[EL] ELB News and Commentary 9/17/14
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Tue Sep 16 20:35:15 PDT 2014
"FEC Summarizes 18-Month Campaign Activity of the 2013-2014 Election
Cycle" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65561>
Posted onSeptember 16, 2014 8:31 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65561>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Press release
<http://www.fec.gov/press/press2014/news_releases/20140916release.shtml>: "Congressional
candidates running in the 2013-2014 election cycle received $1.1 billion
and disbursed $766.7 million in the first 18 months of the cycle,
according to campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election
Commission that cover activity from January 1, 2013 through June 30,
2014. During this period, political parties received $760.7 million and
disbursed $573.4 million, and political action committees (PACs)
received $1.5 billion and disbursed $1.3 billion. Filings submitted to
the Commission in this 18-month period indicated that disbursements for
independent expenditures and electioneering communications totaled $124
million and $925,101, respectively, in connection with congressional
elections in 2013 and 2014."
Roll Call:
<http://atr.rollcall.com/elections-2014-midterms-campaign-spending-fec-report/?dcz=> "Residents
of states with competitive House and Senate races may not believe it,
but congressional candidate spending has decreased in 2014, according to
a review by the Federal Election Commission
<http://www.fec.gov/press/press2014/news_releases/20140916release.shtml> released
Tuesday."
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
"NC NAACP files complaint over state Senate leader's ad for
misleading on voter ID" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65559>
Posted onSeptember 16, 2014 8:21 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65559>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Facing South reports.
<http://news.southernstudies.org/2014/09/nc-naacp-files-complaint-over-state-senate-leaders.html>
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>,voter id
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>
"President Obama is going to a fundraiser every five days this year"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65557>
Posted onSeptember 16, 2014 8:19 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65557>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The Fix reports.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/09/16/president-obama-is-going-to-a-fundraiser-every-five-days-in-2014/>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
"Sen. Wright is wrong on racism, right on unfair enforcement of
residency law" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65555>
Posted onSeptember 16, 2014 3:13 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65555>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
I agreed with this LAT editorial
<http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-sen-wright-is-wrong-on-racism-20140916-story.html>until
the end. I think it is time to ditch residency requirements and realize
that voters can figure out well enough if a candidate has enough ties to
the community to represent the area well.
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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
"When is Uniformity of People, Not Counties, Appropriate in Election
Administration? The Cases of Early and Sunday Voting"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65551>
Posted onSeptember 16, 2014 3:04 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65551>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
I have posted thisshort essay
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2497192>on SSRN, a
work in progress which I will present at a November symposium for the
/University of Chicago Legal Forum./ Here is the abstract:
Since Bush v. Gore, some Republican officials have insisted on
uniformity of election administration in the name of equal
protection. More specifically, they have enacted or advocated
uniform early voting timetables and bans on Sunday voting throughout
a state. But there is a fundamental flaw in the blanket calls for
uniformity across counties (or electoral jurisdictions) in the name
of equal protection principles from Bush v. Gore: uniformity across
counties sometimes undermines the Equal Protection rights of voters
because counties have different size populations. In this short
Essay I argue that election administration rules premised on
uniformity of counties violate Bush v. Gore or other equal
protection principles whenever a rule of election administration
treats differently populated counties the same but the relevant rule
significantly affects the level of services provided to individual
voters.
Indeed, even if Bush v. Gore ultimately has no precedential value
(or no precedential value outside the narrow confines of a case
involving statewide recounts of votes), uniform election law
treatment across counties sometimes violates one person, one vote
principles and is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection
Clause. Using this analysis, I conclude that requirements of uniform
early voting days and times across counties could well be
unconstitutional, but a ban on Sunday voting would likely be
constitutional so long as the number of hours offered to voters
overall gives voters in different counties roughly the same
opportunities to vote. Challengers to a statewide ban on Sunday
voting, or to leaving the choice discretionary to counties, would
have to raise a different Equal Protection theory.
Comments welcome!
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>,voting
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>
The Electoral Chaos in WI Gets Chaos-ier with Big Student Voting
Issues Looming <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65549>
Posted onSeptember 16, 2014 2:59 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65549>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
New fight
<http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/ballot-fight-is-brewing-as-state-scrambled-on-voter-id-b99352576z1-275311521.html>over
ballot formats as en banc petition on WI voter id looms. Meanwhile, how
the hell is the id law going to get off the ground with no time left.
