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Laws governing political elections

Election law is a branch of public law that relates to the democratic processes, election of representatives and office holders, and referendums, through the regulation of the electoral system, voting rights, ballot access, election management bodies, election campaign, the division of the territory into electoral zones, the procedures for the registration of voters and candidacies, its financing and propaganda, voting, counting of votes, scrutiny, electoral disputes, electoral observation and all contentious matters derived from them. It is a discipline falling at the juncture of constitutional law and political science, and involves "the politics of law and the law of politics".

After the legally contested 2000 United States presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, the importance of election law has grown in the United States. According to the National Law Journal, election law "grew from a niche to multi million dollar draw." The UCLA election law professor Richard Hasen showed that in the United States, litigation rates have been soaring for two decades and hit record high during the 2020 election. Since the early 2000s, election law has been taught at most of the law schools throughout the United States. American election law experts and academics are connected in the academic network founded by Daniel H. Lowenstein, professor at UCLA Law School, and Richard L. Hasen. Lowenstein is considered the "pioneer" and the one who "invented" the election law. In 2000s, Lowenstein and Hasen edited the Election Law Journal and the election law mailinglist. The Election Law Journal is an academic publication devoted to election law, currently edited by David Canon of the University of Wisconsin Madison. Most of its articles deal with election law in the United States. According to the Routledge Handbook of Election Law, election law is a growing area globally. Voters around the world are increasingly challenging election results. Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Iceland, Kenya, and Malawi are some countries where courts have recently invalidated national elections or referendums. Electoral disputes are good for democracy, according to the book's editors.

The Italian Constitution fixes some general basic provisions concerning the legislative elections. Electoral disputes in Italy are complex because they are divided between several court orders. For example, with regard to the dispute concerning registration of candidates for ballots or litigation election, the administrative court has jurisdiction. For eligibility and disfranchisement, the judge is the ordinary tribunal. If a fraud is proven by the judge, it does not cancel necessarily the elections, unless they think that the result of election without the fraud would not have been identical. The survival of the acts already performed by the elected organs would seem solved by abundant case law that protects innocent trust of third parties.

Elections in Mexico are held every 6 years to elect a president and every 3 years to elect a legislature. These elections determine who, on the national level, takes the position of the head of state – the president – as well as the legislature. At the local level, each of Mexico's 31 constituent states elects a governor to serve a six year term; they also elect legislative deputies who sit in state congresses, and municipal presidents (presidentes municipales, or mayors). Mexico City, the national capital, elects a head of government in lieu of a mayor, city assemblymen in lieu of state congressional deputies, and borough mayors in lieu of municipal mayors.

Elections in the United States are held for government officials at the federal, state, and local levels. At the federal level, the nation's head of state, the president, is elected indirectly by the people of each state, through an Electoral College. Today, these electors almost always vote with the popular vote of their state. All members of the federal legislature, the Congress, are directly elected by the people of each state. There are many elected offices at state level, each state having at least an elective governor and legislature. There are also elected offices at the local level, in counties, cities, towns, townships, boroughs, and villages; as well as for special districts and school districts which may transcend county and municipal boundaries.

In the United Kingdom, election law is legislated for by The Houses of Parliament. The statutory governance of UK Election law comes from acts of parliament such as the Fixed term Parliaments Act 2011. The Electoral Commission's mandate and establishment was set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA), and ranges from the regulation of political donations and expenditure by political and third parties through to promoting greater participation in the electoral process. The Electoral Administration Act 2006 made a number of improvements to electoral registration, improving the security arrangements for absent voting, allowing observers to attend elections and a major change in reducing the minimum age for candidates at UK parliamentary elections. It also introduced the performance standards regime for electoral services.

According to University of Chicago Law Professor Brian Leiter, the most cited American election law scholars between 2016 and 2020 included Samuel Issacharoff, Richard Pildes, Richard Hasen, Heather Gerken, Richard Briffault, Nathaniel Persily, and Nicholas Stephanopoulos, respectively. Other notable election law experts and professors include David Schultz, Joshua Douglas, Ed Foley, Guy Uriel Charles, Jessica Levinson, Rebecca Green, Eugene Mazo, Justin Levitt, in the U. S, Graeme Orr in Australia and Jurij Toplak in Europe.