Election Law @ Moritz Home Page
Latest Information & Analysis 
Ohio Secretary of State Releases Report on Voter Fraud
May. 23 (5:24 PM) - Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted released a report today on voter fraud in Ohio during the 2012 general election. In a press release, Husted stated that while voter fraud does exist in Ohio, "it is not an epidemic." According to the report, 135 voter fraud cases have been referred to law enforcement for possible prosecution. Twenty of these cases involved voters attempting to vote in Ohio and another state. The report shows that 115 cases were referred to local Ohio county prosecutors. According to Husted as quoted in the Columbus Dispatch, most of these cases involved voters attempting to vote twice within the state, and in a "majority" of instances, only one vote was counted.Ohio House Committee Recommends Upholding Landis' Election Victory
May. 8 (3:52 PM) - Yesterday, an Ohio House of Representatives committee recommended 5-4 that the Ohio House uphold the election victory of Republican State Representative Al Landis over Democratic challenger Josh O'Farrell. In February, the Ohio Supreme Court sent the O'Farrell v. Landis record to the House for consideration. According to an article in the Canton Repository, committee chairman and State Representative Matt Huffman said he expects a vote by the full House later this month.Conference: Under the Influence? Interest Groups, Lobbying, and Campaign Finance
Feb. 27 (3:07 PM) - The Baldy Center at SUNY Buffalo is sponsoring a conference March 8-9, 2013 on the interaction between lobbying and campaign finance. MIchael Halberstam of SUNY Buffalo Law School and Election Law @ Moritz Senior Fellow Daniel Tokaji are co-organizers. Papers from the conference are to be published in Election Law Journal. More information on the conference is available here.Federal Court Rules that Louisiana Violated NVRA
Jan. 25 (9:21 AM) - U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Malazzo found that Louisiana violated the National Voter Registration Act by not providing voter registration services to all of its public assistance agency clients. The judge found that the state's subsequent modification of its policies complied with the Act and issued a permanent injunction directing the state to maintain these revised policies. The judge's ruling followed a trial held in October. The court retained jurisdiction over the case, Scott v. Schedler, for a year.Ohio Election Contest
Dec. 27 (1:00 PM) - Democrat Josh O'Farrell, who challenged Republican incumbent Al Landis for an Ohio House of Representatives seat, recently filed a petition in the Ohio Supreme Court contesting the election results. The Tuscarawas County Board of Elections declared Landis the winner earlier this month. O'Farrell's petition alleges multiple irregularities with respect to absentee and provisional voting and asks for a recount in certain precincts. The case is O'Farrell v. Landis.Ohio Supreme Court Upholds State Apportionment Plan
Nov. 27 (12:55 PM) - The Ohio Supreme Court has denied declaratory and injunctive relief in a challenge to the state’s current apportionment plan for the Ohio General Assembly. Establishing that the Apportionment Board has considerable discretion in how to apply constitutional requirements regarding compactness, contiguity, and minimizing splits within county and local governmental units, four members of the court held that “[t]he role of a supreme court in considering constitutional challenges to an apportionment plan is restricted to determining whether relators have met their burden to prove that the plan adopted by the board is unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt.” The court found no constitutional mandate of political neutrality, as long as the other constitutional requirements are met. The three dissenters took issue with the majority’s allocation of the burdens of proof and with the majority’s approach to the relationship between the constitutional requirements of compactness and minimal splitting within single governmental units.France: Uncertain Election Results in Vote for Party Leader
Nov. 19 (8:27 AM) - The results of an election for party leader of France's center-right opposition party, the party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, were uncertain as of Sunday night. The results are officially too close to call, though both candidates have reportedly declared victory. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian provide coverage.Recount Resources
Election Law @ Moritz has assembled a set of resources concerning the topic of elections going into overtime.
Swing State Focus
Media Hotline: (614) 292-0283
Commentary
FAQ on social welfare organizations
Donald B. Tobin
The Frank E. and Virginia H. Bazler Designated Professor in Business Law and a senior fellow at Election Law @ Moritz explains the nuances of social welfare organizations and federal regulations related to them.
