[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/9/13
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Wed May 8 22:10:45 PDT 2013
"Supreme Court to Make Crucial Rulings on Race"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50060>
Posted on May 8, 2013 10:08 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50060> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Richard Wolf reports
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/08/supreme-court-affirmative-action-race/2145291/>
for USA Today on /Shelby County/ and /Fisher./
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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | Comments Off
"Senate Panel Postpones Vote on Obama's Labor Nominee"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50057>
Posted on May 8, 2013 10:04 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50057> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT
<http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/senate-panel-postpones-vote-on-obamas-labor-nominee/>:
Senate Republicans on Wednesday forced Democrats to postpone a
committee vote on the nomination of Thomas E. Perez to lead the
Labor Department after the chamber's top Republican raised doubts
about Mr. Perez's ethics.
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Posted in Uncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> | Comments Off
"Voter Suppression Group Fearmongers Over Immigration Reform: It
Will Allow 'Millions' To Vote" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50054>
Posted on May 8, 2013 10:00 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50054> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Think Progress
<http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/05/07/1972091/true-the-vote-immigrants-fraud/>:
Following other far-right attacks
<http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/05/06/1971531/heritages-fatally-flawed-study-doubles-down-on-romneys-47-percent/>
on comprehensive immigration reform, True the Vote, a Tea Party
group purporting to combat voter fraud, is now rallying against the
Senate's immigration bill. In a fundraising email to supporters,
True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht warned that the bill
presents a "golden opportunity" to allow "millions of newly
legalized immigrants" to "undermine our electoral system."
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Posted in The Voting Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60> |
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"In Data We Trust" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50052>
Posted on May 8, 2013 9:58 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50052> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Tom Edsall
<http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/in-data-we-trust/?ref=politics>:
The announcement on May 1 by the Republican National Committee that
it had awarded of a multi-million dollar contract for data
management and collection services to Liberty Works, a firm run by
Richard Boyce, an associate of Karl Rove, has driven a new wedge
between establishment and conservative forces battling for control
of the party.
The extensive involvement
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/victory_lab/2012/01/the_co_op_and_the_data_trust_the_dnc_and_rnc_get_into_the_data_mining_business_.html>
of Rove, not only with Liberty Works
<http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/karl-rove-company-gop-data-deal-90834.htm>,
but with all aspects
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/us/26rove.html?pagewanted=all> of
Republican efforts to build a technologically advanced, integrated
voter list has provoked new charges that Rove is acquiring
unprecedented control over the Republican electioneering machine:
over the aggregation of tactically valuable data and of sharing it;
over fundraising; over candidate selection; over voter mobilization;
and finally over issue prioritization.
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Posted in campaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59> | Comments Off
"Prosecutor: 3 non-Ohioans voted here fraudulently"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50049>
Posted on May 8, 2013 9:48 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50049> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Cincinnati Enquirer
<http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130507/NEWS0108/305070058/Prosecutor-3-non-Ohioans-voted-here-fraudulently>:
. Allen is charged with attempting to vote by requesting an absentee
voter ballot, despite being a resident of Florida. She hasn't lived
in Ohio since 2009.
. Strickland is charged with registering to vote and then voting
early at the Board of Elections' Office despite being a resident of
Tennessee. In a February Board of Elections hearing about the
matter, Strickland's daughter told the board her mother visits six
months each year.
. Wilson is charged with registering to vote and then voting early
at the Board of Elections' Office using a fictitious address.
According to board of elections officials, he lives in Northern
Kentucky, but registered from an Ohio address and voted in Hamilton
County.
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Posted in absentee ballots <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>,
election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting
Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60> | Comments Off
"3 Voting Bills Get Day in Court" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50047>
Posted on May 8, 2013 9:45 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50047> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
<http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/3971021-74/voting-states-registration#axzz2SldB9x65>:
Voter ID was just the beginning.
A trio of bills aimed at overhauling access to the ballot box in
Pennsylvania will get a hearing on Thursday, when the Senate
Democratic Policy Committee meets in the Allegheny County
Courthouse, Downtown, at 10 a.m.
The bills would allow voters to cast ballots up to 15 days before
Election Day; vote absentee without giving an excuse; and register
on the same day as voting.
