Election law

After the legally-contested 2000 United States presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, the importance of election law has grown in the United States. According to the National Law Journal, election law "grew from a niche to multi million-dollar draw."[2] The UCLA election law professor Richard Hasen showed that in the United States, litigation rates have been soaring for two decades and hit record high during the 2020 election.[3][4]

Since the early 2000s, election law has been taught at most of the law schools throughout the United States.[5] American election law experts and academics are connected in the academic network founded by Daniel H. Lowenstein, professor at UCLA Law School, and Richard L. Hasen. Lowenstein is considered the "pioneer" and the one who "invented" the election law.[6][7][8] In 2000s, Lowenstein and Hasen edited the Election Law Journal and the election law mailinglist.[6] As of 2022, Hasen manages the Election Law Blog and the mailing list.[9][10] The Election Law Journal is an academic publication devoted to election law, currently edited by David Canon of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[11] Most of its articles deal with election law in the United States.[12]

According to the Routledge Handbook of Election Law, election law is a growing area globally.[13][14][15] Voters around the world are increasingly challenging election results. Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Iceland, Kenya, and Malawi are some countries where courts have recently invalidated national elections or referendums.[16] Electoral disputes are good for democracy, according to the book's editors.[13] They can "remove voters' doubts, remedy violations, increase trust, and, when needed, invalidate flawed elections and defend the integrity of the electoral process. Letting all participants know violations will not be tolerated benefits future elections."[16]

Some of the questions that are addressed by election law are:

• Which people are entitled to vote in an election (e.g. age, residency or literacy requirements, or poll taxes), and the procedures by which such persons must register to vote or present identification in order to vote
• Which people are entitled to hold office (for example, age, residency, birth or citizenship requirements), and the procedures candidates must follow to appear on the ballot (such as the formatting and filing of nominating petitions) and rules governing write-in candidates
• The rules about what subjects may be submitted to a direct popular vote through a referendum or plebiscite, and the rules that governmental agencies or citizen groups must follow to place questions on the ballot for public consideration
• The framework by which political parties may organize their internal government, and how they select candidates to run for political office (e.g. primary elections)
• The financing of elections (e.g. contribution limits, rules for public financing of elections, the public disclosure of contributors, and rules governing interest groups other than a candidate's campaign organization)
• The requirements for creating districts which elect representatives to a legislative assembly (examples include congressional districts, ridings or wards within a Municipality)
• What restrictions are placed on campaign advocacy (such as rules on anonymous adds, false advertising, and limits on free speech)
• How votes are cast at an election (including whether to use a paper ballot, or some other form of recording votes such as a mechanical voting machine or electronic voting device, and how information is presented to voters on the ballot or device)
• How votes are counted at an election, recounts, and election challenges
• Whether, and how, voters or candidates may file legal actions in a court of law or administrative agency to enforce their rights or contest the outcome of an election
• Definition of electoral fraud and other crimes against the electoral system
• The sources of election law (for example, constitutions, national statutes, state statutes, or judicial decisions) and the interplay between these sources of law

According to University of Chicago Law Professor Brian Leiter, the most cited American election law scholars between 2016 and 2020 included Samuel Issacharoff, Richard Pildes, Richard Hasen, Heather Gerken, Richard Briffault, Nathaniel Persily, and Nicholas Stephanopoulos, respectively.[21] Other notable election law experts and professors include David Schultz,[22][23] Joshua Douglas,[24][25][26] Ed Foley,[27][28] Guy-Uriel Charles,[29][30] Jessica Levinson,[31][32][33] Rebecca Green,[34] Eugene Mazo,[35] Justin Levitt,[33][36] in the U.S, Graeme Orr[37] in Australia and Jurij Toplak in Europe.[38][39][40]

• Category:Election law in the United Kingdom
• Court of Disputed Returns
• Right of foreigners to vote
• Universal suffrage
• Disfranchisement

• Election Law Journal – A scholarly journal devoted to election law
• Election Law @ Moritz – a repository of Election Law news and commentary from academics and practitioners, compiled at the Ohio State Michael E. Moritz College of Law.
• Electoral Studies – A scholarly journal devoted to the study of elections
• Samuel Issacharoff, Pamela S. Karlan & Richard H. Pildes. The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process. 4th Rev. Ed. Foundation Press, 2012.
• Daniel H. Lowenstein, Richard L. Hasen & Daniel P. Tokaji, Election Law: Cases and Materials. 5th Ed. Carolina Press, 2012.
• Joshua A. Douglas & Eugene D. Mazo. Election Law Stories. Ed. Foundation Press, 2016.
• Dennis F. Thompson, Just Elections: Creating a Fair Electoral Process in the U.S. University of Chicago Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0226797649
• Electoral Administration Act 2006
• David Schultz & Jurij Toplak. Routledge Handbook of Election Law. Routledge, 2022.

• aceproject.org—A large online community and repository of electoral knowledge
• Voting and Election Laws
• Right to free elections in the case law of the ECtHR
• EL@M: Election Law @ Moritz Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine
• American Bar Association Standing Committee on Election Law