[EL] “Fairfax County Democrats sue over rules for observers at polling places”

[John Tanner]

this raises an interesting side issue re: section 5.
the existence or not of any change, of course, would be determined based,
in VA's case, on the county's practice on November 1, 1964, plus any
changes since then that have been precleared.  It is getting harder and
harder to determine what the practice in many localities was on that date,
especially where the statute lacks specificity.  That would be especially
true in this sort of situation -- the issue may not have come up in 1964 or
earlier.  Also, this is the sort of situation where a probable lack of
uniformity or official policy would undermine the existence of any practice
(as opposed to a violation or a screw-up) a la US v Jones and US v St
Landry Parish.
That said, using section 5 to try to block a salutary change is,
again, nuts -- not only in terms of enabling voter harassment and
intimidation, as here, but in terms of undermining the case for section 5
by adding to the federalism burdens blah blah in an irrational and
counter-productive way.

On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 2:26 PM, Bruce Adelson <bruceafcc at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Good afternoon:
>
> I am unaware that Fairfax County has bailed out of VRA Section 5.
>
> This poll watcher proposal sounds like a "change affecting voting" that
> requires preclearance before implementation.
>
>
> Bruce L. Adelson, Esq.******
>
> Federal Compliance Consulting LLC****
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>
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> --- On *Fri, 11/2/12, john.k.tanner at gmail.com <john.k.tanner at gmail.com>*wrote:
>
>
> From: john.k.tanner at gmail.com <john.k.tanner at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [EL] “Fairfax County Democrats sue over rules for observers
> at polling places”
> To: "Rick Hasen" <rhasen at law.uci.edu>,
> law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu, "law-election at UCI.edu" <
> law-election at uci.edu>
> Date: Friday, November 2, 2012, 12:28 PM
>
>
> I am amazed that the VA Democrats are filing suit, in effect, to allow
> True the Vote poll watchers to talk directly to voters. This is an
> invitation for poll watchers to harassment of minority voters.  Poll
> watchers should never talk to voters in the polls, only to poll workers.
> Otherwise things can rapidly spiral out of control. This is nuts.
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu<http://us.mc1133.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=rhasen@law.uci.edu>
> >
> Sender: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu<http://us.mc1133.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=law-election-bounces@department-lists.uci.edu>
> Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2012 09:08:42
> To: law-election at UCI.edu<http://us.mc1133.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=law-election@UCI.edu>
> <law-election at UCI.edu<http://us.mc1133.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=law-election@UCI.edu>
> >
> Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/2/12
>
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