[EL] Bauer-Ginsberg/more news 5/21/13

Rick Hasen rhasen at law.uci.edu
Tue May 21 12:20:02 PDT 2013


    Breaking: Bauer-Ginsberg Election Reform Commission Names Members,
    Appoints Nate Persily as Sr. Research Director
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50792>

Posted on May 21, 2013 12:17 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50792> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here is the press release from the Commission 
<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/PCEA-Launch-NewsRelease-FINAL.docx>.  
And now here's a release from the White House:

    THE WHITE HOUSE

    Office of the Press Secretary

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    May 21, 2013

    *President Obama Announces His Intent to Appoint Individuals to the
    Presidential Commission on Election Administration*

    WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent
    to appoint ten individuals to the Presidential Commission on
    Election Administration.  The Presidential Commission on Election
    Administration was created following President Obama's State of the
    Union pledge to identify non-partisan ways to shorten lines at
    polling places, promote the efficient conduct of elections, and
    provide better access to the polls for all voters.

      * *Robert F. Bauer***--  Co-Chair, Presidential Commission on
        Election Administration
      * *Benjamin L. Ginsberg *-- Co-Chair, Presidential Commission on
        Election Administration
      * *Brian Britton *-- Member, Presidential Commission on Election
        Administration
      * *Joe Echevarria *-- Member, Presidential Commission on Election
        Administration
      * *Trey Grayson -- *Member, Presidential Commission on Election
        Administration
      * *Larry Lomax *-- Member, Presidential Commission on Election
        Administration
      * *Michele Coleman Mayes* -- Member, Presidential Commission on
        Election Administration
      * *Ann McGeehan* -- Member, Presidential Commission on Election
        Administration
      * *Tammy Patrick* -- Member, Presidential Commission on Election
        Administration
      * *Christopher Thomas* -- Member, Presidential Commission on
        Election Administration

    *President Obama* said, "The right to vote is one of the most
    essential rights provided by the Constitution.  As I said in my
    State of the Union Address, when any American, no matter where they
    live or what their party, is denied that right simply because too
    many obstacles stand in their way, we are betraying our ideals.  We
    have an obligation to ensure that all eligible voters have the
    opportunity to cast their ballots without unwarranted obstructions
    or unnecessary delay. I am pleased that these committed individuals
    have agreed to offer their expertise to the Presidential Commission
    on Election Administration and I look forward to working with them
    in the coming months."

    *President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following
    individuals to the Presidential Commission on Election Administration:*

    *Robert F. Bauer, Appointee for Co-Chair, Presidential Commission on
    Election Administration*

    Robert F. Bauer is currently a partner at Perkins Coie LLP and
    General Counsel to the Democratic National Committee. He previously
    served as General Counsel to Obama for America and served as White
    House Counsel from 2009 to 2011.  In his 30 years of practice, Mr.
    Bauer has provided counseling and representation on matters
    involving regulation of political activity before courts and
    administrative agencies for national party committees, candidates,
    political committees, individuals, Federal officeholders,
    corporations and trade associations, and tax-exempt groups.  He
    received a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from the
    University of Virginia School of Law.

    *Benjamin L. Ginsberg, Appointee for Co-Chair, Presidential
    Commission on Election Administration*

    Benjamin L. Ginsberg is currently a partner at Patton Boggs LLP
    where he represents campaigns, candidates, members of Congress and
    state legislatures, Governors, corporations, trade associations and
    individuals participating in the political process.  He was formerly
    General Counsel to the Republican National Committee, and currently
    represents the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the
    National Republican Congressional Committee.  He also serves as
    Counsel to the Republican Governors Association.  Mr. Ginsberg
    recently served as National Counsel to the Romney for President
    campaign and previously served as National Counsel to the
    Bush-Cheney presidential campaign in 2000 and 2004.  He received an
    A.B. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Georgetown
    University Law Center.

    *Brian Britton, Appointee for Member, Presidential Commission on
    Election Administration*

    Brian Britton is currently the Vice President of Global Park
    Operations and Initiatives at Walt Disney World Company.  He joined
    Disney in 1999 and was previously the Vice President of Labor
    Operations, Operations Strategy, and Operations Support.  He is a
    board member of Community Based Care of Central Florida, a
    non-profit organization that manages Central Florida's foster care
    program, and a board member for the Florida Attractions Association,
    a tourism industry trade association.  Mr. Britton is a Navy veteran
    and a former Naval Aviator.  He received a B.S. in Systems
    Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, a Master's degree
    equivalent in the theory and operation of avionic systems in Naval
    Flight Officer School, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

    **

    *Joe Echevarria, Appointee for Member, Presidential Commission on
    Election Administration*

    Joe Echevarria has served as Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte LLP
    since June 2011.  Mr. Echevarria joined Deloitte in 1978 and became
    an audit partner in 1988.  Since that time, he has held a wide range
    of leadership positions, most recently as U.S. Managing Partner for
    Operations.  As part of his current role, Mr. Echevarria chairs the
    U.S. Executive Committee, and is a member of the U.S. Board of
    Directors, the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited Board, and the
    Americas Executive Committee.  Mr. Echevarria serves on the Board of
    Trustees and chairs the University of Miami School of Business's
    Board of Overseers.  He received a B.A. in Business Administration
    from the University of Miami.

