OSU Navigation Bar

Election Law @ Moritz Home Page

Election Law @ Moritz

Election Law @ Moritz


Litigation

Rhode Island ACLU v. Board of Elections

Case Information

Date Filed: September 11, 2008
State: Rhode Island
Issue: Voter Registration
Courts that Heard this Case: Providence Superior Court (Case )

Issue:

R.I. Gen. Laws § 17-1-3 permits a person who has not registered to vote to appear at his or her city or town hall and cast a vote in a presidential election.  The Rhode Island Board of Elections has adopted a new administrative regulation that allows towns and cities to designate a different location for this same day voter registration procedure if "voting in a city or town hall has become impracticable due to inadequacy of the available facilities or other concerns."  The issue is whether this newly adopted administrative regulation impermissibly conflicts with R.I. Gen. Laws § 17-1-3.

Status:

NOTICE: The electronic docket for this case is not freely available to the public. Filings in this case are not being monitored on a daily basis. Select documents will be added to this page when possible.

Trial Court Documents

Related EL@M Stories

Commentary

Edward B. Foley

Gerrymandering as Viewpoint Discrimination: A "Functional Equivalence" Test

Edward B. Foley

A First Amendment test for identifying when a map is functionally equivalent to a facially discriminatory statute.

more commentary...

In the News

Daniel P. Tokaji

This is why US election ballots routinely go missing

Professor Dan Tokaji was quoted in USA Today about the prevalence of missing election ballots.

 

"Most of the time, it just goes unreported because it doesn't affect the result," Tokaji said. 


more EL@M in the news...

Info & Analysis

Supreme Court Finds Partisan Gerrymandering Claims to be Non-Justiciable Political Questions

In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion on Thursday determining that claims of partisan gerrymandering are political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts. The opinion resolved disputes originating in North Carolina and Maryland, in the cases of Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek.

more info & analysis...