Category: Uncategorized

The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Aurelius Investment LLC, a case arguing that the appointment of members to the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.   The Appointments Clause provides the president with…

In 2019, 36 statewide ballot measures were certified for ballots in eight states. Ballotpedia scored the readability of ballot titles and summaries using two formulas–Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL). The FRE formula produces a score between a negative number and 100, with the highest score (100) representing a 5th-grade equivalent reading…

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.   Elizabeth Warren’s campaign page on Ballotpedia received 2,734 views for the week of October 6-12. Warren’s pageview figure represents 10.8% of the pageviews for all Democratic candidates during the…

In the past week, one new 2020 Congressional retirement was announced. Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey (NY-17) announced that she would not seek re-election in 2020. To date, four Senators (three Republicans and one Democrat) and 23 Representatives (17 Republicans and six Democrats) are not running for re-election. In 2018, 55 total members of Congress—18 Democrats…

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 October 7 to October 11, the Federal Register increased by 1,714 pages, bringing the year-to-date total to 55,016…

President Donald Trump (R) issued an executive order on October 10 that aims to ensure that federal administrative agencies “consider the costs of their administrative actions, take steps to offset those costs, and curtail costly administrative actions,” according to the order.   The executive order targets a federal budgeting mechanism known as administrative pay-as-you-go (PAYGO),…

President Donald Trump (R) issued a pair of executive orders on October 9 that aim to limit the use of guidance documents by federal administrative agencies and end what the order refers to as administrative abuses by requiring agencies to provide fair notice of regulations.   Agency guidance documents are not legally binding, but rather…

Divided government at stake in Louisiana’s primary elections Louisiana voters will decide statewide primary elections Saturday which include nine state executive offices—including the governor’s race—all seats in the state legislature, and four ballot measures.  The state is currently one of 14 divided governments. Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) is running for re-election while Republicans control…

In 2020, voters across the country will elect new state legislators and governors, and in many cases, these officials will play a direct part in drawing the district maps that govern elections for the next 10 years.   The process by which district maps are drawn is called redistricting. Every 10 years, the U.S. Census…

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.   Elizabeth Warren’s campaign page on Ballotpedia received 3,071 views for the week of September 29-October 5. Warren’s pageview figure represents 10.5% of the pageviews for all Democratic candidates during…