[EL] ELB News and Commentary 3/2/13

Sat Mar 2 09:52:51 PST 2013

    New Hampshire Gets Voting Rights Bailout
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47988>

Posted on March 2, 2013 9:40 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47988> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Justin Levitt posts the order 
<http://redistricting.lls.edu/files/NH%20bailout%2020130301%20order.pdf> 
and notes <https://twitter.com/_justinlevitt_/status/307905437477531648> 
it possible significance, As Ryan Reilly reported 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/new-hampshire-voting-rights-act_n_2397801.html?1357163981>, 
a conservative group tried to block the bailout.  Both sides are using 
the New Hampshire case to debate the fairness and necessity of continued 
section 5 coverage for parts of the country.

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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting 
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | Comments Off

    "The Voting Rights Act, Stuck in the Past"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47985>

Posted on March 2, 2013 9:36 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47985> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New George Will column 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-the-voting-rights-act-stuck-in-the-past/2013/03/01/663c6eca-81dc-11e2-a350-49866afab584_story.html>.

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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting 
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | Comments Off

    "Up with Chris Hayes" Tackles Voting Rights
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47983>

Posted on March 2, 2013 9:35 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47983> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here 
<http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/22/feb-23-voting-rights-medicaid-gop-decline/>.

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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting 
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | Comments Off

    "In Voting Rights Arguments, Chief Justice Misconstrued Census Data"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47981>

Posted on March 2, 2013 9:33 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47981> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Nina Totenberg reports 
<http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/03/01/173276943/in-voting-rights-arguments-chief-justice-may-have-misconstrued-census-data> 
for NPR.

MORE 
<http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2013/03/massachusetts-official-slams-chief-justices-comments-158275.html> 
from Politico.

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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting 
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | Comments Off

    Thought of the Evening <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47977>

Posted on March 1, 2013 7:46 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47977> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The interesting national conversation we are having about race, racism 
and voting rights should have happened in 2006, when Congress renewed 
the Voting Rights Act.

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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting 
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | Comments Off

    "A Divide on Voting Rights Where Blood Spilled"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47975>

Posted on March 1, 2013 7:45 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47975> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/us/politics/a-divide-on-voting-rights-where-blood-spilled.html?pagewanted=1&ref=politics>: 
"In the refined air of the United States Supreme Court, the questions 
posed by justices on Wednesday 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/us/politics/conservative-justices-voice-skepticism-on-voting-law.html> 
seemed so big as to be unanswerable: Are parts of the Voting Rights Act 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/v/voting_rights_act_1965/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> 
an unfair infringement on state sovereignty? How different is the South 
these days from other regions, and from itself in bloody years past? 
Here in southwest Mississippi, those questions are as real and solid as 
the longleaf pines."

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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting 
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    "Birkenstock, Gilbert, Colbert, and Super PACs"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47972>

Posted on March 1, 2013 6:06 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47972> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

This item 
<http://www.lawweekly.org/?module=displaystory&story_id=3913&edition_id=226&format=html>appears 
in the Virginia Law Weekly.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10> | 
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    "True the Vote Presents False Findings"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47969>

Posted on March 1, 2013 5:28 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47969> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Rob Richie traces 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-richie/true-the-vote-fudges-numb_b_2785093.html> 
the ever-evolving TTV report. It begins:

    Yesterday I helped my colleague Andrea Levien
    <http://www.fairvote.org/list/author/Andrea_Levien> expose on the
    FairVote blog that True the Vote --- an organization that purports
    to be dedicated to reducing voter fraud and has been the subject of
    much controversy
    <http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-voting-rights-tea-party-20121004,0,3351653.story>
    for its methods --- had cooked numbers on voter turnout in a
    February 27th report that featured its findings on the effect on
    voter turnout of voter ID laws and other election changes allegedly
    meant to reduce voter fraud.

    True the Vote in its original report
    <http://www.fairvote.org/assets/TruetheVote-Voter-Suppression-Myth.pdf>
    concluded that these new laws not have an adverse impact on turnout
    and may have led to increased turnout. They began the report with
    highlighted statistics, including two relating to turnout:

      * 6.2 percent: The average increase of voter turnout in states
        with "strict" voter ID laws.
      * 72 percent: The rate of voter turnout in Georgia, home of the
        strictest voter ID law --- up from 62 percent in 2008

    But these statistics were absolutely wrong. If you go to the report
    now
    <http://www.scribd.com/doc/127481956/2012-Voter-Suppression-Myth> as
    of noon on Friday, March 1st (important to clarify, as the report
    has been edited twice today and may be again), you won't find any
    reference to turnout. You also won't see any apology or explanation
    for the deletions, despite those findings being trumpeted on such
    websites such as Breitbart's Big Government, which on February 27
    published an article
    <http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/02/26/True-the-Vote-Debunks-the-Voter-Suppression-Narrative#sthash.G8wLFtXj.dpu>
    reporting that:

    "True the Vote's report demonstrated that in almost every state with
    some form of photo ID requirement, voter turnout improved from
    2008."Georgia is known to have the 'strictest' photo requirement in
    the nation," Engelbrecht continued. "In two consecutive general
    election cycles the state has seen increases in voter turnout. This
    is more evidence that voter confidence and turnout rise together,
    thanks to photo voter ID."

    In fact, the report's authors made a huge methodological mistake.
    They compared turnout of /eligible voters/ in 2008 to turnout of
    /registered voters/ in 2012. Because many people are not registered
    to vote, turnout of registered voters is almost always higher than
    turnout of eligible voters. (The only exception would be if a state
    has more registered voters than eligible voters, as in fact can
    happen in some states like Alaska due to our antiquated approach
    <http://www.fairvote.org/universal-voter-registration#.UTDqiTCG3h4>
    to voter registration.)

    Correcting this error in fact reverses True the Vote's findings. All
    but one of the states with new voter ID laws experienced a decline
    in voter turnout, and most experienced a decline greater than the
    national turnout decline from 2008 to 2012.

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, 
fraudulent fraud squad <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting 
Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60> | Comments Off

    "Minority Districts at Issue in Voting Rights Case"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47966>

Posted on March 1, 2013 2:55 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47966> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Gannett reports <http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=224580>.

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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting 
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | Comments Off

    Politifact Rates as "Half-True" Trey Martinez Fischer Statement that
    Texas Legislature has never avoided violating Section 5 of Voting
    Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47963>

Posted on March 1, 2013 2:52 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47963> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

See here. 
<http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2013/mar/01/trey-martinez-fischer/trey-martinez-fischer-says-texas-legislature-has-n/>

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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting 
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-- 
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
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_r_hasen.html
http://electionlawblog.org

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