The Election Law Journal is letting anyone read the contents of Volume 12, Number 4, the current issue. Use this link. The Election Law Journal is a peer-rviewed quarterly journal which ordinarily is not available to non-subscribers.

The current issue includes an outstanding article, “The Incompatible Treatment of Majorities in Election Law and Deliberative Democracy”, by Law Professor James A. Gardner. Gardner makes a very simple and persuasive point that severe ballot access laws sabotage the goal of deliberative democracy. He points out that deliberative democracy depends on exposing voters to opinions and beliefs they do not already hold. Yet severe ballot access laws inhibit candidates from expressing such new and so-far unpopular ideas.