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2 months ago | 
statecourtreport.org | Alicia Bannon |Lauren Miller Karalunas |Alice Clapman |Sarah Kessler
In a dispute that is attracting national attention, Jefferson Griffin, a Republican candidate for the North Carolina Supreme Court and judge on the state intermediate court, is seeking to invalidate more than 60,000 votes and overturn the electoral win of his opponent, Justice Allison Riggs. The dispute stems from November’s state supreme court election, which Griffin lost by just 734 votes.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
statecourtreport.org | Alice Clapman |Erin Smith |Andrew Garber |Michael Milov-Cordoba
Lawmakers asked voters to surrender some of their power to place issues directly on state ballots. Voters refused. Unlike in most democratic countries, United States citizens cannot weigh in on policy questions through a national referendum.
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Nov 19, 2024 | statecourtreport.org | Alice Clapman |Erin Smith |Andrew Garber |Michael Milov-Cordoba
Lawmakers asked voters to surrender some of their power to place issues directly on state ballots. Voters refused. Unlike in most democratic countries, United States citizens cannot weigh in on policy questions through a national referendum.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
brennancenter.org | Alice Clapman
Unlike in most democratic countries, United States citizens cannot weigh in on policy questions through a national referendum. But roughly half of American state constitutions do afford their citizens some version of this power, known as “direct democracy,” allowing citizens who collect enough signatures to place statutory or constitutional proposals on the ballot and pass them by popular vote.
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Sep 17, 2024 | 
brennancenter.org | Alice Clapman
View the entire Direct Democracy collection State supreme courts in Utah and Michigan recently issued twin landmark decisions limiting the legislature’s power to quash citizen initiatives. These decisions spell major victories for direct democracy — that is, citizens’ power to change their laws by popular vote.
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Jul 17, 2024 | 
brennancenter.org | Robyn Sanders |Alice Clapman
View the entire Limits on Voter Eligibility Challenges series Since the 2020 presidential election, false claims about the accuracy of the results have spurred a movement to challenge the eligibility of large numbers of voters. This resource explains the federal and state legal protections for eligible voters swept up in this effort. Most states allow private citizens to challenge their fellow citizens’ ballots or voter registrations, though the rules vary for how and when they can do so.
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Jun 21, 2024 | 
statecourtreport.org | Andrew Garber |Alice Clapman |Erin Smith |Michael Milov-Cordoba
The Kansas Supreme Court last month declared that the state constitution contains no fundamental right to vote, but emphasized that voting is a “political right” subject to strong constitutional protections. In League of Women Voters of Kansas v. Schwab, four nonpartisan civic engagement groups brought challenges to three parts of a 2021 election law.
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Jun 21, 2024 | statecourtreport.org | Andrew Garber |Alice Clapman |Erin Smith |Michael Milov-Cordoba
The Kansas Supreme Court last month declared that the state constitution contains no fundamental right to vote, but emphasized that voting is a “political right” subject to strong constitutional protections. In League of Women Voters of Kansas v. Schwab, four nonpartisan civic engagement groups brought challenges to three parts of a 2021 election law.
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May 31, 2024 | 
brennancenter.org | Alice Clapman
Last week, voting rights groups exposed a troubling development: Florida’s director of elections, Maria Matthews, had instructed local elections officials to investigate roughly 10,000 Florida registered voters based on an unvetted list an activist had emailed her. Since Donald Trump’s loss in 2020, his supporters have baselessly claimed that ineligible voters are swaying election results.
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Apr 30, 2024 | 
brennancenter.org | Alice Clapman
View the entire Direct Democracy collection When Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion that overruled Roe v. Wade in 2022, eliminating the constitutional right to bodily autonomy that women had relied on for half a century, he assured the public that the court was merely returning the abortion issue to the democratic process, where women are “not without” power.
