Category: Uncategorized

As of December 2, 2019, 1,869 candidates are filed with the FEC to run for U.S. House in 2020. Of those, 1,752—873 Democrats and 879 Republicans—are from one of the two major political parties. In 2018, 3,244 candidates filed with the FEC, including 1,566 Democrats and 1,155 Republicans.   299 candidates are filed with the…

Donald Trump has appointed and the Senate confirmed 164 Article III federal judges through December 1, 2019, his third year in office. This is the fourth-most Article III judicial appointments through this point in a presidency of all presidents dating back to Theodore Roosevelt. Only Jimmy Carter (186), George W. Bush (168), and Bill Clinton…

November’s partisan count of the 7,383 state legislators across the United States shows 52.2% of all state legislators are Republicans and 46.8% are Democrats.   Ballotpedia tallies the partisan balance of state legislatures at the end of every month. This refers to which political party holds the majority of seats in each chamber. Republicans hold…

Each week, we report the number of pageviews received by 2020 presidential campaigns on Ballotpedia. These numbers show which candidates are getting our readers’ attention.   Tom Steyer’s campaign page on Ballotpedia received 4,081 views for the week of November 24-30. Steyer’s pageview figure represents 11.8% of the pageviews for the week. Pete Buttigieg had…

The Federal Register is a daily journal of federal government activity that includes presidential documents, proposed and final rules, and public notices. It is a common measure of an administration’s regulatory activity.   During the week of November 25 to November 29, the Federal Register increased by 1,204 pages, bringing the year-to-date total to 65,906…

Most states have laws permitting someone besides a voter to return the voter’s mail ballot. These laws vary by state.   A central argument made by those who support restrictions on who may return a voter’s mail ballot is that elections are more susceptible to fraud without them. One of opponents’ central arguments is that…

The Federal Register is a daily journal of federal government activity that includes presidential documents, proposed and final rules, and public notices. It is a common measure of an administration’s regulatory activity.   During the week of November 18 to November 22, the Federal Register increased by 1,138 pages, bringing the year-to-date total to 64,702…

President Donald Trump (R) in January 2017 issued Executive Order 13771, which requires federal agencies to eliminate two old regulations for each new regulation issued.   Have agencies complied with the 2-for-1 requirement?   E.O. 13771 only applies to economically significant regulatory actions—those with an economic impact of $100 million or more. In the 2017…

On December 9, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case Thryv, Inc. v. Click-To-Call Technologies, LP. The case will determine whether people may challenge certain Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decisions in court. A decision that restricts judicial review would make it harder for those who lose patent fights at…

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has outraised its Democratic counterpart by more than two-to-one for a sixth consecutive month, while the Democratic House committee outraised its Republican counterpart, according to November 2019 campaign finance reports filed with the FEC Wednesday.   The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) raised $6.7 million and spent $4.8 million last…