From Registration to Recounts Revisited: Developments in the Election Ecosystems of Five Midwestern States

As a follow-up to a study of problems during the 2006 elections, examines the states' continuing adjustments to institutional arrangements, voter registration databases, convenience voting, and post-election processes in the 2008 elections

The decade of Roma Inclusion: did it make a difference to health and use of health care services?

OBJECTIVES: We investigated whether the severely disadvantaged health of Hungarian Roma adults living in segregated settlements changed by the Decade of Roma Inclusion program. METHODS: We compared the results of two paired health interview surveys that we carried out using the same methodology before and after the Decade, on the general Hungarian and Roma populations. RESULTS: Self-perceived health status of younger Roma worsened, while it improved among older Roma. Reported experience of discrimination reduced considerably and health care utilization improved in general. Positive changes in smoking and nutrition, and negative changes in alcohol consumption and overweight were observed. Many of observed changes can plausibly be linked to various government policies, including a quadrupling of public works expenditure, banning smoking in public places, restricting marketing of tobacco products, increasing cigarette prices, and a new tax on unhealthy foods. Liberalization of rules on alcohol distillation coincided with worsening alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: We have shown that Roma remain severely disadvantaged and present an innovative sampling method which can be used to monitor changes in groups where identification is a challenge

On specimen design for size effect evaluation in ultrasonic gigacycle fatigue testing

Literature datasets showed that gigacycle fatigue properties of materials may be affected by the specimen risk-volume, i.e., the part of the specimen subjected to applied stress amplitudes above a prescribed percentage of the maximum applied stress amplitude. The paper proposes a Gaussian specimen shape able to attain large risk-volumes for gigacycle fatigue tests, together with a general procedure for its design: wave propagation equations are analytically solved in order to obtain a specimen shape characterised by a uniform stress distribution on an extended length and, as a consequence, by a larger risk-volume. The uniformity of the stress distribution in the Gaussian specimen is numerically verified through a finite element analysis and experimentally validated by means of strain gauge measurement

The Justiciability of Eligibility: May Courts Decide Who Can Be President?

The 2008 election cycle has been a busy one for legal disputes over the qualifications of presidential candidates, with federal cases having been filed to challenge both major candidates’ eligibility under the “natural born Citizen” clause. These cases unquestionably present vital questions of constitutional law, touching on matters of self-evident national importance. It is doubtful, however, that they are justiciable in lower federal courts. Standing requirements and the political question doctrine make it unlikely that a federal court will reach the merits in cases of the type filed to date

An Unsafe Harbor: Recounts, Contests, and the Electoral College

Although recent proposals for modifying the Electoral College process have focused mainly on how electoral votes are assigned, another problem with the current system has received less attention: the timetable for resolving post-election disputes over electors. Under 3 U.S.C. § 5, the so-called “safe harbor” provision of federal law, a state can be assured of having its chosen slate of electors recognized only if post-election disputes are resolved within thirty-five days of Election Day. As a practical matter, this provision doesn’t provide states enough time to complete recount and contest proceedings in the event of a close, contested election. This problem surfaced in Florida’s 2000 presidential election and might well have resulted in Congress deciding the election, if not for the Supreme Court’s intervention in Bush v. Gore. The opinion in that case was issued on the safe harbor date, December 12, 2000. The Court’s disposition of Bush v. Gore, which effectively ended the recount process, was partly predicated on Florida’s intent to avail itself of the safe harbor date. Four years later, a replay of this crisis nearly occurred in Ohio. If the vote had been a bit closer and Senator Kerry had challenged the result, Ohio would have been hard pressed to complete its canvass, recount, and contest process in time. This Commentary addresses the tension between the federally prescribed Electoral College dates and state procedures for resolving close elections. I first discuss the federal timetable for selecting electors and counting their votes. I then move to a discussion of the difficulties in fitting state post-election proceedings into the federal timetable. Finally, I propose changes to federal law designed to give states more time to resolve postelection disputes