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Election Law @ Moritz Home Page

Election Law @ Moritz

Election Law @ Moritz


EL@M Fellows

Mary Beth Beazley

Mary Beth Beazley

Associate Professor of Law; Director of Legal Writing
Moritz College of Law

Phone: (614) 292-5919
Email: beazley.1@osu.edu
Office: Drinko 339
Prof. Beazley's Faculty Profile

Mary Beth Beazley's work in election law addresses issues of ballot design. As a nationally recognized expert on the communicative effect of both word choice and the layout of text, Professor Beazley puts this expertise to use in addressing the potential impact on election outcomes of different ballot contents and layouts.

Ruth Colker

Ruth Colker

Distinguished University Professor and Heck Faust Memorial Chair in Constitutional Law
Moritz College of Law

Phone: (614) 292-0900
Email: colker.2@osu.edu
Office: Drinko 317
Prof. Colker's Faculty Profile

One of the nation's foremost scholars in the field of disability law, Ruth Colker's work includes issues of access to voting by the disabled. Such access issues encompass the design and operation of voting machines as well as access to polling places under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Professor Colker is the author of the leading casebook on disability law, the forthcoming edition of which will include a special section on election-related issues. She is also an expert on gay rights, same-sex marriage initiatives and women's rights.

Matt Cooper

Matt Cooper

Reference Librarian
Moritz College of Law

Phone: (614) 688-0052
Email: cooper.373@osu.edu
Office: Drinko 280D

Matt joined the Moritz Law Library in 2010. His responsibilities include providing reference services to faculty, students, and staff, and teaching legal research courses. Prior to joining the library, Matt worked as an assistant public defender in Clinton County, Ohio, and as a staff attorney for the Twelfth District Ohio Court of Appeals in Middletown.

Dale A. Oesterle

Dale A. Oesterle

J. Gilbert Reese Chair in Contract Law
Moritz College of Law

Phone: (614) 292-7172
Email: oesterle.4@osu.edu
Office: Drinko 213
Prof. Oesterle's Faculty Profile

Dale A. Oesterle has considerable experience with the rules governing referenda, initiatives, and other forms of direct democracy. His book on the Colorado Constitution contains a chapter devoted to this topic, and he has served as consultant in litigation concerning the constitutional law applicable to such ballot measures. Professor Oesterle's current interests relating to election law include the special problems that arise in the context of judicial elections, in particular the efforts to regulate the campaign communications of judicial candidates and well as the role of attorneys and litigants in financing judicial campaigns.

Peter M. Shane

Peter M. Shane

Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law
Moritz College of Law

Phone: (614) 688-3014
Email: shane.29@osu.edu
Office: Drinko 467
Prof. Shane's Faculty Profile

Peter M. Shane's scholarship addresses a variety of topics within the field of election law. As one the nation's foremost authorities on the law of the presidency, whose work includes the leading coursebook on this topic, Professor Shane is an expert on the Electoral College and the particular rules applicable to presidential elections. His relevant publications include Disappearing Democracy: How Bush v. Gore Undermined the Right to Vote for Presidential Electors, 29 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 535-585 (2001). In addition, Professor Shane is a leading figure in the newly emerging field of cyberdemocracy, which studies the use of the Internet and other information technologies to facilitate citizen participation in politics and government. His recent work in this field includes research funded by the National Science Foundation on the development of software to structure community-based discussions on complex policy issues. He has edited Democracy Online: The Prospects of Political Renewal Through the Internet, for which his own contribution is "The Electronic Federalist: The Internet and the Electronic Institutionalization of Democratic Legitimacy." Professor Shane has also published widely on the topics of voting rights, redistricting, and reapportionment. His work in this area includes, most recently, Reflections in Three Mirrors: Complexities of Representation in a Constitutional Democracy, 60 Ohio St. L. J. 693-709 (1999).

David Stebenne

David Stebenne

Adjunct Professor of Law and Associate Professor of History
The Ohio State University

Phone: (614) 292-5359
Email: stebenne.1@osu.edu
Office: Dulles 240
Prof. Stebenne's Faculty Profile

David Stebenne teaches modern US political and legal history. He has long had a strong interest in the history of American elections and has written about the history of American presidential elections in the twentieth century. Professor Stebenne is especially interested in the era from the 1930's through the 1960's, when U.S. voter turnout was high by historical standards, and he is writing a history of that period. Professor Stebenne speaks regularly about national politics and elections on WOSU's "Open Line" and "All Sides with Ann Fisher" radio shows.