Administrative Law Review Presents “Democracy 2020: Topics in Election Oversight”
Oct. 27, 2020
American University Washington College of Law’s Administrative Law Review hosted its fall symposium, “Democracy 2020: Topics in Election Oversight,” virtually Oct. 23–24, 2020.
The two-day symposium featured five separate panel discussions covering two distinct topics: election oversight with the influx of main-in ballots on day one, and election oversight in the face of foreign interference during day two. All pannels were moderated by Distinguished Adjunct Professor Louis Caldera, senior affiliate in the Program on Law and Government.
Congressman Jamie Raskin Discusses Voting Oversight
“There are certain qualities of the American electorate system that really distinguish it from the rest of the world. One is the extraordinary decentralization of our system compared to our neighbors like Canada or Mexico, where they have national electoral commissions…and make sure there are uniform electoral practices throughout the country; the ballots are approved in advanced, it’s a completely intendent, non-partisan process. That’s the standard for advanced democracies,” said Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Raskin is professor of law emeritus at AUWCL, where he taught Constitutional Law, the First Amendment, and Legislative Process. He is also founding co-director of the Program on Law and Government, and co-founder of the acclaimed Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project.
While there has been a fundamental democratic commitment to expanding voting rights across the country over the years, Raskin said “we must acknowledge that at every stage, all the way up until today, there’s been a furious and intense effort to keep people from voting and make it more difficult to vote, often along the lines of race, class, and ethnicity.”
Joining the conversation with Raskin was State Senator Tom Umberg, chair of the California Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee; State Senator Creigh Deeds, chair of the Virginia Privileges and Elections Committee; State Senator Jen Jordan, member of the Georgia Government Oversight Committee; and Judd Choate, director of Elections for the Colorado Department of State. Congressman Ted Lieu, member of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affair, spoke the following day during a panel on Election Oversight in the Face of Foreign Interference.
Pooja Chaudhuri, associate counsel on the Voting Rights Project, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said many of her recent lawsuits have brought challenges under the Constitution’s First and Fourteenth Amendment, asserting the current vote-by-mail restrictions as to who can request a ballot in some states infringes on the fundamental right to voters. Necessities such as witness or notary requirements, particularly during the COVID pandemic, can be difficult to come by in remote locations like rural Alaska, Chaudhuri said.
“We filed a lawsuit in Alaska State Court with our partners at the ACLU and Native American Rights Fund and were able to [remove] the witness and notary requirements from being imposed,” she said.
“Black and Latino people and Native Americans have been hit harder by the Coronavirus than their white counterparts,” said Theodore Wilhite, Advocacy and Policy Officer at Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania’s Alleghany County has failed at providing clear instructions to many of its residents about the mail in ballot process, he said.
“Our one common ground is that on Election Day, no matter your social status or neighborhood you live in, we all have this one power that we can vote,” Wilhite said. “But for our members, there’s been too many hurdles to utilizing these mail-in ballots.”
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