Category Archives: election law biz

Who knew?

Nice shoutout  about ELB from NCSL, which cautions that not everyone will agree with “Hasen’s slant.”  As my inbox can attest!

Congratulations Nick!

WaPo offers this profile of Katie Biber Chen.  See also this brief GQ profile in which I am quoted on the importance of Biber’s work for Romney.

A leading lawyer in the civil rights and voting rights world.

See here.

See here.

See the announcement here.  Good luck!

Do read.

NYT reports on the Goldwater Institute, which has been active in Arizona campaign finance battles.

Josh is one of the winners of the SEALS paper competition for 2011-12, for his draft paper, Procedural Fairness in Election Contests.

With grading, family travel and holidays, expect less frequent updates from me through New Year’s.  Updates to the listserv also will be intermittent.  For those of you in DC attending the AALS annual conference, I’ll be speaking on January 5 on two panels:

9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Crosscutting Program – The Law and Science of Trustworthy Elections: Facing the Challenges of Internet Voting and Other E-Voting Technologies
The Law and Science of Trustworthy Elections: Facing the Challenges of Internet Voting and Other E-Voting Technologies

1:30 – 2:45 PM

Blogs and Social Media

Concurrent Session (Communications Track)

Details of each program below the fold.

Continue reading →

Doug Chapin blogs.

The former White House ethics czar had a recess appointment which was soon to expire.  He had been blocked by Senator Grassley, but it looks like he got an assist from the National Review and was confirmed 70-16.  (h/t Eric Brown)

Congrats Norm!

Via Mike Sacks comes this interesting news.  If Adegbile does get a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I expect Senator Sessions and others to spend a lot of time discussing the constitutionality of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

The following announcement arrived via email:

The Pew Center on the States has named David Becker the new director of Election Initiatives, overseeing its entire portfolio of work on election administration. Since 2008, David has managed Pew’s efforts to upgrade voter registration systems. He will now also manage efforts to improve military and overseas voting, assess elections performance through data, and use technology to provide voters with information they need to cast a ballot. David brings more than a decade of experience working to strengthen America’s election system, including seven years as a senior trial attorney in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

Congratulations David!

The following statement arrived via email:

With some sadness, but with considerable pride in our accomplishments, we
are closing the Center for Governmental Studies’ offices after 28 years of
service in the public interest. The recession has depleted our funding, and
we cannot continue to operate CGS in its present form. The CGS board and
leadership have therefore reluctantly concluded that it is necessary to
close.

CEO Tracy Westen and President Bob Stern, along with several former CGS
staff members, will complete pending CGS projects and move on to other
ventures. Tracy plans to continue his work on governance reform and online
democracy. Bob expects to continue his work as an expert consultant, public
speaker and political commentator in governance issues.

We have many people to thank for their invaluable contributions: our
brilliant Chairman Emeritus, Rocco Siciliano, and current Chair, Stephen
Rountree, who together guided CGS over the past 28 years; our wise board of
directors, who volunteered many hours of time to support our efforts; our
talented staff and interns, many of whom have moved on to distinguished
careers; our many funders, who enabled us to contribute our creative
energies to the public interest; and countless elected officials, civic
organizations and citizens across the nation, who worked to implement our
recommendations. Some of our recent staff have found new positions; others
are seeking new and challenging opportunities; and many hope to continue
working in the broader public interest. (Our board, staff and funders are
listed at www.cgs.org.)

Tracy Westen and Bob Stern can be reached as follows:
·         Tracy Westen, Vice Chair and CEO: tawesten@gmail.com,
310-913-1395 (c)
·         Bob Stern, President, rstern2009@gmail.com, 310-573-1889
(h), (310) 382-0904 (c)
Our CGS website (www.cgs.org) can still be accessed, as can our
PolicyArchive (www.policyarchive.org), Video Voter (www.videovoter.org) and
ConnectLA (www.connectlahousing.org) websites. Our books and reports are
available for free downloading at www.cgs.org and www.policyarchive.org.

Over the years, we have been guided by a two-fold principle: that 21st
century democracy can only be improved by efforts both to reform the
underlying structures of government and to use new communications
technologies to inform citizens and help them participate in their
governments. To this end, CGS has researched and proposed governance
reforms and built new systems of online digital democracy. Focusing
initially on California, CGS has also used its expertise to advise state
and local governments across the nation.

