[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/15/15
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Wed Apr 15 06:43:59 PDT 2015
“Language Accommodations and Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act:
Reporting Requirements as a Potential Solution to the Compliance
Gap” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71738>
Posted onApril 15, 2015 6:35 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71738>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Matthew Higgins has written thisexcellent student note
<http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/print/article/language-accommodations-and-section-203-of-the-voting-rights-act>for
the Stanford Law Review. Here is the abstract:
Certain voters with limited English proficiency (LEP) are afforded
affirmative accommodations under section 203 of the Voting Rights
Act (VRA). Section 203’s provisions, however, are often critically
misunderstood and only partially implemented. The law’s substantial
compliance gap stems largely from its complex and fact-specific
mandates as well as its requirement that election jurisdictions
themselves determine the extent of their own affirmative duties.
In an effort to partially close section 203’s compliance gap and
promote universal enforcement of federal election laws, this Note
adapts a recent proposal requiring the advance disclosure of federal
voting changes to the language assistance context. In response to
the Supreme Court’s decision in/Shelby County v. Holder/, academics
and members of Congress have proposed a requirement that all
election jurisdictions report to the local media and the government
certain changes to their election laws before those changes take
effect. This Note modifies and applies this general framework to
address the low compliance rates of the VRA’s language assistance
provisions.
This proposal requires all covered language jurisdictions to
publicly present a section 203 compliance plan six months before an
election. It represents a cost-effective way to inform election
officials of their particularized legal obligations and to more
efficiently leverage third-party resources to ensure that the
language assistance provisions are consistently and properly enforced.
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Posted inVoting Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>
“The New Donors” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71736>
Posted onApril 15, 2015 6:33 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71736>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bauer blogs. <http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/2015/04/new-donor/>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
“Political Intelligence Regulation: Insights into Senator Grassley’s
Call for Legislation” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71733>
Posted onApril 15, 2015 6:29 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71733>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Jason Abel and Scott Snider write
<http://www.steptoe.com/publications-10391.html>.
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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“How to shine a light on dark money”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71731>
Posted onApril 15, 2015 6:19 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71731>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Larry Norden and Daniel Weiner
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/how-obama-could-shine-light-dark-money>at MSNBC.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
“Remarkable Virginia IT Agency Report Details Reasons for WinVote
Decertification” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71729>
Posted onApril 15, 2015 6:17 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71729>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
A ChapinBlog.
<http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/electionacademy/2015/04/remarkable_virginia_it_agency.php>
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,voting technology
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>
“Clinton calls for constitutional amendment on campaign finance”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71727>
Posted onApril 14, 2015 5:49 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71727>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The Hill reports.
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/238808-clinton-calls-for-constitutional-amendment-on-campaign>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Town of Mamakating, Village of Bloomingburg Charge Shalom Lamm with
Racketeering In Federal Court” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71725>
Posted onApril 14, 2015 1:22 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71725>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Press release via email:
In a damning federal lawsuit filed today, two Hudson Valley
communities argue that Shalom Lamm, a real estate developer seeking
to take control of local government for his personal benefit, has
engaged in racketeering activity consisting of repeated instances of
deception, corruption, bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, and voter
fraud. The suit goes on to assert that, to secure his hold on local
government and to divert attention away from his actions, Lamm has
engaged in repeated lawsuits in which he has made false claims of
anti-Semitism to mislead would-be sympathizers and intimidate local
government officials and agencies.
The Town of Mamakating and the Village of Bloomingburg located
within it filed their complaint with the federal court in the
Southern District of New York. The complaint details allegations of
a pattern of racketeering committed over nearly a decade through
lies and deceit, in order to construct a disputed high-density
housing development. Allegations include that Lamm secretly
purchased large parcels of land, using local resident Duane Roe as
his front man. Roe then made fraudulent representations about
building a 125-unit luxury weekender golf course community to
convince local officials to have the small Village of Bloomingburg
annex the targeted land from the Town of Mamakating, and to acquire
permitting and zoning approvals over it. The complaint describes
how, after annexation, Lamm then sought to take control of local
government to pass additional regulations that benefitted the
racketeering enterprise.
In fact, the suit claims, Lamm’s real project was to build a
year-round high-density development nearly triple the size at 400
units. Lamm bribed key government officials to ensure his project
went through. But for the fraud and bribery, the permitting and
approvals would not have been obtained. Furthermore, the complaint
asserts that Lamm has secured a monopoly over access to water and
municipal sewer services in and around Bloomingburg which will
paralyze any efforts at development other than Lamm’s.
The lawsuit centers on allegations of racketeering, opening with:
“The Town and Village are presently under siege in a hostile
takeover spearheaded by a racketeering enterprise headed by Shalom
Lamm and Kenneth Nakdimen. These men have attempted to exert power
and influence in a variety of schemes with the sole goal of
controlling these municipalities for the benefit of the racketeering
enterprise which they head.
“Lamm and Nakdimen, and the other defendants named herein, have
acted through highly sophisticated covert and overt schemes of
fraud, bribery, intimidation, and corruptly influencing public
officials and governmental institutions – all in violation of state
law and the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
(“R.I.C.O.”) Act.”
