Professor Elmendorf Co-authors Op-Ed for SF Chronicle

Professor Christopher S. Elmendorf published an op-ed proposing reforms for San Francisco elections in the Sunday Insight section of the February 28 San Francisco Chronicle.  Co-authored with David Schleicher, a professor of law at George Mason University, the article proposes that in elections for the Board of Supervisors, which must be conducted on a nonpartisan basis, the mayor's endorsements should appear on the ballot - "right where the party label would appear in a normal partisan election."

Elmendorf and Schleicher argue that this would compensate for a critical deficiency in local democracy: voters' lack of information about low-profile races for city legislatures. 

"Because mayoral campaigns are better funded and more closely watched than supervisorial elections," they write, "[it is] much easier for voters to cast an informed vote for mayor than for supervisor."  "If the mayor's endorsements were printed on the ballot, it would be simple for otherwise confused or uncertain voters to piggyback on what they know of the mayor - whether they love him or hate him - in making supervisorial selections."

Professor Elmendorf's varied teaching and research interests include election law, administrative law, constitutional law, and property and natural resources law. His recent writings have focused on (1) the roles that ongoing advisory bodies can play in fostering governmental accountability and sustaining the foundational commitments of liberal democracy, and (2) judicial formulation and administration of doctrines to implement the fundamental right to vote.