Elections and campaigns

A federal judge Wednesday banned the enforcement of a century-old statute that prevents North Dakota citizens from campaigning on Election Day, calling the law “archaic” and “unconstitutional.”

Campaign staffers for presidential candidate Mitt Romney barred a local radio reporter from covering a Republican Wisconsin senator’s stump speech Wednesday on behalf of Romney because of the actions of one of the station’s on-air personalities.

Dylan Brogan, a reporter for WTDY Radio in Madison, was assigned to cover the appearance of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center. Johnson’s appearance was billed in a press release as a talk about Romney’s plan to grow the economy and strengthen the middle class.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Montana ban on corporations’ political contributions today, reaffirming on the state level its 2010 ruling against federal regulations of corporate and union speech.

In the latest legal dispute involving Sen. Al Franken's contested 2008 U.S. Senate election, the Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld a lower court decision to keep rejected absentee ballots from being released to five television stations seeking access to the information under the state's open records law.

In a decision that will make it easier for journalists to cover controversial elections in Colorado, the state’s appellate court ruled Thursday that digital versions of voters’ ballots are open records.

Disclosure of a political candidate’s expunged criminal record cannot give rise to an invasion-of-privacy claim, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

A West Virginia judge Monday dropped all charges filed against the publisher of a West Virginia monthly paper who photographed a worker inside a polling station during an election, according to court documents.

A Texas man who took out an ad that said a former mayor broke laws in a city land acquisition must pay damages of $50,000 and take out an ad that retracts his allegations as part of a settlement, The Keller Citizen reported.

When the Supreme Court turned campaign-finance law on its head today with its decision in Citizens United v. F.E.C., the justices said they were partially influenced by the example of media companies that publish news and commentary about elections, even though they are exempt from the provisions at stake in the case.