Election Reform

Robert Healey, on the Master-Lever Lawsuit

By Carroll Andrew Morse | August 24, 2010 |

The second subject I asked Robert Healey about at Saturday’s Tenth Amendment rally at the Rhode Island Statehouse was the status of his lawsuit to eliminate the master-lever from the Rhode Island ballot by this November’s election. In addition to his own suit, Mr. Healey also discussed a second suit, filed by independent Gubernatorial candidate…

In NY Town, Vote Early and Vote Often (Legally)

By Marc Comtois | June 16, 2010 |

Apparently, this is the new definition of “fair voting”: Voters in Port Chester, 25 miles northeast of New York City, are electing village trustees for the first time since the federal government alleged in 2006 that the existing election system was unfair. The election ends Tuesday and results are expected late Tuesday. Although the village…

Ahh, the Transparency of the Campaign Finance Reform Inspired 527 Schemes

By Marc Comtois | February 10, 2010 |

We’ve heard the caterwauling in reaction to the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding corporate political donations. But, whether you like the idea of big business giving directly to political candidates or not, you have to admit that at least it’s a relatively transparent process. A simple check of any number of sources will readily reveal…

On Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court Decision: Reflections from April 30, 2005 on Correcting the Bizarre Incentives Created by Campaign Finance Reform Laws

By Donald B. Hawthorne | January 23, 2010 |

A nearly five year old blog post, reposted here in response to this week’s Supreme Court decision about free speech: Andrew has a terrific, focused posting entitled First They Came for the Radio Talk Show Hosts… that gets to the heart of the latest fallout from campaign finance reform here in Rhode Island. Once again,…

Supreme Court and Campaign Finance

By Marc Comtois | January 22, 2010 |

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is being extolled or excoriated as the end of McCain/Feingold type campaign finance reform. There are many places to go for extended analysis and I won’t even pretend to understand the intricacies of the legal arguments. However, Matt Welch’s explanation is the most cogent…

House Judiciary Committee Throws a Spanner into Voter ID

By Monique Chartier | March 31, 2009 |

Chairman Lally and the House Judiciary Committee have voted to hold Bill H 5097 “AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS – VOTER IDENTIFICATION” over “for further study”. The vote to do so was thirteen to one; the one “nay” was Rep Rod Driver. What aspect of this concept might still need to be studied? Let’s see,…

Bi-partisan Effort to Stop Straight-Party Ticket Option

By Marc Comtois | February 10, 2009 |

A couple freshman RI legislators–one a Democrat and the other a Republican–have introduced a bill (PDF) to discontinue straight-party ticket voting in RI. From the Projo Politics blog: Freshmen Representatives Brian C. Newberry, a North Smithfield Republican and Democrat Michael J. Marcello, of Scituate, have teamed up to submit legislation that would prohibit straight-party voting:…

Election Bills Before the RI House

By Carroll Andrew Morse | January 9, 2009 |

There are two bills regarding election procedures, already pending in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, that are worthy of public attention:H5051, sponsored by Representatives Al Gemma (D-Warwick), Patricia Serpa (D-Coventry/Warwick/West Warwick), Joanne Giannini (D-Providence), Peter Kilmartin (D-Pawtucket) and Gregory Schadone (D-North Providence) which, to quote the official description, “would require all voters to provide…

California Does Away with Gerrymandering

By Marc Comtois | December 2, 2008 |

Christian Whiton and Larry Greenfield report: Proposition 11, which passed with the narrowest of margins (50.8 percent), could mark the most serious challenge to the political class by voters since the foiled term limit movement of the 1990s. It strikes at the core pillar of power: incumbency guaranteed through gerrymandered districts. Californians took away from…

RE: Matt Allen Show – Straight Party

By Marc Comtois | November 19, 2008 |

As a follow-up to my appearance on Matt Allen tonight, I thought it worthwhile to provide a link to VotersUnite.org, which I mentioned to Matt. As I said, they indicate that there are only 15 states that provide the straight-party option, though there are some caveats. For instance: [1] North Carolina: A straight party vote…