Look athow GAB head Kevin Kennedy
<http://www.wiscnews.com/baraboonewsrepublic/news/state-and-regional/article_3de3068c-18f3-5887-bb10-3648b28d6eab.html>describes
some of the problems:
Kevin Kennedy, general counsel for the state Government
Accountability Board, urged absentee voters to send copies or bring
in a valid photo identification as soon as possible to ensure their
ballots would be counted.
Kennedy said more than 11,000 absentee ballot requests had been
received statewide as of Friday but he didn't know how many had been
returned by voters.
He said clerks are being instructed to use "extraordinary measures"
to contact each absentee voter in writing to make sure they
understand the new requirement. Overseas and military voters and
those who live in a nursing home or other such facility are not
required to show a photo ID to vote, he said.
Kennedy also assured reporters that his agency and other state
departments, including the Department of Health Services and the
Department of Motor Vehicles, were adding resources to make sure
voters who lacked proper identification would be able to obtain it
before the election....
But Madison resident Jon Senchyne demonstrated the complexity of
obtaining the required identification so close to the election.
Senchyne said he doesn't have a driver's license, his passport has
expired and his New York birth certificate was "severely damaged"
the last time he applied for a passport.
Senchyne, who has voted without incident since moving here in 2012,
said he was told by the Department of Motor Vehicles it could take
eight weeks to verify his birth.
"There are only seven weeks left until Election Day," he said. "I'm
going to try to get the ID with the documents I have, but if it
takes the DMV eight weeks to verify my citizenship, which the DMV
says it could, the clock will run out before I can vote this November."
Kennedy acknowledged that most university- or college-issued IDs
also do not qualify, but he said his agency is working with higher
education officials to issue identification cards that do comply. He
added that many students already have an acceptable identification,
such as a driver's license.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union said it planned to
file a motion Tuesday with the 7th Circuit in Chicago in order to
"protect the voting rights of Wisconsin citizens."
"With just seven weeks before Election Day, this last-minute change
will cause widespread confusion, and it stands to disenfranchise the
more than 300,000 registered Wisconsin voters -- disproportionately
voters of color -- who lack the required form of identification,"
ACLU-Wisconsin spokeswoman Molly Collins said.
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>,voter id
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>,Voting Rights Act
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>
"Money Buys Silence on Climate Change"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65547>
Posted onSeptember 16, 2014 2:50 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65547>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs.
<http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/money-buys-silence-climate-change>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
"Top Harry Reid advisers build big-money firewall to protect Senate
Democrats" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65545>
Posted onSeptember 16, 2014 1:48 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65545>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Must-read Matea
Gold<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-harry-reid-advisers-build-big-money-firewall-to-protect-senate-democrats/2014/09/16/991381b6-3cdf-11e4-9587-5dafd96295f0_story.html>in
WaPo:
Senate Majority PAC, <http://www.senatemajority.com/> fueled by
billionaires and labor unions, has been the biggest-spending super
PAC <http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?disp=O> of
the 2014 midterm contests. Together with an allied tax-exempt group,
Patriot Majority <http://www.patriotmajority.org/>, the
pro-Democratic effort has poured at least $36 million into ads and
voter outreach, according to theCenter for Responsive Politics
<http://www.opensecrets.org/>, a nonpartisan research organization.
The groups' early, aggressive presence in pivotal Senate races
spotlights how, four years after being dramatically outgunned
<http://articles.latimes.com/print/2010/oct/06/nation/la-na-democrats-money-20101006> in
the outside money game, Democrats are now some of its most adept
players.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
"Justices question why Democrat Chad Taylor can't withdraw from
Senate race" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65543>
Posted onSeptember 16, 2014 1:09 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65543>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bryan Lowry reports
<http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article2124594.html>for
the Wichita Eagle.
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Posted incampaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
Breaking: Plaintiffs in WI Voter ID Case Seek 7th Circuit En Banc
Review <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65539>
Posted onSeptember 16, 2014 12:04 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=65539>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
I'm surprised they did not first go straight to SCOTUS. So reportsZach
Roth. <https://twitter.com/zackroth/status/511950761581109248> I will
update this post when I have the filing. (Apparently the motion has not
yet been filed---there is only a press release indicating it is coming
today.)
One interesting question will be whether Judge Posner recuses.
More to come.
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
--
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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