protections afforded under federal statutes, and rules governing voter registration campaigns.

Deciding who has the right to vote: a comparative analysis of election laws

2001 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Blais ◽  
Louis Massicotte ◽  
Antoine Yoshinaka
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right ◽  
Election Laws

scholarly journals La reforma de la LOREG para el supuesto de convocatoria automática de elecciones en virtud del artículo 99.5 CE: ¿una oportuna adaptación técnica o una conculcación del derecho de sufragio? // The reform to the Spanish People Institutional Act (LOREG) for the automatic call of elections under article 99.5 CE: A timely technical adaptation or a breach of the right to vote?

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (100) ◽  
pp. 541
Author(s):  
Rosario García Mahamut
Keyword(s):  
Voting Rights Act ◽  
Domino Effect ◽  
Electoral Process ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Spanish Constitution ◽  
The People ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

Resumen:Este trabajo aborda un análisis detallado de la LO 2/2016 de modificación de la Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General (LOREG) para el supuesto de convocatoria automática de elecciones en virtud del artículo 99.5 CE. La nueva Disposición adicional séptima de la LOREG regula las especificidades procedimentales de un proceso electoral que, para este supuesto, dura 47 días en lugar de los 54 días. Se reduce el tiempo destinado a la campaña electoral y se establece una serie de medidas que permiten recurrir a trámites utilizados en el proceso electoral inmediatamente anterior. En este estudio se analizan pormenorizadamente aquellas especialidades procedimentales que, aunque revisten la apariencia de ajustes técnicos en el calendario electoral, pueden afectar de forma nuclear al contenido esencial del derecho de sufragio activo y pasivo amparado en el artículo 23 CE. Summary:I. Introduction. II. The formal and material peculiarities of the representation of the people institutional act 2/2016, october 31st, modifying the spanish «LOREG». 1. The drafting of the law and its contextualization in the calendar of the investiture process. 2. A synoptic overview of the material content of the reform. III. The serious incidents that the new additional seventh provision of the LOREG may add to the exercise of the voting rights act: 1. The length of theelectoral process, the domino effect and the legal anchorage of proceduralspecialities. 2. Presentation, publication and proclamation of candidacies: the difficult balance on gender equality. 3. The appeals against the proclamation of candidacies and candidates: The nonaffectation of the jurisdictional guarantees and the dangerous exception. 4. The impact of the reduction of the electoral process on the right to vote of the Spaniards Residents Abroad. Electoral campaigns: main developments and risks. IV. Conclusions.Abstract:This paper provides a detailed analysis of the current Act 2/2016, October 31st, modifying the Spanish People Institutional Act (LOREG) which regulates the organisation of the automatic call of an election under article 99.5 of the Spanish Constitution (CE). The new 7th Additional Provision of the Spanish «LOREG» examines the procedural specifities of an electoral process which, in this case, lasts 47 days instead of 54. On the one hand, the time assigned to the electoralcampaign is reduced and, on the other hand, a series of measures are provided in order to allow the implementation of the procedures used in the immediately preceding electoral process. This study analyses in detail those procedural singularities that, although they may seem as technical adjustments of the electoral timetable, they can directly affect the essential content of the right to vote and stand for election protected by artículo 23 CE.

scholarly journals Paving Way for Entrenching the Diaspora’s Voting Rights under the Nigerian Laws: Legal Prospects, Challenges and Potential Solutions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
ABBA ELGUJJA
Keyword(s):  
National Development ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
The World ◽  
External Voting ◽  
Nigerian Government ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right

Diaspora overseas or external voting (hereinafter referred to as diaspora voting), which hinges on the citizen’s universal right to vote, has become popular among modern democracies all over the world. Over a hundred nations have so far adopted overseas or (hereinafter referred to as diaspora voting) with varying scope and/or restriction, if any. Among these countries are nearly thirty African countries that also include all of Nigeria’s immediate neighbours except Cameroun.Currently, the Nigerian laws, including the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act (2010), do not provide for the right of Nigerians overseas to participate in elections unless they personally present themselves for registration and voting at designated centres in Nigeria.Since Nigeria’s return to democratic government in 1999, there have been persistent calls among Nigerians in the diaspora for law reforms to enable them to exercise their universal right to vote during elections. Since then, various administrations of the Nigerian government have, accordingly, yielded to those calls by setting up an independent dedicated body (Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM)) that is saddled with the responsibility of engaging and mobilising Nigerians in the diaspora as equal partners in national development.Political pundits continue to debate on and attempt to strike a balance between, its desirability and the potential logistical and operational challenges that may result therefrom. However, the overwhelming argument is that, in view of their contribution to Nigerian national development, and the contemporary international trend in the globalised modern democracies, Nigerians in diaspora, as equal citizens, should be allowed to exercise their right to vote just like their peers in similar climes.This article reviewed and found that there are some legal hurdles that have to be tackled along the way, and proffers some constitutional amendments and other legal reforms that are necessary for bringing this lofty concept into fruition.

scholarly journals PENERAPAN ASAS CEPAT DALAM PERKARA PERBUATAN MELANGGAR HUKUM DI PENGADILAN NEGERI TANGERANG (Contoh Kasus: Putusan Nomor 498/Pdt.G/2016/PN Tng)

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 292
Author(s):  
Ezra De Artah Sasta ◽  
Ning Adiasih
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Civil Procedure ◽  
Effective Alternative ◽  
District Court ◽  
State Court ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Right ◽  
Speedy Trial

The purpose of this study is to know how the case process in the Tangerang District Court, how its application with the Supreme Court Circular No. 2 of 2014 in the acceleration of Civil procedure law cases in the Tangerang District Court from 2015 to 2017. By using normative juridical research methods, concluded: 1. The case process that occurred in the State Court as from the beginning until the judge's decision became the most effective alternative today. Because it can be seen from cases that have been systematic for the realization of justice. 2. The establishment of the Supreme Court Circular No. 2 of 2014 is very useful and provides basic guidance in the Tangerang District Court in the event of a speedy trial. However, in the practice of the Tangerang District Court on the issue of implementation in accordance with the Supreme Court Circular No. 2 of 2014 in the court environment does not go according to the hope of the formation of the regulation. There are some disputes that have passed the right time, although basically to deal with civil cases with the rules will not be long. Which makes the implementation of the quick principle does not apply well with the Supreme Court Circular No. 2 of 2014 in the Tangerang District Court. The rules used can not be implemented and can not be applied because they are not in accordance with the facts so that they are not in accordance with the rules and practices.

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