[EL] ELB News and Commentary 2/11/14

Tue Feb 11 21:11:46 PST 2014

    NYT Ed Backs AG Holder's Call on Felon Disenfranchisement
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58690>

Posted on February 11, 2014 9:07 pm 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58690>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Read 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/opinion/6-million-americans-without-a-voice.html?ref=politics>.

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Posted in felon voting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>

    "The Progressive Roots of Republican Vote Suppression"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58688>

Posted on February 11, 2014 9:06 pm 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58688>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jonathan Bernstein 
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-11/the-progressive-roots-of-republican-vote-suppression-.html>for 
Bloomberg View:

    Is Hasen correct? It's hard to know. Another plausible explanation
    is that the Republican efforts are devoted to restricting the
    franchise for purely partisan reasons, while conservative writers
    flail around looking for a more high-minded motivation. The
    mostly-Anglo Republican Party has a purely partisan self-interest in
    making voting more difficult for Democrats, which will have the
    effect of depressing voting among blacks and other historically
    disenfranchised groups who happen to be heavily Democratic. So it's
    not surprising (and in some ways not a bad thing) that conservatives
    might want to find a more compelling public reason for what they're
    doing.

    On the other hand, it's also possible that conservatives first
    sought out acceptable-sounding reasons for an essentially partisan
    gambit, then came to believe their own sound bites. That's hardly
    unusual for any group of politicians. And don't forget that
    Republicans are not unanimous in attempting to make voting harder;
    some very conservative or libertarian Republicans have joined
    Democrats in pushing to restore voting rights for ex-felons
    <http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/criminal-justice-reform-gains-steam>.

    It's worth noting that the elitist version of democracy that Hasen
    describes has a long, rich, history in the U.S. It's quite similar
    to the justifications Progressive-era thinkers used for their own
    restrictions of the franchise, and more broadly for the kind of
    elections they favored. Progressive-era reforms generally made
    voting much harder for individual citizens. Non-partisan elections
    removed the ready prompt of party; ballot measures asked voters to
    carefully consider arguments for and against something, rather than
    just vote with one's party. The idea was that the best voters would
    take the time to individually consider each election choice
    separately, based on "the issues," while those who just voted with
    their ethnic bloc or local ward were bad voters. Democracy,
    Progressives concluded, would work better if such voters were
    discouraged from participating. Meanwhile, voter registration would
    add an extra hoop for voters to jump through (which would not deter
    the "best" voters).

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

    "EXCLUSIVE: Latest Herron & Smith: 'Race, Shelby County, and the
    Voter Information Verification Act in North Carolina'"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58686>

Posted on February 11, 2014 8:58 pm 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58686>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New research 
<http://electionsmith.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/late-night-exclusive-latest-herron-smith-race-shelby-county-and-the-voter-information-verification-act-in-north-carolina/> 
from Michael Herron and Dan Smith:

*Abstract*

    Shortly after the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder struck
    down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), the state of North
    Carolina enacted an omnibus piece of election-reform legislation
    known as the Voter Information Verification Act (VIVA). Prior to
    Shelby portions of North Carolina were covered jurisdictions per the
    VRA's Sections 4 and 5---meaning that they had to seek federal
    preclearance for changes to their election procedures---and this
    motivates our assessment of whether VIVA's many alterations to North
    Carolina's election procedures are race-neutral. We show that black
    early voters in North Carolina have in presidential elections cast
    their ballots disproportionately in the first week of early voting,
    an early voting week that VIVA has eliminated; that blacks in the
    state disproportionately have registered to vote during early voting
    and in the immediate run-up to Election Day, something that VIVA
    prohibits; that North Carolina registered voters who lack two
    VIVA-acceptable forms of voter identification, drivers licenses and
    nonoperator identification cards, are disproportionately black; that
    VIVA's identification dispensation for voters at least 70 years is a
    disproportionate benefit to whites; and, that preregistered 16 and
    17-year old voters in North Carolina, a category of registrants that
    VIVA prohibits, are disproportionately black. These results
    illustrate how VIVA will have a disparate effect on black voters in
    North Carolina.

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, 
The Voting Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>, voting 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>

    "Political Ignorance and Early Voting"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58684>

Posted on February 11, 2014 8:56 pm 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58684>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ilya Somin 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/02/11/political-ignorance-and-early-voting/>:

    Some conservative commentators -- including co-bloggerEugene
    Kontorovich and John McGinnis
    <http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/early-voting-the-case-against-102748.html?hp=r10#.Uu_SvPY72X1>,
    and former Justice Department voting rights specialist J. Christian
    Adams
    <http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/5/adams-eight-reasons-for-halting-early-voting/>,
    have recently criticized early voting, on the grounds that it
    exacerbates the problem of political ignorance.

