[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/15/16
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Fri Apr 15 06:42:29 PDT 2016
“RNC tells Trump: Delegate process ‘easy to understand for those
willing to learn it’” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81917>
Posted onApril 15, 2016 6:35 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81917>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo reports.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/04/15/rnc-tells-trump-delegate-process-easy-to-understand-for-those-willing-to-learn-it/>
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Posted inpolitical parties
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>,primaries
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>
“Proof-of-citizenship registration requirement is blatant voter
suppression” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81915>
Posted onApril 15, 2016 6:33 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81915>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
LAT editorial.
<http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-voter-registration-20160415-story.html>
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,Election Assistance Commission
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=34>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
“Ambition and Ambiguity” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81913>
Posted onApril 15, 2016 6:31 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81913>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bauer blogs
<http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/2016/04/ambition-ambiguity/>on the FEC.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,federal
election commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>
“Lawsuit filed in Senate District 10 race”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81911>
Posted onApril 15, 2016 6:29 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81911>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Great Falls Tribune:
<http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/local/2016/04/14/lawsuit-filed-senate-district-race/83060738/>
Republican state Senate candidate J.C. Kantorowicz filed a lawsuit
against Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl and
Attorney General Tim Fox on Thursday claiming that his First
Amendment rights to criticize his opponent are muzzled by a state
law that he described as an “incumbent protection act.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Helena, arises from a
complaint filed Monday with the COPP office by Steven Fitzpatrick, a
Republican now serving in the state Legislature who is running
against fellow Republican Kantorowicz in the June 7 primary for
state Senate District 10.
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Posted incampaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“Clinton: Sanders’ ‘Phony’ Attack On Campaign Finance Is Attack On
Obama” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81909>
Posted onApril 15, 2016 6:28 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81909>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
TPM reports.
<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clinton-sanders-attack-super-pac-finance-attack-obama-debate>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“McDonnell’s lawyers urge Supreme Court to reject ‘sweeping’ U.S.
theory of corruption law” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81907>
Posted onApril 15, 2016 6:20 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81907>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Richmond Times-Dispatch
<http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/article_526f8479-3eb9-5b3e-80ee-201733bfb6c1.html>:
The U.S. government’s view of federal corruption statues is “very
wrong,” lawyers for former Gov. Bob McDonnell argue in a brief filed
two weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court will hear his appeal.
The lawyers for McDonnell, Virginia’s governor from 2010 to 2014,
argue that the high court should reverse the appeals court decision,
set aside his convictions, invalidate the honest-services statute
and hold the Hobbs Act unconstitutional as applied.
“If Congress wants to vest unelected prosecutors with the
extraordinary power to police state and local ethics, it must speak
with far greater clarity than it has,” McDonnell’s lawyers write.
Boy Justice Scalia’s absence will really be felt in this case.
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Posted inbribery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=54>,chicanery
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“The new Gilded Age: Close to half of all super PAC money comes from
50 donors” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81905>
Posted onApril 15, 2016 6:17 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81905>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Must-read WaPo
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-new-gilded-age-close-to-half-of-all-super-pac-money-comes-from-50-donors/2016/04/15/63dc363c-01b4-11e6-9d36-33d198ea26c5_story.html?postshare=8751460721463296&tid=ss_tw>:
A small core of super-rich individuals are responsible for the
record sums cascading into the coffers of super PACs for the 2016
elections, a dynamic that harks back to the financing of
presidential campaigns in the Gilded Age.
Close to half of the money — 41 percent — raised by the groups by
the end of February came from just 50 mega-donors and their
relatives, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal
campaign finance reports.
