“Don’t Let Our Democracy Collapse” I’m reposting Professor Hasen’s editorial in today’s New York Times (linked through his election law blog) here for three reasons. First, it’s a clear-eyed and thorough analysis of the present danger. Second, it nicely coincides with a question my wife asked me this week (which I’ll paraphrase here as “So ..read more

As you may know, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has sent a letter to the state voter registrars in all 50 states, asking for a broad range of both public and private personal information about registered voters. The Brennan Center for Justice has the details here: https://www.brennancenter.org/press-release/brennan-center-states-examine-legal-obligations-providing-voters-personal-information As the Brennan Center reports: Kobach’s letter ..read more

Reporter Jessica Huseman of ProPublica spent the last six months working on a huge, complicated feature story, and the fruit of her efforts was posted Tuesday, May 2, on the Texas Tribune and ProPublica sites. The lengthy story is excellent; it summarizes and clarifies the complicated motives and mechanisms by which lawmakers more-or-less knowingly painted ..read more

My wife and I joke that the three most beautiful words in the English language are either “you were right,” or maybe, “I was wrong.” Either way, here’s a link to the New York Times story on the latest court ruling relating to the current photo I.D. law in Texas. Here’s the gist: After a ..read more

I. TL;DR Q&A (1) Ugh! This blog post looks like it’s really long. So, just tell me: Did the plaintiffs in the 2011 Texas redistricting case win or not? ANSWER: On March 10, 2017, the federal redistricting panel reviewing contested matters relating to the 2011 redistricting of Texas congressional districts issued an opinion finding that ..read more

1. Voter Registration — Status of TCRP Suit To Enforce Federal Motor Voter Laws We’re approaching the one-year anniversary of the Texas Civil Rights Project’s lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety, and just to refresh you, here’s what’s going on: Texas provides a website portal for the online renewal of drivers’ licenses, which ..read more

As reported in a recent Ken Herman Austin American-Statesman column, Senator Don Huffines of Dallas has filed S.B. 703 in order to eliminate the use of non-permanent early voting locations; while Representative Valoree Swanson of Spring has filed H.B. 1773, which imposes a big limitation on tax and bond elections by imposing a floor requirement ..read more

For this legislative session, Representative Mike Lang has filed two bills to further a couple longstanding goals that have been planks in the Texas Republican Party’s party platform; namely (1) enforcing voter registration by party (see party plank 66), and (2) drastically cutting down on the frequency with which elections take place (party plank 76 ..read more

Here’s a simple question with a complicated answer: Who conducts elections in Texas? I ask this question in part because I got a call about a week ago from a reporter with the Victoria Advocate, asking about the January 17, 2017, resignation of George Matthews, the county’s first and only elections administrator. Mr. Matthews had held ..read more

As reported on CNN and as analyzed by Rick Hasen’s Election Blog, the U.S. Department of Justice has asked for an extension in trial court briefing deadlines in the Texas voter ID lawsuit due to a change in the federal administration. The common-sense interpretation of this procedural move (as expressed by Professor Hasen)?: DOJ will ..read more