Litigation -- Voting Rights and Election Litigation
Bipartisan in approach and composition, Hogan & Hartson’s voting rights and election litigation group has represented both major political parties and their constituents—from federal and state officials and candidates to fundraisers and contributors.
In the 2002 election cycle, we advised a candidate involved in the year’s closest congressional election. Due to our involvement in the first national election involving the newly mandated provisional ballots, our attorneys now provide clients with guidance on the new federal mandates for those ballots. Members of the group have served as former director of the Department of Justice Voting Rights Litigation program, counsel to a Florida attorney general, a Florida governor, and a Colorado governor and U.S. congressmen. Group members also include the president of the Washington, D.C. Bar, a member of the Advisory Commission of the ABA Election Law Committee, and one of the top 10 election law attorneys in the country, according to the Legal Times.
Our attorneys have handled Section 5 preclearance and redistricting litigation in Washington, D.C., Florida, Colorado, Mississippi, Georgia, New York, Louisiana, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Related Experience
When Colorado’s legislature could not come to a consensus over the lines for the state’s new legislative districts, we represented the governor in the lawsuits that followed. Ultimately, a judge redrew the districts.
As Bush v. Gore wound through the state courts and up to the U.S. Supreme Court, we advised the Florida attorney general, and remained counsel during the court’s review of the state’s redistricting.
We served as lead trial counsel for one of the two major political parties, winning a major Section 5 case in Washington, D.C. and trying and winning a significant Section 2 case in Montgomery, Alabama.
We have counseled numerous presidential candidates, a major political party (including longtime co-chair of its National Lawyers Council), credentials committees of a major political party, and a hearing officer deciding credentials challenges at two national conventions.
We represented the NAACP in a Supreme Court case, Johnson v. DeGrandy, in a matter involving the redistricting of Miami, Florida under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Our attorneys represented a state political party and filed an amicus brief for The Media Institute in the case challenging the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold Act.
In the 2002 congressional election, we represented a U.S. congressman in the verification of provisional ballots and the associated recount following the election, which included development of litigation and public relations strategy and representation in a trial under the Voting Rights Act.
Many firm lawyers and legal assistants answered hotline calls and worked at the polls as part of Election Protection in the 2004 presidential election. Election Protection, the largest pro bono project in American history, provided information to voters seeking to register and vote.
We successfully defended a group of Colorado state clerks and recorders in a lawsuit brought two weeks before the 2004 Presidential election against an attempt by a political organization to eliminate the state's voter identification requirements.
One of our attorneys served as lead litigation counsel in Colorado for the Bush-Cheney 2004 Campaign.
Areas of Focus
First Amendment Right of Association of Political Parties
Campaign Finance
Federal Election Commission Enforcement
Gerrymandering Claims
Help America Vote Act
Provisional Ballots
Recounts
Redistricting
Voting Rights Act (Including Section 2 Litigation and Section 5 Preclearance, Bilingual Election Requirements)TOP OF PAGE
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