    **

    *Trey Grayson, Appointee for Member, Presidential Commission on
    Election Administration*

    Trey Grayson is currently the Director of the Institute of Politics
    at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 
    Mr. Grayson previously served as Secretary of State for Kentucky,
    elected in 2003 and re-elected in 2007.  Prior to his election, Mr.
    Grayson practiced law at the law firms of Greenebaum Doll & McDonald
    and Keating Muething & Klekamp.  Mr. Grayson has served as the
    president of the National Association of Secretaries of State
    (NASS), chair of the NASS Elections Committee, and vice chair of the
    NASS Committee on Voter Participation.  He received an A.B. from
    Harvard College, and a J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Kentucky.

    *Larry Lomax, Appointee for Member, Presidential Commission on
    Election Administration*

    Larry Lomax is currently the Clark County Registrar in Nevada, a
    position he has held since 1999.  Mr. Lomax serves as Nevada's
    representative to the Election Assistance Commission's Standards
    Board, was elected by the board's members to the Standards Board
    Executive Board, and served on a Pew Foundation Committee focused on
    modernizing our nation's system of registering voters.  He
    previously served as Assistant Registrar in Clark County from 1998
    to 1999. Prior to working in Clark County, Mr. Lomax was a Professor
    of Leadership and Ethics at the Air War College.  As a former Air
    Force pilot, he accumulated over 4,000 hours of flying time in a
    30-year career.  He served two tours on the Joint Staff in
    Washington D.C. and was chosen to serve as the Air Force Colonel on
    the staff group supporting the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
    Staff.  Mr. Lomax received a B.A. from Stanford University and an
    M.B.A. from the University of North Dakota.  He is a Distinguished
    Graduate from the U.S. Air Force Officer Training School.

    *Michele Coleman Mayes, Appointee for Member, Presidential
    Commission on Election Administration*

    Michele Coleman Mayes is currently Vice President, General Counsel,
    and Secretary for the New York Public Library (NYPL).  Ms. Mayes
    joined NYPL in August 2012 after serving as Executive Vice President
    and General Counsel for Allstate Insurance Company since 2007.  She
    served as a Senior Vice President and the General Counsel of Pitney
    Bowes Inc. from 2003 to 2007 and in several legal capacities at
    Colgate-Palmolive from 1992 to 2003.  In 1982, Ms. Mayes entered the
    corporate sector as managing attorney of Burroughs Corporation. 
    After Burroughs and Sperry Corporation merged, creating Unisys
    Corporation, she was appointed Staff Vice President and Associate
    General Counsel for Worldwide Litigation.  From 1976 through 1982,
    she served in the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant United
    States Attorney in Detroit and Brooklyn, eventually assuming the
    role of Chief of the Civil Division in Detroit.  Ms. Mayes received
    a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the
    University of Michigan Law School.

    *Ann McGeehan, Appointee for Member, Presidential Commission on
    Election Administration*

    Ann McGeehan is currently the Assistant General Counsel of the Texas
    County and District Retirement System. Previously, she served 22
    years in the Elections Division of the Texas Secretary of State's
    Office, including as the Director of Elections from 1995 to 2011 and
    the Director of the Elections Legal Section from 1991 to 1995.  Ms.
    McGeehan is a past president of the National Association of State
    Election Directors, and a former member of the U.S. Election
    Assistance Commission Standards Board and Technical Guidelines
    Development Committee.  Ms. McGeehan also served on an advisory
    group to the Pew Center on the States' Election Initiative.  She
    received a B.A. from the University of Texas and a J.D. from the
    University of Texas School of Law.

    *Tammy Patrick, Appointee for Member, Presidential Commission on
    Election Administration*

    Tammy Patrick is currently a Federal Compliance Officer for the
    Maricopa County Elections Department in Arizona.  In 2013, she
    became a voting member of the Institute of Electrical and
    Electronics Engineers' working group on developing standards for a
    universal format for election results reporting.  She is also a
    representative on the Mailer's Technical Advisory Committee to the
    U.S. Post Office and serves as the co-chair of the Postal Task Force
    for the Election Center.  She has previously served as a member of
    the Election Assistance Commission's working group on Language
    Assistance for Unwritten Language, as an organizer of the 2007
    Native American Voter Outreach Summit, and as a member of the
    Election Center's National Task Force on Education and Training. 
    Ms. Patrick received her B.A. from Purdue University.

