Robert E. Agger died at age 80 in September 2007.

Because voter-identification laws discourage voter turnout, particularly among identifiable minority groups, their implementation abridges a fundamental constitutional right. The U.S. Constitution includes a little-known remedy for denying or abridging the right to vote that reduces a state's congressional representation in proportion to the extent of the abridgements.

Leroy C. Hardy, emeritus professor of political science at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), passed away on November 2, 2008, at the age of 81. He specialized in California government and politics and was best known as a long-term consultant to state legislators on the subject of the reapportionment of legislative districts.

On January 8, 2008, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, a case related to the discriminatory effects of voter-identification laws in the state of Indiana. Indiana has one of the most stringent voting requirements in the nation, as voters are required to present an up-to-date photo identification issued by the federal or state government in order to cast a ballot. Plaintiffs argued that the Indiana requirements prevent significant and unequal obstacles to the right to vote. The state argued that Indiana had the right to enforce strict requirements to prevent fraud and uphold confidence in the electoral process. Similar laws have also been proposed in many other states, typically related to charges of vote fraud, and often times tied into the divisive debate regarding undocumented immigrants or African American felons. Therefore the recent decision of the Court has tremendous implications to the future of photo-identification laws across the United States.

On April 25, 2009, the College of Charleston and the Charleston community lost a beloved teacher, mentor, scholar, and colleague, William V. Moore, distinguished professor of political science.

Dr. Harold Guetzkow, professor emeritus of political science, psychology, and sociology at Northwestern University, passed away on Novermber 11, 2008, in San Jose, California, at age 93. His wife, Lauris, whom he had married in 1944, preceded him in death. He is survived by sons James (Charolette) and Daniel (Diana) Guetzkow, and his daughter Gay (Howard) Ben Tré. In his seven decades of active scholarship, he distinguished himself as a vibrant and path-breaking scholar as well as an incredibly talented mentor.

Ira Rohter, professor of political science at the University of Hawai‘i since 1968, passed away on June 22, 2009. He was well known in the community as a leading scholar-activist. Professor Rohter wrote the pathbreaking book A Green Hawaii: A Sourcebook for Development Alternatives. It helped others to see the possibilities for going beyond criticism of the current order to undertake positive, transformative action.

Debates over whether to require voters to provide proof of identity at the polls, and just how that can be accomplished, are taking place in legislative chambers and courtrooms across the nation. At the heart of these debates is the balancing act of ballot security versus access to voting. Opponents of voter-identification requirements argue that they place a disproportionate burden on ethnic and racial minorities, the poor, the less educated, the very young, and the very old. Supporters of identification requirements argue the standards are no higher than those required for boarding a plane or cashing a check, and the requirements are needed to prevent voter fraud.

Harry S. Hall, emeritus professor of political science, died at the age of 86 from natural causes on October 4, 2008.

The effect of voter-identification (voter-ID) laws on turnout is a hot-button issue in contemporary American politics. In April of 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Indiana's voter-ID law, the nation's most rigorous, which requires voters to arrive at the polls with a state-issued photo ID containing an expiration date (Crawford v. Marion County 2008). In a famous incident highlighting how Hoosiers were dealing with their state's voter-ID law, representative Julia Carson (D-IN) was initially blocked from voting during Indiana's 2006 primary election for failing to comply with Indiana's voter-identification standard. Carson identified herself with her congressional ID card; since that card did not include an expiration date and therefore did not meet Indiana's voter-identification law, she was turned away at the polls before later being allowed to vote (Goldstein 2006). The rising wave of public, political, and legal debate crested two years later in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling and during the Indiana primaries, with reports of a dozen nuns being denied ballots at the polls due to their lack of appropriate identification (Urbina 2008).

A life of service to others ended on March 26, 2009, when professor emeritus George A. Warp of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs of the University of Minnesota passed away at age 95. George was born on June 12, 1913, in Northfield, Ohio, and graduated from Bedford High School in Ohio. Prior to being associated with the University of Minnesota for the past 60 years, he graduated from Oberlin College, Case Western University, and Columbia University, earning degrees in political science, public administration, international administration, as well as law. George served briefly as a political science faculty member at the University of Minnesota, where he met and married his late wife, Lois, in 1940 before entering the U.S. Navy following the entry of the United States into World War II. His service in the Pacific theater led to his postwar appointment as a civilian advisor under General MacArthur in Japan from 1946–1948. Upon completion of that assignment, George returned to the University of Minnesota in 1948 as a professor of political science and served first as associate director and then director of the graduate program in public administration in the department's Public Administration Center until 1965 when the center became a self-standing unit of the College of Liberal Arts. He remained director through 1968 when the center was succeeded by the School of Public Affairs and recreated as the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in 1978 as a collegiate unit named as a memorial honoring the late vice president and Minnesota's senator. George served as a professor and chair of graduate admissions until his retirement in 1982.

What is the relationship between oil and international conflict? In an era of increased dependence on, and greater volatility within, global markets for oil and energy, this question is central to understanding contemporary world politics. It is an empirical fact that petrostates—defined as states that have at least 10% of GDP derived from oil exports—are more prone to international conflict than non-petrostates. Indeed, in the period 1965–2001, petrostates engaged in militarized interstate disputes at roughly twice the rate of non-petrostates, on average. What explains this propensity?

Vivien Hart, professor of American studies, died on February 2, 2009, aged 70.

Deil Spencer Wright, Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, passed away on June 30 2009, at the age of 79. Born on June 18, 1930, in Three Rivers, Michigan, to working-class parents, Deil received his BA, MPA, and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He spent time on the faculties of Wayne State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of California at Berkeley before landing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the bulk of his career.

Sam Huntington's works were taken seriously by political leaders and informed publics around the world. He served in government and advised administrations, both Republican and Democratic. But if you asked Sam who he was, professionally, he would have said, I am sure, “I am a social scientist.”

At the heart of the efforts to improve elections in the United States are two important values: access and integrity. To guarantee the right to vote, the polls must be accessible to all who wish to vote. To guarantee legitimate elections, only eligible people should be allowed to vote, and all votes must be tabulated correctly. These values have different implications for administrative procedures, ranging from the implementation of registration systems to the choice of voting equipment to the set up of polling places and training of poll workers. Often these values work hand in hand, but at times they are at odds. Such is the case with the authentication of voters at the polls (see National Commission on Federal Election Reform 2002).