Election Law
Combating Voter Fraud:
The SGLF is invested in helping ensure election integrity and the guarantee that valid votes count in every state across the country. Reducing voter fraud will increase confidence in the election system overall. Common sense efforts such as voter identification are critical towards this effort. Placing limits on same-day voter registration and other early and same day voting laws will also help ensure integrity in our system. Even one invalid vote threatens our entire election system.
In order to maintain a high level of integrity in our elections, more solutions to the voter fraud issue need to be encouraged across the country. Elections are managed at the state level, and it is vital that they remain an integral part of the election law discussion.
Combating the National Popular Vote Movement:
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact – as of August 8, 2011, when California joined the Compact – now has 49% of the 270 electoral votes necessary for the compact to come into effect.
The states, along with their electoral vote tallies, that are a part of the compact include:
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VT-3 WA-12 NJ-14 MA-11 CA-55 |
MD-10 IL-20 DC-3 HI-4 |
The compact is based on Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution, which gives each state legislature the right to decide how to appoint its own electors.
The compact specifies that it shall take effect only if it is in states controlling 270 or more electoral votes by July 20th of a Presidential election year.
The National Popular Vote Compact (NPV), if put into place, would mean more recounts and unbelievably contentious elections. Under NPV, every single vote in every single precinct in every state across the country is of value. Recounts of this nature draw into question multiple election law complexities. Currently, each state has laws qualifying recounts, candidates, and voters. Note that recounts would’ve been necessary in as many as 6 elections since 1880 – one out of every 6 elections. (Bradley A. Smith, Vanity of Vanities: National Popular Vote and the Electoral College, 7 Election L.J. 196 (2008).
- “In 2000, Al Gore’s popular vote margin was 0.51 percent, which would have triggered a national recount under the mandatory standard adopted in three of eleven states with mandatory recount statues, and permitted a recount in seven of twelve states placing a percentage floor on optional recounts. It was barely outside the margin triggering a mandatory recount in another five states with mandatory recount percentage triggers and two states with optional recount triggers. The 1960 election, in which John Kennedy defeated Nixon by just 0.2 percent, would have triggered a mandatory national recount under the standard used in ten of eleven states using statutory triggers, and would have met the requirements for a recount in eleven of twelve states with an optional standard. The election of 1880, in which James A. Garfield won the popular vote by 0.1% over Winfield Hancock, would have triggered a recount in any of the 23 states using a percentage threshold. The elections of 1884, 1888, and 1968 would also have triggered nationwide recounts under a one percent rule. In short, under a national popular vote, applying commonly accepted standards for recounts, there is reason to believe we might have had several national recounts” Note, this comes to six recounts. Since 1900, top 2 candidates have had a margin of less than 10% in 16 of the last 20 election.
NPV brings voter fraud, actually it encourages voter fraud – and it spills over into other states. Voter fraud is taken nationwide, as each vote in each precinct could make the difference in an election.
Additional Resources
Heritage Study: Destroying the Electoral College
CATO STUDY on the National Popular Vote
Although swing states would no longer be important, populated urban centers would take their place. Swing states can change from election to election, but these populated urban centers would always garner the most attention from presidential candidates. If the NPV compact comes into effect, the Presidential election would become a race for essentially 11% of the most popular states as they make up about 56% of the population. The race would mostly center on large states with largely urban issues as opposed to states or areas with rural issues.
Despite the aim at amending the Constitution without an amendment, the NPV Compact if approved, would also have to be approved by Congress as it surpasses purely local compact requirements and affects national government.
State laws regarding voter eligibility would be deemed null and void under NPV. Under the Electoral College system, voters who are eligible in one state have no bearing on another state’s electoral votes. Under NPV, ineligible voters in one state will be on an equal level with eligible voters in another state.
If put into effect, NPV will cause a constitutional crisis on numerous fronts.
News & Articles
The Real Victims of Voter Fraud
A Democratic county elections commissioner and former city councilman are on trial for absentee-ballot fraud. Four other Democrats have already pleaded guilty in the case. The ongoing ballot-fraud trial shows that the real victims of voter fraud are all too often the poor, the elderly and the more vulnerable members of our society.
ObamaCare architect: Health insurance premiums will rise, not fall, under law
Echoing conservative reservations about the effects of the law on the marketplace, Gruber now acknowledges that “even after tax credits some individuals are ‘losers,’ in that they pay more than before [Obama's] reform.”
In voter ID case, South Carolina fights back against Obama administration
In court papers filed on Wednesday, Washington lawyer Paul Clement and state Attorney General Alan Wilson requested that a three-judge panel be appointed to decide whether South Carolina’s voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Democrats, GOP spar over voter registration bill
Federal law prohibits removing voters from registration rolls for failing to vote. But Republicans on Wednesday endorsed a possible end run around that — one that Democrats, the ACLU and some good-government groups protested as illegal and likely to lower voter turnout.
The House Political Subdivisions Committee endorsed HB253 on a 6-4 vote, mostly along party lines, and sent it to the full House. It would allow removing voters from rolls if they miss four consecutive general elections and fail to respond to a notice mailed to them after the second missed election.
Statehouse Live: Kobach touts voter ID law; Democrats say it will deprive legitimate votes
"I'd be willing to put a $5 bill on it," said state Rep. Ann Mah, D-Topeka.
But Kobach, a Republican, said showing a photo ID to vote isn't onerous. He said a photo ID is required in many aspects of everyday life, and he noted that Illinois was considering a law to require a photo ID to purchase Drano.
Mah said voting was a constitutionally protected right unlike purchasing Drano.
