Election Law @ Moritz

Daniel P. Tokaji

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Education

  • A.B., Harvard University, English and American Literature/Philosophy, 1989 (summa cum laude)
  • J.D., Yale Law School, 1994

Faculty & Staff

Faculty Experts

Daniel P. Tokaji

Associate Professor of Law; Associate Director, Election Law @ Moritz

Daniel P. Tokaji

Phone: (614) 292-6566
Email tokaji.1@osu.edu
Office: Drinko 461

Dan Tokaji is an authority on election law and voting rights. He specializes in election reform, including such topics as voting technology, voter ID, provisional voting, and other subjects addressed by the Help America Vote Act of 2002. He also studies issues of fair representation, including redistricting and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Tokaji’s published work addresses questions of election administration, political equality, and racial justice. Among the publications in which his scholarship has appeared are the Michigan Law Review, Stanford Law & Policy Review, and Yale Law Journal. His recent publications include “The New Vote Denial: Where Election Reform Meets the Voting Rights Act,” 57 South Carolina Law Review 689 (2006), “Intent and Its Alternatives: Defending the New Voting Rights Act,” 58 Alabama Law Review 349 (2006), “Early Returns on Election Reform: Discretion, Disenfranchisement, and the Help America Vote Act,” 73 George Washington Law Review 1206 (2005), and "The Paperless Chase: Electronic Voting and Democratic Values," 73 Fordham Law Review 1711 (2005).

Tokaji authors the Equal Vote blog which provides analysis and commentary on developments in the area of election reform and voting rights. Media outlets have frequently sought Tokaji's election law expertise, and the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Columbus Dispatch, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and USA Today have all quoted him on the subject. He has also appeared on the Today Show, Fox News, NBC News, and National Public Radio.

Prior to arriving at the Moritz College of Law, Tokaji was a staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. Among the cases he has litigated are challenges to punch card voting equipment based on Bush v. Gore’s equal protection principle. He has appeared before several federal and state courts, including the California Supreme Court and United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth and Ninth Circuits. Tokaji clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1994 to 1995.

He earned his J.D. in 1994 from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1989.