In all, donors this cycle have given more than $607 million to 2,300
super PACs, which can accept unlimited contributions from
individuals and corporations. That means super PAC money is on track
to surpass the $828 million that theCenter for Responsive Politics
<http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2012&chrt=V&disp=O&type=S>found
was raised by such groups for the 2012 elections.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“Election year brings new focus to voter rights in courts,
legislatures” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81903>
Posted onApril 15, 2016 6:16 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81903>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Dave
Helling<http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article71946562.html>for
the KC Star:
Eric and Ivanka Trump learned this week they won’t be able to vote
for their dad, Donald, in New York’s primary Tuesday. They didn’t
register as Republicans in time.
Trump was philosophical. “They were, you know, unaware of the
rules,” he ruefully told Fox News.
The story prompted chuckles in some political and media circles. But
it also helped illustrate an ongoing truth:
In 2016, America’s state-based election laws can confuse even the
most interested voters.
From a federal courthouse in Kansas City, Kan., Thursday, to
Arizona and beyond, lawyers are arguing over how and when we vote.
Voting rules are a confusing, contradictory hodgepodge from state to
state and sometimes county to county, many experts say, often based
more on perceived political advantage than fair exercise of the
franchise.
Consider: You can cast an early ballot in Kansas, but not in
Missouri. You need a picture ID to vote in Texas, but not in
California. In Colorado you can register on Election Day; in
Arkansas, you must be on the registrar’s books 30 days before going
to the polls.
In Oregon, starting this year, voters are/automatically/registered
when they get a driver’s license or a state-issued identification
card, a law that could make 500,000 additional citizens eligible to
cast ballots. Voters in Oregon will be mailed a ballot, which they
can fill out and mail back.
New York, on the other hand, requires primary voters to register by
party months ahead of time — that’s what caused the Trumps’
headache. If the siblings lived in nearby New Hampshire they could
have easily cast ballots for the GOP front-runner in that state’s
primary.
“It is a patchwork,” said Jonathan Brater, an election expert at the
Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.
Voting requirements are even more confusing because state lawmakers
can’t resist the urge to tweak the rules in election years, often to
enhance the chances of electoral success for the party in power.
Last year, more than 100 bills were introduced across the country to
restrict access to registration or voting. At the same time, more than
400 bills were filed to/enhance/voter access.
Read more here:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article71946562.html#storylink=cpy
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
“Clinton and Sanders Campaigns to Sue Arizona Election Officials”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81901>
Posted onApril 15, 2016 6:14 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81901>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT reports.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/us/hillary-clinton-and-bernie-sanders-campaigns-to-sue-arizona-election-officials.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0>
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
“Democratic Party and Clinton campaign to sue Arizona over voting
rights” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81899>
Posted onApril 14, 2016 9:42 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81899>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Sari Horwitz
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-party-and-clinton-campaign-to-sue-arizona-over-voting-rights/2016/04/14/dadc4708-0188-11e6-b823-707c79ce3504_story.html>for
WaPo:
The Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign
will sue the state of Arizona over voter access to the polls after
the state’s presidential primary last month left thousands of
residents waiting as long as five hours to vote.
The lawsuit, which will be filed on Friday, focuses on Maricopa
County, the state’s most populous county, where voters faced the
longest lines three weeks ago during the Democratic and Republican
primaries after the county cut the number of polling places by 85
percent since 2008.
Arizona’s “alarmingly inadequate number of voting centers resulted
in severe, inexcusable burdens on voters county-wide, as well as the
ultimate disenfranchisement of untold numbers of voters who were
unable or unwilling to wait in intolerably long lines,” the lawsuit
says….
The Arizona case faces the tightest deadline, especially in light of
what is known as the Purcell doctrine from a Supreme Court case,
which states that courts should not issue an opinion in an election
case too close to Election Day if it will cause voter confusion.
“While it is April before a major election, the fact is that courts
know how to expedite cases such as this to ensure that the people of
Arizona receive the relief necessary to ensure that all their votes
count,” Elias said.
On the Purcell Principle, see my Reining in the Purcell
Principle,/Florida State University Law Review/(forthcoming 2016) (draft
available <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2545676>)
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The 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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