Right now we are in the midst of phase one of election cases.  Here are some basic to understanding the disputes that are currently occurring and may occur over the next several weeks.

As noted in previous posts on legal issues and elections, the United States is big on the concept of federalism.  There is a very sharp, but not absolute, division between state law and federal law.

For the most part, election law is a matter of state law.  As such, many election disputes occur in state court.  For an election dispute to go to federal court, there has to be a federal issue.  Since only a handful of federal statutes restrict state discretion on federal elections, most federal cases involve a claim that the state election law implicates the United States Constitution (most frequently, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment).  This division between state court and federal court can be rather significant for this first phase of election case. Continue Reading...