Center Staff
S. CANDICE HOKE
email: candice.hoke@law.csuohio.edu
Director, Center for Election Integrity, Cleveland State University
Associate Professor of Law, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, CSU
J.D., Yale Law School
Organizational Theory studies, University of Chicago, Graduate Faculty of Political Science
B.A., Hollins College
Professor Hoke leads the Center for Election Integrity as its Director. Her expertise in election issues led to her appointment as a Member of the three-person Cuyahoga Election Review Panel, which investigated the causes and remedies for the May 2, 2006 primary debacle. The Panel produced a Final Report of over 400 pages with over 300 recommendations for reform.
A law professor, she is a nationally recognized and widely cited expert on constitutional federalism and major federal regulatory programs – the contexts of election law. A graduate of Yale Law School, a former judicial clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and a former staff member of the North Carolina Governor’s Office (James Holshouser-R), she currently teaches Election Law, Regulatory Federalism, Federal Courts, and Employment Law.
As a pro bono consultant, Professor Hoke drafted proposed legislation and legal analysis for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution (under Republican leadership) on federal preemption of state law and other federalism issues. She also provided counsel to the White House Office of Legal Counsel on Tenth Amendment and Spending Power/unfunded mandates issues in health care reform (under President Clinton). Her primary scholarly expertise has focused on regulatory programs structured with Federal-State partnership (such as HAVA, welfare reform, health care reform) and she is especially well known for her work on federal preemption and the Supremacy Clause. She has been solicited to write a legal casebook on election law and election administration. Her primary current academic writing combines her knowledge of regulatory federalism and election law implementation problems.
Professor Hoke’s highest commitment in elections reform is complete integrity and transparency. She considers herself a political independent, having worked as a volunteer in both Republican and Democratic campaigns since the 1970s. Professor Hoke has held faculty appointments in the law schools of Case Western Reserve University and the University of Pittsburgh.
Professor Hoke has provided background and on-air commentary for local and national media representatives regarding aspects of each major Ohio election from the 2004 presidential election through the May 2nd 2006 primary. Numerous local and national organizations have sought her counsel on election law issues, including on recount and provisional ballot issues. She remains available as a consultant to government officials, citizen organizations, and the media for discussion of election law and implementation issues, as well as other areas of federal regulation.