    *Christopher Thomas, Appointee for Member, Presidential Commission
    on Election Administration*

    Christopher Thomas is the Director of Elections in the Michigan
    Department of State, a position he has held since 1981.  Mr. Thomas
    also teaches election law as an Adjunct Professor at the Thomas M.
    Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan.  From 1977 to 1981, Mr.
    Thomas served as Director of Campaign Finance Information and
    Director of Campaign Finance Operations for the State of Michigan. 
    Mr. Thomas served as the Director of Public Communications at the
    Federal Election Commission from 1975 to 1977.  He began his
    election administration career in 1974 in Washington, D.C. where he
    was a Staff Assistant responsible for managing campaign finance
    filings in the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of
    Representatives.  Mr. Thomas is a founding member of the National
    Association of State Election Directors and currently serves as
    President.  Mr. Thomas has served on the Board of Advisors to the
    Election Assistance Commission since 2005.  He received a B.A. from
    Michigan State University, an M.A. from St. Louis University, and a
    J.D. from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, 
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    How Much Did White House Contribute to IRS PR Disaster?
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50789>

Posted on May 21, 2013 11:56 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50789> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico 
<http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/white-house-irs-timeline-91681.html#ixzz2TxE1i8fg>:

    Just a day after telling reporters that chief of staff Denis
    McDonough had learned of the situation about a month ago, press
    secretary Jay Carney revealed that White House officials had
    consulted with the IRS on how to initially present to the public the
    story that the agency had targeted conservative tax-exempt groups
    for extra scrutiny.

    There was "discussion about the possibility of a speech" by Lois
    Lerner, who oversaw the IRS's work on tax-exempt groups, Carney
    said, and conversation about testimony by the acting commissioner of
    the agency and "what he would say" if asked about the issue.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law 
and election law <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22> | Comments Off


    Two from Political Wire on Election Administration Studies
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50785>

Posted on May 21, 2013 11:11 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50785> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Study Finds Election Officials Biased Against Latino Voters: 
<http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/05/21/study_finds_election_officials_biased_against_latino_voters.html> 
"A new Harvard study 
<http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/arwhite/files/fallernathanwhite_voteridexp_may2013.pdf> 
contacted over 7,000 election administrators in 28 states and found they 
provide different information about voter ID requirements to voters of 
different ethnicities."

Majority of Republicans Don't Think Election Was Fair 
<http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/05/21/majority_of_republicans_dont_think_election_was_fair.html>: 
A new Hamilton College poll 
<http://www.hamilton.edu/news/polls/2012-post-election-survey> finds 
that heading into the 2012 election, "both Democrats and Republicans 
expressed concerns about the fairness of the election. Only 15% of 
Republicans and 19% of Democrats were very confident that the election 
would be decided fairly."

The latter study is consistent with research I report in /The Voting 
Wars/: winners tend to retrospectively view the fairness of elections in 
much rosier ways than losers.  If my guy won, the election was fair and 
square; if the other guy won, there was fraud or chicanery.

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


    True the Vote Sues IRS and IRS Officials Regarding Its Tax Status
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50781>

Posted on May 21, 2013 11:07 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50781> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Read the complaint 
<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Filed-Complaint-True-the-Vote-v.-IRS.pdf>, 
which gives the personal home addresses of the sued IRS officials.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law 
and election law <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>, The Voting Wars 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60> | Comments Off


    "Ciara Torres-Spelliscy: Somebody Give Bill Gates and Drew Faust a
    Copy of Citizens Disunited" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50778>

Posted on May 21, 2013 11:03 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50778> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here 
<http://www.guernicamag.com/daily/ciara-torres-spelliscy-somebody-give-bill-gates-and-drew-faust-a-copy-of-citizens-disunited/>, 
at Guernica.

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    "The Secret Donors Behind the Center for American Progress and Other
    Think Tanks" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50775>

Posted on May 21, 2013 9:14 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50775> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Interesting report 
<http://www.thenation.com/article/174437/secret-donors-behind-center-american-progress-and-other-think-tanks#> 
in /The Nation./

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    Questions About 501(c)(4)s? <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50772>

Posted on May 21, 2013 8:43 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=50772> by 
Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Donald Tobin has provided these updated and much-needed FAQs 
<http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/analysis/documents/FAQs%20on%20501%28c%29%284%29%20Social%20Welfare%20Organizations%20v.6.pdf>.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law 
and election law <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22> | 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
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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