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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,
The Voting Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60> | Comments Off
"2012 Turnout: Race, Ethnicity and the Youth Vote"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50044>
Posted on May 8, 2013 4:55 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50044> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Michael McDonald
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-p-mcdonald/2012-turnout-race-ethnict_b_3240179.html>:
An important election survey that reveals patterns in voting and
registration is the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey
November Voting and Registration Supplement
<http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/>, or CPS for short.
The 2012 CPS reveals insights to major stories about the election
divined from the exit polls: the changing face of the electorate and
the role of young people in determining the outcome of the
presidential election. As I suggested previously
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-p-mcdonald/turnout-in-the-2012-presi_b_2663122.html>,
the increasing diversity of the 2012 electorate was a partially a
turnout story, with non-Hispanic Whites modestly withdrawing from
the electorate. The CPS further documents how it is also a story of
the inevitable trend of increasing diversity of the country. Perhaps
the most revealing new finding is a dramatic decrease in the youth
vote, which has important ramifications for future elections.
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Posted in voting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>, Voting Rights Act
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> | Comments Off
"Legal Center & CREW Call On FEC to Investigate Excessive Campaign
Contributions" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50041>
Posted on May 8, 2013 3:47 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50041> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Press release
<http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2114:may-8-2013-legal-center-a-crew-call-on-fec-to-investigate-excessive-campaign-contributions&catid=63:legal-center-press-releases&Itemid=61>:
"Today, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) joined Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) in filing a complaint
<http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/images/CLC_CREW_FEC_Excessive_Donor_Complaint_5-8-13.pdf>
with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), asking it to investigate 32
political donors for excessive contributions to federal candidates
during the 2012 election cycle. The complaint follows a Huffington Post
report
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/03/campaign-contribution-limits_n_3132474.html>
revealing these individuals contributed more than the biennial limit of
$46,200 to federal candidates during 2011 and 2012, in violation of the
Federal Election Campaign Act and FEC regulations."
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10> |
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Brennan Center Responds to Ezra Klein on Big Money in 2012 Elections
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50038>
Posted on May 8, 2013 3:44 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50038> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Here <http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/why-big-money-still-won-2012>.
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10> |
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Bob Bauer on Briffault, Michael McConnell, Justice O'Connor
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50036>
Posted on May 8, 2013 3:42 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50036> by
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bauer on Briffault on coordination:
<http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/2013/05/professor-briffault-on-super-pacs-and-the-question-of-coordination/>
Maybe the issue is indeed one of appearances, but appearances, the
"look" of things, can't carry the work of revising the standard of
constitutionally protected "independence." Professor Briffault sets
as his goal the higher ambition of "maintain[ing] the integrity of
the contribution/expenditure distinction that has been a
foundational part of our campaign finance law for nearly four
decades." His proposal certainly helps expose the futility of the
distinction but is very unlikely to save it.
Bauer on McConnell
<http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/2013/05/defense-of-citizens-united/>on
CU:
However one views his reform program, Professor McConnell is
right on two key points of his defense of /Citizens United/. The
decision in CU is shoddy work, and neither that decision nor any
other the Court has issued in recent years has helped shore up a
campaign finance doctrine built on the distinction between
contributions and expenditures
<http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/2013/04/contributions-and-expenditures-in-campaign-finance-jurisprudence/>.
Bauer on Justice O'Connor
<http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/2013/05/justice-oconnor-bush-gore/>
on Bush v. Gore:
In /Bush v. Gore/, Justice O'Connor appears to have concluded that
whatever moved the majority to intervene in the Florida recount cost
too much in backlash against the Court. /Caperton/ has not stirred
up the same volume and intensity of complaint. In fact, many critics
enraged by /Bush v. Gore/ have an understandable soft spot for
/Caperton/, taking it to be a step in the right direction---away
from /Buckley/'s ill-fated contribution/expenditure distinction.
But, on the fundamental question of how the Court makes election
law, the two cases are much alike, even if Justice O'Connor has
second thoughts only about one of them.
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Posted in Bush v. Gore reflections <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=5>,
campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29> | Comments Off
The Future of the Voting Rights Act (VRA)
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=49971>
Posted on May 8, 2013 8:10 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=49971> by
Richard Pildes <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>
vra <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=49971>
If the Supreme Court holds Section 5 of the VRA unconstitutional by the
end of this Term, or cuts back substantially on Section 5?s scope, an
outpouring of policy and political energy will undoubtedly burst forth
to suggest what kind of legislative response, if any, is warranted. One
comprehensive collection of recommendations and suggestions already
exists about the direction voting rights policy might most effectively
take, from leading academic experts in law and political science on the
VRA, in this book, *The Future of the Voting Rights Act*, for which I
was one of the editors. Published by the Russell Sage Foundation, the
book can be found here
<http://www.amazon.com/Future-Voting-Rights-Act/dp/087154072X>.
