[EL] Is FEC dysfunction new?

Wed May 6 09:12:36 PDT 2015

I enjoyed Franz's analysis.

Attached is my latest update on the FEC deadlocked votes. It shows that the FEC dysfunction began in 2008 and continues today, when the number of deadlocked votes increased many-fold over the agency's entire previous history, and the caseload just as dramatically dropped.

Attachment.

Craig Holman, Ph.D.
Government Affairs Lobbyist
Public Citizen
215 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
T-(202) 454-5182
C-(202) 905-7413
F-(202) 547-7392
Holman at aol.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>
To: Steve Hoersting <hoersting at gmail.com>; law-election <law-election at uci.edu>
Sent: Wed, May 6, 2015 11:02 am
Subject: Re: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/6/15

 Hadn't seen it (WSJ offerings often do not turn up in my google news searches).  Please send along the link for everyone. 

On 5/6/15 7:59 AM, Steve Hoersting wrote:  

Hello, Rick,

If you're going to ding McGahn for following the law, at least include his piece, of today, in the WSJ ... in the ELB News and Commentary offerings.

(And, by the way, ELB News and Commentary happens to be the subject of my post; the subject line doesn't need changing)

Best, and good morning,

Steve

On May 6, 2015 10:50 AM, "Rick Hasen" <   rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:   

“Cash flows in year of SuperPAC 2.0″

       Posted on        May 6, 2015 7:48 am        by Rick Hasen      

Tarini Parti for Politico:

The 2016 presidential race has already become the super PAC 2.0 election.
 The election will likely break all outside spending records, but it’s the experimental nature of how that money is raised and spent that will have a lasting effect on future elections.

>From the types of committees created to the timing and number of outside money vehicles involved, with billionaire donors now watching more closely than ever before, supporters of presidential hopefuls have added innovative twists to how they raise and spend outside money. They are going one step beyond the model supporters of President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney used in 2012 – the first presidential election that used super PACs.

      Posted in campaign finance     

“Voter ID Nonsense”

       Posted on        May 6, 2015 7:45 am        by Rick Hasen      

Toledo Blade editorial:

Ohioans face serious threats to the integrity of our democracy: income inequality, partisan gerrymandering, big-money politics. Voter fraud is not among these threats.

Yet rather than address such pressing concerns, Republicans in the state House are again taking up a bill that would require Ohioans to present photo identification when they vote. This unnecessary measure would do nothing to make elections more secure. But it would do much to keep voters, especially poor and minority Ohioans, away from the polls.

      Posted in election administration, The Voting Wars, voter id     

“Williams-Yulee — The Ruling Few Expected . . . & the One Few Will Remember”

       Posted on        May 6, 2015 7:42 am        by Rick Hasen      

More Ron Collins on Williams-Yulee.

      Posted in judicial elections, Supreme Court     

Neuborne on Williams-Yulee

       Posted on        May 6, 2015 7:40 am        by Rick Hasen      

Here at ACS.

      Posted in campaign finance, federal election commission     

Bertrall Ross Reviews Robert Post’s Citizens Divided Book in Michigan Law Review

       Posted on        May 6, 2015 7:36 am        by Rick Hasen      

Here.

      Posted in campaign finance, Supreme Court     

Is FEC Dysfunction New?

       Posted on        May 6, 2015 7:34 am        by Rick Hasen      

NYT reports on record low fines at the FEC.

For those who responded to Eric Lichtblau’s earlier report by saying that the FEC was always gridlocked and dysfunctional, it’s just not true.  It never had great enforcement powers, but there was much more cooperation on rulemaking, and much more agreement on enforcement matters.  (Here’s some evidence from Michael Franz.)

In my view, we can trace origins of the new era of dysfunction to Don McGahn.

It is an ideological split, in the sense that Republican commissioners consistently vote for less regulation and Democrats for more, but it is partisan in the sense that Republicans tend to believe that deregulation works in their favor and Democrats believe it works against them. The two cannot be separated.

      Posted in campaign finance, federal election commission     

“Denver Shows Off ‘Ballot Delivery’ System to National Audience”

       Posted on        May 6, 2015 7:22 am        by Rick Hasen      

A ChapinBlog (with great pic).

      Posted in election administration     

“Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee; Progressives have successfully transformed the First Amendment’s restrictions on government into an instrument of government speech control.”

       Posted on        May 6, 2015 7:19 am        by Rick Hasen      

Paul Jossey writes for The Federalist.

      Posted in campaign finance, Supreme Court     

Mike Huckabee Jokingly Breaks Federal Election Law

       Posted on        May 5, 2015 7:33 pm        by Rick Hasen      

WSJ:

Mr. Huckabee said his campaign would be funded by “working people who will find out that $15 and $25 a month contributions can take us from Hope to higher ground,” he said, a reference to Hope, Ark., where he was speaking. But, he cracked: “Rest assured, if you want to give a million dollars, please do it.”

That’s illegal whether he’s asking for his own committee (limited to $2,700 per election) or for a Super PAC (which can take unlimited donations, but per FEC rule a candidate cannot ask for someone to donate more than $5,000 to a Super PAC).

      Posted in campaign finance, campaigns     

“Register Minority Voters in Georgia, Go to Jail”

       Posted on        May 5, 2015 3:42 pm        by Rick Hasen      

Spencer Woodman reports for TNR.  It includes this:

Last month, Brian Kemp told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that his elections director, Linda Ford, was resigning at his request because of a “technical error” that caused nearly 8,000 voters to be improperly removed from the rolls. “It was an honest mistake by a hard-working person and, unfortunately, she has to pay the price,” Kemp said.

In response to questions about Ford’s resignation, Kemp’s office provided me with a 60-page report detailing the findings an internal investigation into the incident. It found the cancellation of the thousands of voters “could be a potential violation” of the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law meant to help ensure equal access to the ballot box. The law requires that a state cannot move voters off the rolls within 90 days of an election. Kemp’s office had struck thousands of voters, mostly in Georgia’s Richmond County, from the rolls six days past this key federal deadline.

Kemp has called the issue “very serious.” But in public statements, he elided the fact that his own office may have violated federal law. Instead, he has emphasized that the action was a mistake. The report his office released to me states that the matter was discovered only after Project Vote, a non-profit group that seeks to increase voter participation among low-income and minority voters, requested a related records.

      Posted in election administration, NVRA (motor voter), The Voting Wars, voter registration     

-- 
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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-- 
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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