[EL] ELB News and Commentary 8/9/16

[Rick Hasen]

New Wake Co. NC Election Bd Member Tries to Eliminate Sunday Voting, University Polling Place<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85117>
Posted on August 8, 2016 8:27 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85117> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Unreal.<http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article94479222.html> Hitting the ground running by making it harder to vote:

The move followed an attempt by the board’s newest member, Eddie Woodhouse, to reverse decisions the board made in June to hold early voting on Sundays and open an early-voting site at N.C. State University. Woodhouse motioned to eliminate both, but his effort failed.

Woodhouse is a Republican and former Raleigh City Council candidate who replaced former chairman Brian Ratledge, who recently resigned. The N.C. Board of Elections appointed Woodhouse during an emergency meeting late Sunday night in response to an order by U.S. District Court Judge James Dever III to fill the vacant seat.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Voting Fight Shifts to Local Level In North Carolina”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85113>
Posted on August 8, 2016 8:20 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85113> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Zach Roth reports<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/voting-fight-shifts-local-level-north-carolina-n625751> for NBC News.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>, Voting Rights Act<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


Americans Elect Sorta Rises from the Dead<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85111>
Posted on August 8, 2016 8:15 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85111> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Talk about Quixotic.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/08/08/new-super-pac-launching-to-support-evan-mcmullins-independent-white-house-bid/>
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“McAuliffe taking a slower approach to rights restoration in Virginia”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85109>
Posted on August 8, 2016 8:14 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85109> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcauliffe-taking-a-slower-approach-to-rights-restoration-in-virginia/2016/08/08/c30ea3de-5d84-11e6-9d2f-b1a3564181a1_story.html>:

Armed with an autopen, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said two weeks ago that he had all he needed to swiftly but individually restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons.

But McAuliffe (D) has since decided that he needs something else: time….

McAuliffe’s spokesman, Brian Coy, said the governor is taking the time necessary to make sure the rights-restoration orders are handled properly.

“The headline here is, ‘Governor ensures process is correct,’ ” Coy said. “We’re making sure we fully comply with the court’s order, making sure he’s done a review of the individuals in question here, and then he will take action.”
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Posted in felon voting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>


“Robbin Stewart: Letter on voter ID statute factually wrong”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85106>
Posted on August 8, 2016 11:53 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85106> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Oped:<http://www.grandforksherald.com/opinion/op-ed-columns/4087975-robbin-stewart-letter-voter-id-statute-factually-wrong>

A recent letter in this paper by Indiana congressman Todd Rokita contains a few factual errors and speculative claims that I take issue with, as one of the former Indiana voters who has had his vote stolen by Rokita’s unconstitutional voter ID statute.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Think Tank Scholar or Corporate Consultant? It Depends on the Day”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85104>
Posted on August 8, 2016 10:40 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85104> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The latest <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/us/politics/think-tank-scholars-corporate-consultants.html?smid=tw-share> in the must-read NYT series.
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Posted in conflict of interest laws<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=20>


“On Voting, Courts Stepping Up to Responsibilities”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85101>
Posted on August 8, 2016 10:16 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85101> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jost on Justice.<http://jostonjustice.blogspot.com/2016/08/on-voting-courts-stepping-up-to.html>
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Final Version of My “Reining in the Purcell Principle” Article Now Available<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85099>
Posted on August 8, 2016 9:57 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85099> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Just in time for the 7th Circuit to consider softening Wisconsin’s voter id law and the Supreme Court to consider North Carolina’s law, here’s the final version of my paper, Richard L. Hasen, Reining in the Purcell Principle, 43 FSU L. Rev. 427 (2016)<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2545676>  [corrected link] (part of a great election law symposium, about to be released by the Florida State University Law Review).  The paper concerns whether court-ordered changes to voting rules come too late in the voting process to be implemented this election, as understood as part of the Supreme Court’s approach to these cases in the “shadow docket.” Here is the abstract:

About a month before the 2014 election, the United States Supreme Court issued a series of four extraordinary orders in election law cases. Without any explanation, the Court: stayed a district court order which would have required Ohio to restore extra days of early voting; stayed a Fourth Circuit order (partially reversing a district court) which would have restored same day voter registration and the counting of certain provisional ballots in North Carolina; vacated a Seventh Circuit stay of a district court order barring Wisconsin from implementing its new strict voter identification law; and refused to vacate a Fifth Circuit stay of a district court order which would have barred Texas from continuing to use its new strict voter identification law. The district court, after a trial on the merits, had declared Texas’s law unconstitutional and in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

The orders appeared contradictory, for example by allowing strict voter identification requirements to be used on Election Day 2014 in Texas but not Wisconsin. But the apparent common thread was the Supreme Court’s application of “the Purcell principle:” the idea that courts should not issue orders which change election rules in the period just before the election. This idea has appeared in earlier Supreme Court cases, most prominently in Purcell v. Gonzalez, a 2006 short per curiam case in which the Court vacated a Ninth Circuit injunction which had temporarily blocked use of Arizona’s strict new voter identification law. In this symposium Article, I argue the Supreme Court should rein in the Purcell principle. Certainly the potential for voter confusion and electoral chaos raise a strong public interest argument against last minute changes in election rules. But under normal Supreme Court remedial standards for considering stays and injunctions, the effect of a court order on the public interest is only one factor to consider. Although the precise test the Court uses in these emergency situations is somewhat fluid and uncertain, there is no doubt that ordinarily the Court considers the likelihood of success on the merits and relative hardship to the parties as two crucial factors in deciding whether to grant or vacate a stay or impose an injunction. By making the Purcell principle paramount, the Court runs the risk of issuing orders which can disenfranchise voters or impose significant burdens on election administrators for no good reason. Had the Court applied all the ordinary appropriate factors for emergency relief to the four 2014 election cases, in addition to special concerns attendant in election cases, there is a strong argument it would have reached a different decision in at least the Texas case and potentially in the North Carolina case.

Part I of this Article explains the tests the Court applies in considering emergency stays and related orders, arguing that the Purcell principle should properly be understood not as a stand-alone rule but instead as relevant to one of the factors (the public interest) the Court usually considers. Part II applies the proper standards to the four 2014 emergency election cases considered by the Supreme Court, arguing that the Court got it wrong in at least the Texas case and possibly in the North Carolina case. Part III briefly argues that, regardless of whether the Supreme Court agrees with this call to rein in the Purcell principle, the Court should issue opinions, even weeks or months after the Court acts in an emergency elections case, explaining its reasoning. Such opinions would provide valuable guidance to lower courts considering election cases and help legitimize the Court’s actions by making them more transparent. It also might discipline the Justices to decide controversial cases more consistently.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Lawyers’ Committee Files Major Lawsuit Against Gwinnett County, Georgia Alleging Violation of the Voting Rights Act”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85097>
Posted on August 8, 2016 9:47 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85097> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New Section 2 suit.<https://lawyerscommittee.org/press-release/lawyers-committee-files-major-lawsuit-gwinnett-county-georgia-alleging-violation-voting-rights-act/>
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Widespread Hack of U.S. Voting Machines ‘Highly Unlikely'”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85095>
Posted on August 8, 2016 9:45 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85095> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bloomberg BNA reports.<http://www.bna.com/widespread-hack-us-n73014445841/>
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


--
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<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>
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