Over almost three decades, CGS created a number of important projects:
·         California Commission on Campaign Financing, which
published landmark reports on California state, local and judicial
campaign financing, drafted the model laws which became Propositions
68 and 208 on the 1988 and 1996 state ballots, and published the most
comprehensive set of ballot initiative reforms in the nation.
·         California Citizens Budget Commission, which in 1995 and
1998 recommended dozens of state budget reforms, some of which have
now been enacted and some which are still being debated for
implementation.
·         California Citizens Commission on Higher Education, which
made important recommendations, now needed more than ever, for
solving California’s debilitating “boom-and-bust” cycle of funding
for higher education.
·         California Channel (www.CalChannel.com), the nation’s
largest satellite-fed, public affairs cable television channel, now
serving close to six million homes with gavel-to-gavel coverage of
the state legislature’s floor sessions and committee hearings,
governor’s press conferences and occasional California supreme Court
oral arguments, and operated 24 hours a day by the California Cable
Television Association.
·         National Center on State and Local Campaign Finance Reform,
which published books, studies and charts on the public financing
laws of all the 50 states and numerous detailed reports on individual
state and local campaign financing systems.
·         Democracy Network, the nation’s first and largest online
source of candidate debates and voter information, which CGS
prototyped in 1994, launched in 1996, built a Spanish-language
version for Venezuela in 1998, installed in the nation’s first
digital cable network, Time Warner’s state-of-the-art “Full Service
Network in Orlando, Florida, partnered with AOL and 1998 and 2000 to
offer candidate information to millions of users, and operated in
partnership with the National League of Women Voters and
Grassroots.com through 2001.
·         PolicyArchive (www.PolicyArchive.org), the world’s largest,
free, online source of public policy research, now providing instant
access to over 33,000 public policy documents.
·         Video Voter (www.videovoter.org), a way for cities and
states to offer candidates and ballot measure committees free
opportunities to communicate their views to the public in
video-on-demand formats, via broadcast television, cable television,
YouTube (“centgov”) and the Internet —opportunities which New York
City, Los Angeles, Santa Monica and other cities now provide on a
continuing basis.
·         ConnectLA (www.ConnectLAHousing.org), the nation’s first
website to provide low income communities with access to information
on affordable housing, jobs, healthcare and government services.
·         Digital Democracy (www.digidem.org), an online prototype
for a new system of digital, citizen-to-elected official
communication.
·         HealthVote and CalHealthReform, websites operated in
partnership with the California HealthCare Foundation to inform
voters of legislative and ballot initiative measure developments in
healthcare.

In addition, CGS published over 70 books and reports on a wide range of
campaign finance and governance topics, including in-depth studies of laws
in California, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina
(judicial) and Wisconsin, as well as local governments Albuquerque, Los
Angeles (city and judicial), New York, Portland, San Francisco, Suffolk
County, New York, Tucson and 15 other local California jurisdictions. CGS
also administered the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL),
pioneered the field of online campaign filing and disclosures, and proposed
innovative campaign finance reforms.

In other areas, CGS co-founded the Voting Studies Institute with USC to
develop verifiable voting systems, explored online ballot initiative
circulation, built websites for NextTen, LA Health Action and California
2000 and published a report, based on over 100 interviews, calling for the
creation of a new Sacramento Policy Center.

We are proud of this record. However, all good things must come to an end.
Happily, endings often have a way of becoming exciting beginnings.

Best wishes to you all, and thank you sincerely for your loyal support over
the years.

Tracy Westen                                     Bob Stern
Vice-Chair and CEO                           President

I have relied on CGS reports over the years, especially about the initiative process and about public financing.   I have also enjoyed working with Bob and Tracy on some projects, including some pro bono amicus briefs in the Supreme Court (including in McConnell v. FEC).  I wish them the best of luck on their new endeavors, and will miss the fine research produced by CGS.

McGuire Woods has posted this article on its website.

So reports Dan Backer.

And a beautiful website too.  Good luck!

See here.

On his new blog.

If you’re missing Rick’s wit and insight during his blogging break, make sure to check him out on Twitter.  Recent tweets include ones on the Obama fundraiser, Wisconsin recall, and “fraudulent fraud squad.”

When he worked on the Hill, Jason was one of the most thoughtful and conscientious staffers I knew working on election law issues.  Now he moves to private practice (and Twitter @jasonaabel).  Good luck Jason!