Presidential Election Law Forum

I attend this forum. There was two panels and a Keynote Address.

The host and moderator of the event was Jerry Goldfeder, Special Counsel at Stroock & Lavan LLP and Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordam Law School.

The panels included Election Law Experts from around the Country.

The forum was interests as the two panels came first and the Keynote at the end.

Panel 1

Edward B. Foley (known as “Ned”) - Directs Election Law @ Moritz at Ohio State’s Law School, where he also holds the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law. His book Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States, is published by Oxford University Press, release on December 1, 2015. Ned also serves as the Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Election Law Project, which is developing nonpartisan rules for the resolution of disputed elections. While Ned has special expertise on the topics of recounts and provisional ballots, he also co-authored a casebook, Election Law and Litigation: The Judicial Regulation of Politics (Aspen 2014), which covers all aspects of election law.

His topic was: Third-Party and Independent Presidential Candidates: The Need for a Runoff Mechanism. He first spoke about past elections where the Third Party candidates had a higher percent of votes then the different between the Major Party candidates (C > A-B). He then spoke about Instant-Runoff Voting.I questioned him on the difference of Instant-Runoff voting and Approval voting. He at first liked Approval voting for its simplicity but felt it was to easy for a Party to put spoilers on the ballot.

Professor Eugene D. Mazo - is a Law Professor who specializes in the study of Democracy. He is currently teaching at Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey, and has also taught at the Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Professor Mazo writes in the areas of Election law, Constitutional law, and Legislation, and he often teaches those topics in addition to first-year courses such as Contracts, Torts, and Civil Procedure. Professor Mazo's research focuses on the regulation of the Political Process, Democratic development, and Constitutional design. His book Election Law Stories, co-edited with Joshua A. Douglas, is published by Foundation Press. He is currently working on a second book, Democracy by the People: Reforming Campaign Finance in America, with Timothy K. Kuhner, which will be published in 2017. Prior to beginning his teaching career, Professor Mazo founded an Appellate law firm that focused on counseling clients on complex litigation matters. He also worked for two large law firms and served as the General Counsel of a small company in Silicon Valley.

His topic was: Rethinking Presidential Ineligibility. He discussed all the different cases about Presidential candidate's Natural Born Citizen issues.I explained my definition as: born on U.S. soil, which includes its territories, military bases, or its Embassies or Consulates.

Professor Michael T. Morley - Received his AB, magna cum laude, from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs in 2000, and his JD from Yale Law School in 2003, where he was a Senior Editor on the Yale Law Journal, served on the moot Court Board, and received the Thurman Arnold Prize for Best Oralist in the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals. Professor Morley clerked for Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from 2003-04, and then worked as a Commercial and Appellate Litigator at Williams & Connolly LLP, in Washington, D.C. He received a Schedule C appointment in the Administration of President George W. Bush to serve as Special Assistant to the General Counsel of the Army, where he provided advice to senior Army leaders concerning Supreme Court Litigation, Constitutional and International law, and Congressional investigations. After serving as Counsel for U.S. Senate candidates, he returned to private practice in the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Group at Winston & Strawn LLP, in Washington, D.C. From 2012-14, Professor Morley was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, where he taught Legal Research and Writing and a seminar on Election Litigation and Civil Procedure. Professor Morley has successfully argued in State and Federal Appellate Courts across the Country. He represented several Political Parties, Federal candidates, and Voters in Election and Campaign Finance lawsuits; and was Counsel of record in the U.S. Supreme Court for Shaun McCutcheon in the landmark First Amendment case McCutcheon v. FEC. Professor Morley's work has been published in numerous academic journals, including the Cardozo Law Review and University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, and while a student he published several pieces in the Yale Law Journal and Yale Law & Policy Review.

His topic was: Reforming the Contested Convention: Rethinking the Presidential Nominating Process.

Sean J. Wright - Currently has a Law Practice in Washington, District Of Columbia. He was the Special Counsel to Commissioner Ann M. Ravel at the Federal Election Commission. He worked at the Center for American Progress, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He attended Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

His topic was: Time to End Presidential Caucuses, which I agree should be removed as a selection process.

Panel 2

Professor Derek Muller, J.D. - Associate Professor of Law at Pepperdine School of Law (SOL). Professor Muller's research and writing focus on Election Law, particularly Federalism and the role of states in the Administration of Elections. His work has appeared in the Arizona Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, the Arizona State Law Journal, the Florida State University Law Review, the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the peer-reviewed Election Law Journal. At Pepperdine, he teaches in the areas of Election Law, Civil procedure, complex Litigation, Administrative Law, and evidence. He received J.D., University of Notre Dame, 2007, summa cum laude and B.A., Hillsdale College, 2004, summa cum laude.

His topic was: Natural Born Citizen Challenges in the 2016 Presidential Election. He spoke about how the voter at the State level, and the Electoral College can decide to take control of this issue by not voting for a candidate or the College not accepting their Electors.

Professor Anthony Gaughan - Professor in the Law Department at Drake University Law School. He has written about American politics for The Conversation since May 2015. Areas of Expertise: Civil Procedure, Evidence, Election Law, Federal Courts and Jurisdiction, Legal History, National Security Law. Education: J.D. – Harvard University, Ph.D. – University of Wisconsin-Madison, M.A. – Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, B.A. – University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Professional Experience: Drake Law School Professor since 2011, Member of the Iowa Public Information Board. Selected Publications: Collateral Damage and the Laws of War: D-Day as a Case Study, 55 American Journal of Legal History 229 (2015), The Arlington Cemetery Case: A Court and a Nation Divided, 37 The Journal of Supreme Court History (March 2012), THE LAST BATTLE OF THE CIVIL WAR: UNITED STATES VERSUS LEE, 1861-1883 (Louisiana State University Press, 2011). Significant Accomplishments: Leland Forrest Outstanding Professor of the Year, Drake University Law School (2015 and 2016), Defense Meritorious Service Medal, U.S. Department of Defense for service in Iraq (2008-2009), Iraq Campaign Medal, U.S. Department of Defense (2009), Excellence in Teaching Award from The Graduate School, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2000), French-Felton Award for Inspirational Teaching, College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1998).

His topic was: Ramshackle Federalism: America's Archaic and Dysfunctional Presidential Election System. He also discussed the Popular Vote for President and a Constitutional Convention.

Keynote Address

The Keynote address was by Michael Waldern, former speech writer for President Bill Clinton and currently President of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. He recounted his time as President Clinton's Speech Writer and discussed the different cases the Brennan Center has undertaken including: the center of the fight to preserve and expand the right to vote for every eligible citizen. Through practical policy proposals, litigation, advocacy, and communications, the Brennan Center works to ensure that voting is free, fair, and accessible for all Americans. The Center’s signature proposal to modernize the voter registration system saves money, increases accuracy and participation, and adds an additional 50 million voters to the rolls permanently. Recent research includes: Election 2016: Restrictive Voting Laws by the Numbers. Starting after the 2010 election, Legislators in nearly half the states passed a wave of laws making it harder to vote. This resource includes a series of maps to help visualize the impact of these restrictions.

His topics included:

- Third-Party and Independent Presidential Candidates
- The Need for a Runoff Mechanism
- Reforming the Contested Convention
- Rethinking the Presidential Nominating Process
- Natural Born Citizen Challenge in the 2016 Presidential Election
- The Future of Presidential Caucuses











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker