Election Law Fall 2009
UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION
UNIT 2: VOTING AND EQUAL PROTECTION
I. The Right to Vote
The United States Constitution does not directly grant the right to vote to individuals but through numerous amendments to the Constitution it bars denying the franchise on a variety of grounds and the right to vote has been further extended by statutes and decisions.
1. Equal Protection- The 14th amendment regulates the activities of anyone within the state.
A. Is a mechanism the court utilizes to police the state statues.
B. No State Shall deny persons equal protection of the laws.
.
2. Standard of Review: If a classification is based on race, religion or any suspect classification or class, the court will review the classification under strict scrutiny.
A. If dealing with a Fundamental right it will be subject to strict scrutiny.
B. Otherwise the classification will be subject to rational basis.
C. Strict Scrutiny Test
a. Narrowly Tailored
b. Least Restrictive
c. Compelling Reason or Interest
D. Rational Basis Review
a. Legitimate Interest
b. Rational Relationship Between the Law and the Reason for the Law
3. Political Community- a person is part of the political community if he/she is:
A. Interested
B. Directly Affected
C. Voting is Symbolic showing that one is a part of the community (act of walking into a voting booth) i.e. disenfranchisement of felons because they are not members of society.
Skafte v. Rorex
Plaintiff denied the right to vote (register to vote) in a school election because he is a legal alien and school regulation prohibits noncitizens from voting. Plaintiff claims that under the EP clause of the 14th amendment, he cannot be denied the right to vote because he is an alien.
-since the 14th Amendment protects anyone within the state the Plaintiff has standing to bring a claim although he is not a citizen.
In this case the Plaintiff is relying on section 2 of the 14th Amendment which state that if the state denies the right to vote then the state’s representation in congress will be reduced. Section 2 was a punishment. Section 2 does allow disenfranchisement if the person is not a male, 21 years old or a citizen.
-the court finds that Section 2 is not the only prohibition on the restriction of franchise. Section 2 does not occupy the field when it comes to voting rights, still have to deal with the Equal Protection Clause.
In this case the Plaintiff also alleges that alienage is a suspect class that requires strict scrutiny review.
-alienage is almost always treated as a suspect class
-voting in a fundamental class
In this case the court does not apply strict scrutiny because there is an exception regarding alienage in Election Law. (Courts are all over the place in this area of voting rights)
In this case the court says that it is so obvious that the court can limit the right to vote to members of the community that we do not have to apply strict scrutiny and in this case applies rational basis review.
-state’s reason to limit voting to member’s of the political community.
Kramer v. Union Free School District No. 15
In this case a bachelor living in his parents home is denied the right to vote in a school election. The school limited voting to individuals that either pay property taxes or have children registered for school in the district.
The School district argues that it has a legitimate interest in limiting it elections to “members
all citizens in state government requires that each citizen have an equally effective voice in the election of members of his state legislature. Diluting the weight of votes because of place of residence impairs basic constitutional rights under the 14th amendment.
-ONE MAN ONE VOTE -Reynolds constitutionally compelled the states to utilize one man one vote when apportioning districts. Established that districts must be approximately or precisely equal in population.
There are two exceptions to the one person one vote rule:
1. Administrative Entity – if an entity of government is an administrative unit instead of a policy unit, it need not comply with the one person one vote rule.
2. Special purpose unit of the government – of an entity if government is a special purpose unit it need not comply with the one person one vote rule. (court does not look at what they do in practice but what they are authorized to do).
Note: Electoral College is not based on the one man vote concept
-States can rationally consider factors other than population in apportioning legislative
representation.
Lucus v. 44th General Assembly of Colorado (1964) – Dissenting Opinion
The Majority found that the seats in both houses of a bicameral state legislature must be apportioned on a population basis. Individuals and not economic or geographic interests elect representatives.
Dissent: Representative government is a process of accommodating group interests through democratic institutional arrangements. Apportionment should be designed to insure effective representation in the state’s legislature, in cooperation with other organs of political power, of the various groups and interest making up the electorate.
