Week 6: Case Law Research, Nigerian Petitions, and Vote Buying Regulations
With the Fourth of July on Tuesday, I began this shortened work week by diving into ongoing case law research projects for IFES. This included researching cases from Brazil involving former president Jair Bolsonaro, who, after losing the country’s 2022 presidential election, claimed the electoral system was rigged and that the election was being stolen from him. His supporters stormed Brazil’s National Congress, Supreme Court, and Presidential Palace in Brasília on January 8 of this year. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court recently barred Bolsonaro from running for office again for the next eight years. Media coverage and commentary on this case was plentiful, but I had trouble navigating the website of the Brazilian court to find the actual language from the case itself. On the bright side, I now know basic web-search related words in Portuguese.
Other research highlights included developments from Arizona, where the state, anticipating controversies in the 2020 elections, created a task force to review instances of disinformation, consider responses and legislation, and suggest technology and resources to combat the issue, and so on. Finally, I researched an agreement between Costa Rica’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal and Facebook that established a direct line of communication between the country’s electoral officials and the social media giant. Using this channel, officials could efficiently request “expedited” removal of false information related to the 2022 election.
I later circled back to the Nigerian presidential election petitions this week as well, fleshing out the timeline of the litigation for each of the petitions with and checking back in for updates with the ongoing cases. The three remaining cases have been consolidated into a single action, and the petitioners have finished their arguments. I will continue to monitor the cases for updates from the defendants’ arguments.
On Thursday I was tasked with another project to work on this summer—assisting IFES personnel with another publication. This paper concerns vote-buying regulations, and my primary task will be to research the laws of 62 countries (from Angola to Zimbabwe) and find out what their punitive strategies are (monetary fines, imprisonment periods, etc.) for those found guilty of vote buying. I have begun working through this list (made it to Cambodia!) and hope to dedicate time every day to knocking out a handful of countries.
Weekend events: George Washington’s Mount Vernon and a service commemorating the 500th day of the full-scale Russian invsion of Ukraine at the National Cathedral--the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. was the keynote speaker.
The Fourth of July was on Tuesday; my parents flew into town on the third. Despite only having been in the area for about a month, I acted as their DC expert and tour guide. I showed them Old Town Alexandria (I’ve decided that it is this area’s hidden gem), showed them all the main sites on the National Mall, and then we visited Arlington National Cemetery and watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We then got through the crowds, found some grass on the National Mall, and watched the DC fireworks show from near the base of the Washington Monument. Certainly an Independence Day to remember!