Included among the defendants are: Shalom Lamm, Kenneth Nakdimen,
Duane Roe, Mark Berentsen, Sullivan Farms II, Inc., Raymond Farms,
LLC., Bloomingburg Rentals, LLC., and a number of known
co-conspirators who are claimed to have illegally registered to vote
in Bloomingburg elections.
“Through corruption and deceit, Defendants have manipulated elected
officials and the democratic process to do their bidding and further
the racketeering enterprise,” said attorney David Clifford Holland,
Esq. “Defendants have led a campaign of voter fraud and advanced
real estate development that would negatively impact the natural
environment and overrun the limited resources of the 420-resident
Village of Bloomingburg. “Hiding such criminality behind artificial
claims of anti-Semitism in an effort to bully, intimidate and
benefit personally is unethical and appalling. The complaint reveals
the extent of the racketeering enterprise’s influence and
machinations…so far.”
The suit explains how defendants Lamm, Nakdimen and Roe used the
entity Sullivan Farms II, Inc. as “the core vehicle of the
racketeering enterprise … to wage a sinister and covert campaign to
benefit themselves and the enterprise by ultimately destroying true
democratic rule and the institutions of the Town of Mamakating and
the Village of Bloomingburg.”
Plaintiffs continue to seek integrity in the local voting process
and prosecutions for voting fraud that has become systemic. At the
end of March, after Sullivan County District Attorney James Farrell
failed for the third time to prosecute those who cast ballots in
local elections even after they were found by the Sullivan County
Board of Elections to be ineligible to vote, Mamakating and
Bloomingburg officials called on New York Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman to independently investigate the claims of election
fraud and to halt any further action in two elections in which the
final outcome hinges solely on the issue of whether ineligible
ballots were unlawfully included in the final tally.
The first election was a September 30, 2014 special election on the
dissolution of Bloomingburg, in which 85 village residents voted in
favor of the referendum for the Village to be dissolved and placed
under Mamakating’s jurisdiction. That majority favoring dissolution
was overcome by the inclusion of ineligible votes into the voting
pool, and consequently, the referendum was defeated. The second was
the March 18, 2015 general election for Village trustee, the results
of which were contaminated through ineligible voter registrations.
Attorney General Schneiderman has not yet responded.
“When public officials are bribed and corrupted, our democracy is
stolen from us,” said attorney Philip T. Simpson, Esq., of the firm
of Robinson Brog Leinwand Greene Genovese & Gluck, P.C. “When ballot
boxes are stuffed and people’s votes are made worthless, our
democracy is stolen from us. Either way, the entire community
suffers because decisions large and small are not made in the
interest of the community, but in the interest of those who would
steal our democracy. The allegations of this lawsuit detail a long
pattern of bribery, corruption, fraud, and stealing of elections.
It’s critical that those who perpetrated these acts, which would
completely uproot our democracy, be prosecuted by the Attorney
General or U.S. Attorney before it is too late.”
The full case can be found online
<https://www.dropbox.com/s/cazb7828nmz84ua/COMPLAINT.PDF?dl=0>.
[Corrected link] Attorneys David Holland and Philip Simpson are
available to discuss the details of the case.
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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“E&E Legal Releases a Sierra Club Unearthed Report on Green Groups
Record-Breaking Spending on the 2014 Elections; Precious Resources
Used to Buy Campaign Ads Instead of Helping the Local Environment”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71723>
Posted onApril 14, 2015 1:20 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71723>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Press release
<http://0z37.mj.am/nl/0z37/s9740.html?a=fIW4D9&b=36b8f404&c=0z37&d=7df4ec8f&e=e0a790c8&email=jha5%40case.edu>:
Today, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), a 501
(c) (3) watchdog group,released an investigatory report analyzing
the money green groups spent on the 2014 elections
<http://www.sierraclubunearthed.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/SCU-Politics-Report.pdf>.
The report was released through E&E Legal’s recently launched
special project,Sierra Club Unearthed
<http://www.sierraclubunearthed.org/>, which is an investigatory
portal aimed at revealing the extent to which a small group of
national hacks have hijacked the Sierra Club and have used it for
their own financial and political purposes.
The report details how green groups, including the Sierra Club,
League of Conservation Voters, and the Environmental Defense Action
Fund – to name a few – spent an unprecedented amount of money during
the 2014 election cycle supporting leftwing candidates for the U.S.
Senate, U.S. House, and state, and local candidates with virtually
nothing to show for it once all the ballots were cast. As the report
notes, “The largest and most visible groups, counting only money
directly spent on electioneering, bragged about spending upwards of
$85 million dollars for the midterms,” which is probably a
significant underestimation when you consider other types of
non-direct campaign spending such as phone banks, and
get-out-the-vote efforts. $40 million of this money was a failed
attempt at maintaining the Democrats majority in the U.S. Senate.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“Alabama and Albany Minority Voters Get Wins”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71721>
Posted onApril 14, 2015 9:36 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71721>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Goldfeder and Perez write.
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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Hillary Clinton has been outspoken on voting rights”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71719>
Posted onApril 14, 2015 7:52 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=71719>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Zack Roth
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/voting-rights-hillary-clinton-has-been-outspoken?cid=sm_tw_msnbc>for
MSNBC.
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Posted inThe Voting Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>,Voting
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>
--
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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