    I agree that widespread political ignorance is a serious problem
    <http://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Political-Ignorance-Smaller-Government/dp/0804786615>.
    But I doubt that early voting makes it any worse than it would be
    otherwise. As leading voting rights scholar Rick Hasenpoints out
    <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/02/the_new_conservative_assault_on_early_voting_more_republicans_fewer_voters.html>,
    social science research shows that early voters are, on average,
    better-informed than those who vote on election day
    <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/28/who-are-the-early-voters-and-why-do-they-matter/>.
    They also tend to have stronger partisan loyalties, and are
    therefore unlikely to change their minds based on last-minute
    election ads or news developments....

    But, although I agree with Hasen that conservative critiques of
    early voting are overblown, I think he goes too far in this part of
    his argument, versions of which are sometimes advanced by other
    liberal commentators...

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Posted in voting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>

    "80,000 people protested in NC this weekend. Here's why."
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58682>

Posted on February 11, 2014 8:52 pm 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58682>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Fix mentions 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/02/10/why-tens-of-thousands-of-people-were-rallying-in-raleigh/>, 
among other things, redistricting and voting wars isses.

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, 
redistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, The Voting Wars 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

    "Kobach makes case for Kansas, Arizona voting laws"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58680>

Posted on February 11, 2014 8:50 pm 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58680>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KAKE.com reports. 
<http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Kobach-makes-case-for-Kansas-Arizona-voting-laws--245104801.html>

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, 
NVRA (motor voter) <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=33>, The Voting Wars 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

    "Poll worker's fraud heads to prosecutor"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58677>

Posted on February 11, 2014 8:49 pm 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58677>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Cincinnati Enquirer reports. 
<http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20140211/NEWS/302110052/>

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Posted in absentee ballots <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, 
chicanery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

    "Fighting big donors with big dollars"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58675>

Posted on February 11, 2014 9:56 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58675>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico reports. 
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/fundraising-campaign-contributions-money-in-politics-103350.html>

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

    "Holder Urges States to Repeal Bans on Felons' Voting"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58673>

Posted on February 11, 2014 7:59 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58673>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/us/politics/holder-urges-states-to-repeal-bans-on-voting-by-felons.html?hp&_r=0>. 
MORE 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/eric-holder-felon-voting_n_4762863.html?utm_hp_ref=politics> 
from HuffPo's Ryan J. Reilly.

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Posted in felon voting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>, The Voting 
Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

    "The Unsavory Case Against Early Voting"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58671>

Posted on February 11, 2014 7:51 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58671>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ed Kilgore 
<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/the_unsavory_case_against_earl049016.php> 
reflects on my @/Slate /column 
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/02/the_new_conservative_assault_on_early_voting_more_republicans_fewer_voters.html>.

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

    It's Back, Baby! <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58669>

Posted on February 11, 2014 7:49 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58669>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Electionline 
<http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/electionacademy/2014/02/coming_again_soon_electionline.php> 
returns from hiatus. Yay!

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Posted in election law biz <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>

    "Ohio set to pass tough new round of voting restrictions"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58667>

Posted on February 11, 2014 7:43 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58667>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

MSNBC reports 
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ohio-readies-new-wave-strict-voting-laws>.

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

    "Unions, trade associations worried about possible IRS rule changes"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58665>

Posted on February 11, 2014 7:40 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58665>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/unions-trade-associations-worried-about-possible-irs-rule-changes/2014/02/09/03faab12-8eb2-11e3-b227-12a45d109e03_story.html>.

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

    "On the Campaign Finance Laws and Lawyers"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58663>

Posted on February 11, 2014 7:38 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58663>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bauer blogs 
<http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/2014/02/campaign-finance-laws-lawyers/>.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

    Excerpt from McCutcheon Book <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58661>

Posted on February 11, 2014 7:33 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=58661>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can now read an excerpt here 
<http://www.top-five-books.com/excerpt_WMS.html> of Ron Collins' and 
David Skover's s When Money Speaks: The /McCutcheon /Decision, Campaign 
Finance Laws, and the First Amendment 
<http://www.top-five-books.com/WhenMoneySpeaks.html>.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Supreme 
Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

-- 
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://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org

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