More Commentary...
- Oesterle - Silence of the Lambs
- Foley - Numbers Show Ohio at Unique Risk of Disputed Presidential Votes
- Foley - French vote-counting dispute
- Stebenne - Why Obama Won Ohio -- and the Election
- Foley - "By the way, we have to fix that"
- Foley - Thinking about Some Possible Ohio Numbers
- Douglas - Discouraging Election Contests
- Tokaji - Ohio 2012: What to Watch for
- Foley - New Dispute over Ohio's Provisional Voting Procedures
- Levitt - The Counting Rules for Overtime: Materiality
News Wire
The latest election law news from across the country...last updated May 24 (9:15 AM).
- Ohio - Fraud just a tiny blip of 2012 vote (The Columbus Dispatch)
- New York - Donors Urge Cuomo to Press for Public Financing of State Campaigns (The New York Times)
- National - Pro-Rand Paul super PAC's name may violate law (Center for Public Integrity)
- Florida - Gov signs elections law fix, reversing GOP changes and ending early primary (Miami Herald)
- National - Conservative group True the Vote sues IRS over being subject to heightened scrutiny (The Washington Post)
- Minnesota - Elections and campaign finance bills draw bipartisan support (Minnesota Public Radio)
- National - How the IRS seeded the clouds in 2010 for a political deluge three years later (The Washington Post)
- Ohio - Voter fraud, or just errors? (Cincinnati Enquirer)
- National - IRS mess adds to campaign finance free-for-all (Politico)
- Ohio - Elections bill in Ohio Senate gets caught in partisan crossfire (Columbus Dispatch)
EL@M in the News
How Did The IRS Get The Job Of Vetting Political Activity?
Professor Donald Tobin was interviewed by the Boston NPR station on its show Here & Now about the Internal Revenue Service's investigation into groups classified as social welfare organizations (marked by the 501(c)(4) tax classification). The IRS was in search of groups that are not focusing primarly on the social welfare of the country, but have a strong political advocacy facet. Political advocacy groups might want to be classified as 501(c)(4) organizations because under that classification they do not have to disclose their donors.
"The key is if you are going to be engaged in candidate-type advocacy, and if you're going to intervene in elections and engage in election advocacy, we want disclosure of who your donors are," Tobin said.
“What groups are trying to do here is avoid having to disclose,” Tobin continued. “By earning the classification of social welfare, they’re avoiding the campaign disclosure that’s required for political organizations. So that’s really the underpinning of why we have this mess of the IRS having to get in and investigate and figure out whether an organization is political or not.”
Current Litigation
NEOCH v. Husted
State: Ohio
Issue: Original Issues: (1) Whether Ohio's voter ID laws are unconstitutional as "confusing, vague, and impossible to apply" in violation of the right to vote; whether the laws are unconstitutional because they apply only to in-person voters and not to absentee voters; whether they are unconstitutional because they may bar voters who do not have required identification from voting on Election Day; whether they are unconstitutional because only some forms of ID must have current address; whether they are unconstitutional as a poll tax. (2) Whether Ohio's provisional-ballot laws are unconstitutionally vague and therefore violate Equal Protection and Due Process.
Current Issue: Whether an April 2010 Consent Decree requiring that provisional ballots improperly voted as a result of poll worker error still be counted is valid under Ohio law.
Election Law @ Moritz | The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law | electionlaw@osu.edu
Please note: Election Law @ Moritz is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose any candidate, campaign, or party. Opinions expressed by individuals associated with Election Law @ Moritz, either on this web site or in connection with conferences or other activities undertaken by the program, represent solely the views of the individuals offering the opinions and not the program itself. Election Law @ Moritz institutionally does not represent any clients or participate in any litigation. Individuals affiliated with the program may in their own personal capacity participate in campaign or election activity, or engage in pro bono representation of clients other than partisan candidates or organizations.
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