2020 was a year like no other, and RNLA's blog featured a wide variety of topics including election law, judicial nominations, and the coronavirus pandemic. We hope you enjoy this recap of RNLA's top blog posts of 2020!

California Governor Gavin Newsom has selected California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill Kamala Harris' U.S. Senate seat once it becomes vacant. RNLA Co-Chair Harmeet Dhillon, a Californian, reacted to the news on Twitter:

One of the worst election officials in the nation will go to DC, unelected!!! A fitting exit to his failed tenure. Remember the time he said door to door ballot harvesting by strangers was cool during a pandemic shutdown when businesses and churches were shuttered? Good times. https://t.co/g6pLSnwfFT

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) December 22, 2020

After the Shelby County decision in 2012 by the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the coverage formula in Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, critics argued that discriminatory election policies would suddenly become rampant and voter participation would plummet. However, as Hans von Spakovsky explained in Newsweek earlier this month, their predictions were wrong.

Much like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, it's still unclear where Georgia Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff stand on court packing. Just so it's clear, court packing refers to FDR's unsuccessful attempt to add additional justices to the Supreme Court for political reasons (Dictionary.com conveniently changed the definition to fit the Democrats' narrative that Senate Republicans are somehow doing something wrong by confirming President Trump's nominees to the federal judiciary).

Iowa's congressional delegation has written a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and leadership from the House Committee on Administration urging them not to take up Democrat Rita Hart's election contest in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District. As RNLA previously reported, Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks is the rightful winner of the race, and Hart is looking to take advantage of the Democrat's House majority to circumvent Iowa's procedures and steal the seat.

With election reform at the center of the public debate, the Federalist Society held a webinar tonight titled The 2020 Elections: What Worked and What Should Change? 

RNLA’s own Co-Chair Harmeet Dhillon of Dhillon Law Group joined a panel of election law experts to discuss the positives and the negatives of the 2020 election and what reforms are needed in the future to preserve election integrity.

Early voting has officially begun in Georgia to determine who will represent the state in the U.S. Senate. However, concerns still linger from the 2020 general election over the security of Georgia's election system. These concerns are part of a broader pattern of uneasiness about elections across the country. According to a recent Morning Consult survey, 40.6% of the respondents expressed distrust in the U.S. election system. A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey reported that only 24% of Republicans thought the results of the 2020 election were accurate.

Democrat Rita Hart has announced that she will be filing a petition with the House Administration Committee to challenge the results of Iowa's 2nd congressional district race. Why should this alarm Republicans? Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks clearly won the race, not Rita Hart. You read that right... House Democrats are trying to take advantage of their majority to seat the loser of the Iowa-2 congressional race over the rightful winner.

The Vice President has a message for Georgia voters ahead of January's Senate runoffs: 

Georgia, we need you to stay in the fight for integrity in our elections, stay in the fight to Defend the Majority in the Senate until the polls close on January 5th, and stay in the fight to send @Perduesenate and @KLoeffler back to a Republican Majority! pic.twitter.com/oMxjCZD3wm

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) December 10, 2020

For the first time since 2017, all of the seats on the Federal Election Commission are filled. Allen Dickerson, Sean Cooksey, and Shana Broussard were confirmed by the Senate earlier today. Dickerson and Cooksey are Republicans, while Broussard is a Democrat. Some may find it odd for a Republican President to appoint a Democrat, but no more than 3 of the 6 commissioners can be from the same political party. The votes for the Republican nominees were largely along party lines.