Secretaries Of State At Center Of Election Battles
"We've definitely shaken up the status quo, and I think that's happened a bit in some other states, too," he says.
Gessler came to the office from a career as one of Colorado's top Republican campaign lawyers, and he doesn't shy away from that partisan affiliation or from pursuing conservative policies, like pushing for a voter identification law.
"I'm very open about what my office does," he says. "I was very open about it on the campaign trail. And I welcome the debate, because I think as Coloradans, as Americans, we ought to discuss these issues, we ought to talk about them, we ought to think about them."
Why National Popular Vote Is a Bad Idea
Because there was a difference of less than 1,000 tabulated votes between George W. Bush and Al Gore in one state, Florida, the nation watched as 6 million votes were recounted by machine, several hundred thousand were recounted by hand in counties with differing recount standards, partisan litigators fought each other in state and federal courts, the secretary of state backed by the majority of state legislators (all Republicans) warred with the state's majority Democratic judiciary -- until 37 days after the election the U.S. Supreme Court, in a bitterly controversial 5-4 decision effectively declared Bush the winner.
New laws imperil voting rights in several states
Kobach: Kansas ID law not being reviewed
“We have not been contacted at all by the Justice Department in this respect,” said Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
And Kobach, a Republican who pushed for the Kansas voter ID law, said he doesn’t expect the federal government to look at the Kansas measure.
Missouri researchers to study online voting
A team of Missouri researchers trained in technology, cyber-security and elections management will use a $740,000 Department of Defense grant to explore Internet-based and mobile phone voting applications.
The project initially will focus on speeding the delivery of overseas ballots, Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren said at a Thursday press conference announcing the collaboration. Noren emphasized that voters won’t actually cast ballots online, but researchers will study ways to surmount the security obstacles to online voting.
A “Catastrophic Outcome” – Federal & State Leaders Warn about the National Popular Vote Compact
Alexandria, Va. (December 8, 2011) - The State Government Leadership Foundation hosted a forum with U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), six secretaries of state and the Heritage Foundation to discuss the movement for a National Popular Vote Compact.
Experts, State Officials Agree: The National Popular Vote Compact Increases Fraud and Creates Crises
Alexandria, Va. (December 7, 2011) - A compact to elect the President by popular vote rather than the current Electoral College system will complicate the elections system, explode fraud and make most states irrelevant to the process, according to Secretaries of State and experts that participated in a groundbreaking panel, today, to explore the issue.
The panel, hosted jointly by the State Government Leadership Foundation (SGLF) and the Heritage Foundation discussed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPV), which allows state legislatures to strike a deal by which they pledge to cast the entirety of their state’s Electoral College votes in accordance with the national popular vote, regardless of how the majorities in their states voted. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the keynote address, followed by a panel moderated by former Federal Election Commission member Hans A. von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation with six Secretaries of State that included:
SGLF and Heritage Foundation Host Panel on National Popular Vote (Video)
SGLF Joins Heritage Foundation, Republican Leader McConnell and Six Secretaries of State to Host Panel on National Popular Vote Compact
Alexandria, Va. (December 5, 2011) – The State Government Leadership Foundation (SGLF) will hold a joint forum with the Heritage Foundation, on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. to examine the Electoral College and the effort being made to effectively abolish it with the National Popular Vote Plan.
Popular vote movement detrimental to Iowa, say Branstad and Strawn
A national movement to change the way states’ electoral votes are cast would be detrimental to rural states and especially Iowa, say Gov. Terry Branstad and Republican Part of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn.
The National Popular Vote Initiative has begun airing ads in the Hawkeye State, the site of the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses. Branstad and Strawn said the initiative could also threaten Iowa’s status as the first test for presidential candidates.
National Dems' identification crisis
Former President Bill Clinton, addressing a liberal group Wednesday, likened Republican state legislative efforts to address voter fraud to the days of Jim Crow and poll taxes.
The McConnell Letter
We are writing to express our strong opposition to a dangerous state legislative effort that would jettison a nearly 220-year old system for electing U.S. presidents and to ask your help in defeating it.
Policy Analysis
A Critique of the National Popular Vote
The National Popular Vote plan (NPV), introduced in more than 40 states, and adopted by 4, proposes an interstate compact to bring about direct election of the president of the United States. The proposal eliminates states as electoral districts in presidential elections by creating a national electoral district for the presidential election, thereby advancing a national political identity for the United States. States with small populations and states that are competitive may benefit from the electoral college. Few states clearly benefit from direct election of the president. NPV brings about this change without amending the Constitution, thereby undermining the legitimacy of presidential elections. It also weakens federalism by eliminating the role of the states in presidential contests. NPV nationalizes disputed outcomes and cannot offer any certainty that states will not withdraw from the compact when the results of an election become known. NPV will encourage presidential campaigns to focus their efforts in dense media markets where costs per vote are lowest; many states now ignored by candidates will continue to be ignored under NPV. For these reasons, states should not join the National Popular Vote compact.
Vanity of Vanities:
National Popular Vote and the Electoral College
PITY THE POOR Electoral College. “[P]erhaps no aspect of the Constitution receives more criticism,” says political scientist Matthew Streb. And why not? After all, no less a thoughtful and usually balanced observer than Sanford Levinson calls the Electoral College “indefensible.”
Vanity of Vanities
National Popular Vote and the Electoral College
PITY THE POOR Electoral College. “[P]erhaps no aspect of the Constitution receives more criticism,” says political scientist Matthew Streb. And why not? After all, no less a thoughtful and usually balanced observer than Sanford Levinson calls the Electoral College “indefensible.”