Ironically, the book was designed to inform the legislative policy
process when Section 5 expired in 2007, but Congress moved the process
up to 2006. The book originally came out in 2006 but too late to
influence that expedited process. If the Court does invalidate or cut
back on Section 5, however, this book will provide a comprehensive
starting point for ideas about how Congress might most effectively
respond to modernize voting rights policy.
Here is the (modified, updated) description of the book that the Russell
Sage Foundation originally published
<https://www.russellsage.org/publications/future-voting-rights-act>:
The Voting Rights Act (VRA) stands among the great achievements of
American democracy. In *The Future of the Voting Rights Act,* Richard
Pildes, Rodolfo de la Garza, Sharyn O'Halloran, and others bring
together leading historians, political scientists, and legal scholars to
assess the role a re-designed Section 5, or other voting rights
legislation, should play in America's future.
The contributors offer varied perspectives on the most effective future
for voting rights law and policy. Rodolfo de la Garza and Louis DeSipio
explore the VRA's limited focus thus far on the situation of Hispanic
residents and citizens, whose interests with respect to voting rights
differ in insufficiently appreciated ways from those of African
Americans (Laughlin McDonald explores similar issues with respect to
Native American voters). Sharyn O'Halloran and David Epstein provide
extensive data showing that white voters are more wiling than in the
past to vote for African-American candidates and to forge interracial
coalitions that successfully elect African-American candidates. Richard
Pildes explores the difficulties of updating policies to protect
vulnerable voters designed many decades ago to today's different
circumstances, and asks whether minority voters might be better off if
voting rights policy now were to better facilitate the formation of
winning political coalitions across racial and ethnic lines, rather than
focusing exclusively on the creation of "safe" districts that minority
voters can dominate.
Nate Persily suggests approaches that would update Section 5 from
within, by re-shaping it to fit current circumstances, and approaches
that would abandon Section 5?s regionally-targeted philosophy for more
aggressive, nationwide protections of voting rights. Spencer Overton and
Michael McDonald grapple with crafting an updated coverage formula that
identifies those areas that remain exceptionally problematic with
respect to their treatment of minority voters. Heather Gerken seeks to
enlist greater citizen participation on how to determine areas of the
country that are especially problematic. Samuel Issacharoff questions
whether Section 5 remains necessary, citing the now substantial presence
of blacks in legislative positions and the increasingly partisan
enforcement of the law by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Rick Hasen
explores the constitutional issues that will continue to affect the
options for congressional action.
Examining the role that Section 5 or alternative legislation might play
in maintaining a healthy democracy is vital. Combining historical
perspective, legal scholarship, and the insight of the social sciences,
*The Future of the Voting Rights Act* is a crucial read for anyone
interested in one of this year's most important constitutional issues
before the Supreme Court, for any policy debates that might follow in
the wake of the Court's decision, and in the future of civil rights in
America.
EDITORS: RICHARD H. PILDES is Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional
Law at New York University School of Law.
RODOLFO O. DE LA GARZA is faculty fellow in the Department of Political
Science and director of the Project on Immigration, Ethnicity, and Race
at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia
University.
SHARYN O'HALLORAN is the George Blumenthal Professor of Politics and
professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University.
DAVID L. EPSTEIN was formerly a professor of political science at
Columbia University.
CONTRIBUTORS: Rodolfo O. de la Garza, Sharyn O'Halloran, Richard H.
Pildes, Stephen Ansolabehere, Thomas Brunell, Bruce E. Cain, Guy-Uriel
E. Charles, Louis DeSipio, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Heather K. Gerken,
Bernard Grofman, Richard L. Hasen, Samuel Issacharoff, Karin MacDonald,
Peyton McCrary, Laughlin McDonald, Michael P. McDonald, Spencer Overton,
Nathaniel Persily, Christopher Seaman, David L. Epstein and Richard Valelly.
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Posted in Voting Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15> |
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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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