[EL] Gonzales case and voter registration drives

[Estelle Rogers]

I'd question any reading of the federal form that didn't "allow" for community voter registration drives.  After all, the creation of the simplified form and the recognition of the importance of drives were contained in the same legislation, the NVRA, which, as the Gonzales court recognized, was enacted with the goal of streamlining voter registration.  There's nothing on the form that "allows" for drives, but then there's nothing that precludes them either.  I hope the "knowledgeable reader" will please explain the problem.

Estelle H. Rogers, Esq.
Legislative Director 
Project Vote
202-546-4173, ext. 310

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On Apr 18, 2012, at 10:40 AM, Rick Hasen wrote:

“Crossroads: The ATM of the Right”

Posted on April 18, 2012 7:39 am by Rick Hasen
Politico reports.

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Posted in campaign finance, tax law and election law | Comments Off
More on 9th Circuit Gonzalez v. Arizona Opinion

Posted on April 18, 2012 7:37 am by Rick Hasen
Following up on this post, Howard has this news roundup. One knowledgeable reader questioned my suggestion in the last post that the federal form could be used for third party voter registration efforts, suggesting that the form doesn’t seem to allow such efforts. I’d welcome other thoughts on that question.

And it is worth taking a trip down memory lane to remember that the first time the EAC seemed to divide on party lines (when there actually were EAC Commissioners) was over whether the federal form should be amended to allow for Arizona’s citizenship requirements.

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Posted in election administration, Election Assistance Commission, voter registration | Comments Off
“Shutting Down ALEC; Playing the race card to silence a free-market policy voice”

Posted on April 18, 2012 7:31 am by Rick Hasen
WSJ editorializes.

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Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
“Ohio GOP leaders sue over provisional ballots”

Posted on April 18, 2012 7:30 am by Rick Hasen
AP: “Ohio’s elections chief is violating the state constitution by requiring county election boards to follow a federal court decree instead of state law when it comes to counting provisional ballots, GOP lawmakers alleged in a lawsuit Monday. At issue are requirements for providing identification when a voter has to cast a provisional ballot, typically a ballot cast in the wrong precinct.”  As a follow up, AP offers Ohio Democrats criticize GOP leaders’ lawsuit over provisional ballots, call it ‘outrageous’.

You can read the Republicans’ complaint here.

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Posted in election administration, provisional ballots, The Voting Wars | Comments Off
“Got ID? Helping Americans Get Voter Identification”

Posted on April 18, 2012 7:25 am by Rick Hasen
Demos, Common Cause, the Lawyer’s Committee and Fair Elections Legal Network have issued this report, a best practices guide for state and local organizations to help voters get the IDs now required in some states

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Posted in election administration, voter id | Comments Off
“Crossroads GPS Files Tax Forms Claiming It Spent Only 23 Percent on Political Activity”

Posted on April 18, 2012 7:21 am by Rick Hasen
Bloomberg BNA: “Crossroads GPS, a Republican-leaning group organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, reported to the Internal Revenue Service that it spent less than a quarter of its budget in 2010 and 2011 for ‘political campaign and lobbying activities,’ according to tax forms released April 17. The proportion of spending that Crossroads GPS devotes to political activities is key to a dispute over its tax status because IRS rules require that 501(c)(4) groups do not have politics as their ‘primary purpose.’ Legal experts say this means such groups are not allowed to spend more than half of their budget on political activities”

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Posted in campaign finance, tax law and election law | Comments Off
Something Internet Voting Supporters Should Keep in Mind

Posted on April 18, 2012 7:18 am by Rick Hasen
WaPo: “At least half a dozen countries with offensive cyber-capabilities are probing U.S. corporate and military computer systems, looking for data and a toehold should they one day want to disrupt or destroy the networks, according to the FBI’s former top cyber-sleuth.”

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Posted in chicanery, internet voting, voting technology | Comments Off
“Obama Stands Aside as Election-Law Enforcement Weakened”

Posted on April 18, 2012 7:15 am by Rick Hasen
Bloomberg: “Barack Obama pledged as a presidential candidate to strengthen the Federal Election Commission and nominate members ‘committed to enforcing our nation’s election laws.’ Since taking office, he hasn’t pushed for achievement of either goal.”

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Posted in campaign finance, federal election commission | Comments Off
“Juvenile judge race close to conclusion”

Posted on April 17, 2012 3:27 pm by Rick Hasen
The latest on Hunter.

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Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
A Reader Complaint About Obama Campaign’s Credit Card Policies

Posted on April 17, 2012 3:15 pm by Rick Hasen
A regular reader (who also regularly disagrees with me) sends along the following comment:

Rick, I’m a bit curious: Is it that you don’t believe the story about Obama’s credit card processing software being set to accept donations under names and addresses that don’t match the card used? (You should, I tested it myself. You could prove it yourself with a few minutes effort.) Or is it that you just don’t give a damn? This matter is very troubling to me: A major candidate for President, already holding the office, is, for the second time, deliberately (It required over-riding default settings.) managing his collection of donations in such a way as to facilitate violations of campaign finance laws. You know, the guy who’s job description is “seeing the law faithfully executed”? And the media won’t bother to report it, and people who make a big fuss about these sorts of laws just blow it off. I might think some of these laws foolish, and some of them even unconstitutional, but deliberate lawlessness on the part of candidates for public office ought to be worth reporting, and caring about.

From what I’ve seen of campaigns and audit, I have a hard time believing that the Obama campaign (or any other presidential campaign) which I have seen has been taking steps to affirmatively encourage taking illegal donations (either from foreign sources, or other prohibited sources).  But I thought I would post this because I do receive fairly frequent complaints on this issue.  (I should add that I have not verified that the software has been set in any special way, or that this can facilitate fraud.)  And if there is something worth investigating, now the word is “out there” and people can investigate.

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Posted in campaigns, chicanery | Comments Off
“Zoeller launches investigation into whether political calls are being made under guise of the AG’s office”

Posted on April 17, 2012 3:01 pm by Rick Hasen
See this press release.

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Posted in campaigns, chicanery | Comments Off
“Taxpayers Ditch Presidential Election Fund”

Posted on April 17, 2012 2:55 pm by Rick Hasen
iWatch reports.

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Posted in campaign finance | Comments Off
“Law slows flow of Mass. Senate donor data; Candidates exempt from filing financial reports electonically”

Posted on April 17, 2012 2:54 pm by Rick Hasen
Boston Globe: “in their ongoing battle to prove the depth and quality of their support, the two Massachusetts Senate candidates spent the better part of last week flinging around dollar figures. Scott Brown announced that about 71 percent of his donors this year were Massachusetts residents. His Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Warren, touted her own hand-picked statistic: 83 percent of her donors gave $50 or less. But how much did Brown’s in-state donors give? How much did Warren’s other 15 percent pour into her campaign? That was left open to conjecture.”

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Posted in campaign finance | Comments Off
-- 
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
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rhasen at law.uci.edu
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