[EL] VA voter id case decided; more news

Tue Dec 13 10:32:33 PST 2016

4th Circuit Unanimously Rejects Challenge to VA Voter ID Law<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89933>
Posted on December 13, 2016 10:19 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89933> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
You can find the 37-page opinion at this link<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/va-voter-id-4th.pdf>. It concludes:
At bottom, just as Congress in HAVA found it beneficial to the voting process and the public perception of the voting process to require photo IDs, and just as the Carter-Baker Commission found similarly, Virginia found it beneficial to require photo identification in all elections. Moreover, Virginia took numerous steps to mitigate any burdens that this requirement might impose on voters, suggesting that a benign purpose underlay SB 1256’s enactment. It allowed a broad scope of acceptable forms of identification, which included most IDs that citizens have and that are reasonably reliable; it allowed citizens attempting to vote without identification to cast provisional ballots and then cure their identification deficiency within three days; it provided those citizens who lacked photo identification a free photo ID without the need to present any documentation; and it provided assistance to citizens expressing difficulty in obtaining free IDs. In sum, not only does the substance of SB 1256 not impose an undue burden on minority voting, there was no evidence to suggest racially discriminatory intent in the law’s enactment. The judgment of the district court is accordingly AFFIRMED.
The result here is no surprise. The VA law is much less strict than other laws which had been put in place in places like NC and Texas. I was surprised when plaintiffs brought this case.
Worth remembering that it was the Obama DOJ which precleared<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/justice-department-upholds-virginia-voter-id-law/2012/08/20/76d609f6-eb2a-11e1-a80b-9f898562d010_blog.html?utm_term=.61b7700c15f2> Virginia’s voter id law (back when preclearance was a thing).
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Posted in election 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>

“Voter ID, FOIA legislation fall off Michigan’s lame duck agenda”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89931>
Posted on December 13, 2016 10:12 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89931> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
MLive:<http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/12/voter_id_foia_changes_fall_off.html>
House-passed changes to voter ID and FOIA laws will be left on the cutting room floor this lame-duck session, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, confirmed.
The House last week passed fast-moving bills<http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/11/lame_duck_bills_would_change_m.html> that would have tightened the state’s voting ID requirements. Currently voters who are registered but do not have a voter ID can fill out an affidavit attesting to their identity and then vote.
House Bills 6066<http://legislature.mi.gov/%28S%28xcobnx3njvuljruez11v4j05%29%29/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectname=2016-HB-6066> proposed letting those voters vote with a provisional ballot. That ballot would only be counted if the voter returned to their clerk’s office within 10 days to show either a photo ID or present evidence they are either indigent and can’t afford an ID or have a religious objection to having their photo taken.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

True the Vote: “Great Days are Ahead”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89928>
Posted on December 13, 2016 7:46 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89928> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The group expresses extreme optimism about what’s coming up from the Trump Administration in terms of making it harder to register and vote:
[creen-shot-2016-12-13-at-7-45-26-am]<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2016-12-13-at-7.45.26-AM.png>
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“RNC keeps close tabs on Electoral College vote; GOP effort makes sure Republican electors don’t go wobbly on Trump.”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89926>
Posted on December 13, 2016 7:20 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89926> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Politico:<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/rnc-trump-electoral-college-232537>
The Republican National Committee is overseeing an expansive whip operation designed to lock down Donald Trump’s Electoral College majority and ensure that the 306 Republican electors cast their votes for the president-elect.
Two RNC sources familiar with the effort said the committee — with the assistance of state Republican parties and the Trump campaign — have been in touch with most of the GOP electors multiple times, and has concluded that only one is a risk to cast a vote against Trump on Dec. 19, when the Electoral College meets.
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, electoral college<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>

“Why J&J, Merck back GOP opponents of birth control they’re selling”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89924>
Posted on December 13, 2016 7:16 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89924> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.<http://why%20j%26j%2C%20merck%20back%20gop%20opponents%20of%20birth%20control%20they%27re%20selling/>
Two New Jersey companies among the biggest sellers of contraceptives have helped elect Republican governors and legislatures trying to restrict funding for birth control.
Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co. and their trade association contributed more than $4 million from 2011 to 2016 to the Republican Governors Association and the Republican State Legislative Committee, Internal Revenue Service filings show.
Those groups helped secure GOP majorities in 14 states <https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2016/07/laws-affecting-reproductive-health-and-rights-state-trends-midyear-2016> that from July 2015 to July 2016 tried to exclude groups such as Planned Parenthood from receiving funds for family planning or related expenditures, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and advocacy group that supports abortion rights and access to birth control. Only court intervention prevented some of those bans from going into effect.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Russia’s role is shocking but there’s no evidence the vote was hacked”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89922>
Posted on December 13, 2016 7:13 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89922> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Josh Douglas CNN oped.<http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/12/opinions/russia-role-shocking-but-not-hacked-douglas/index.html>
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Trump postpones decision on business dealings”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89920>
Posted on December 13, 2016 7:09 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89920> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
USA Today:<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/12/12/donald-trump-business-news-conference/95356596/>
Donald Trump is postponing a news conference designed to announce plans on how to handle his business interests amid concerns that they pose conflict of interest problems for his presidency, Trump transition officials said Monday.
While Trump had said he would speak to the matter on Thursday, aides said he will now wait until January to outline how he would pass control of his company to others….
Ethics watchdogs have repeatedly called on Trump to divest his interests in his far-flung real-estate and branding empire to avoid potential conflicts with his presidency.
“Let’s hope he takes the additional time to do the right thing, follow every president for the past four decades, and divest into a blind trust or the equivalent,” said Norm Eisen, who served as President Obama’s top ethics lawyer and has been among the leading voices calling for Trump to divest.
Eisen has argued repeatedly that Trump’s web of companies with interests from Turkey to India could ensnare the Trump administration in scandal.
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Posted in conflict of interest laws<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=20>

Stein Campaign Claims “Every Dollar” Raised for Recount Went to Recount Expenses<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89918>
Posted on December 13, 2016 7:05 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89918> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Press release via email:
Every dollar spent from the $7.3 million raised has been used to pay for costs associated with the recounts, which currently total $7,435,471. Current estimates of the cost breakdown is as follows:
SPENDING CATEGORY                                                                   COST                     PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL

State filing fees:                                                                               $4,488,939                           60%
                                Wisconsin:          $3,499,689
                                Michigan:            $973,250
                                Pennsylvania:    $16,000*
Legal expenses for recount:                                                        $1,630,200                           22%
Legal expenses for ongoing litigation:                                     $150,000                              2%
Payments to recount observers & volunteer costs:          $86,214                 1%
Staff payroll:                                                                                      $212,500                              3%
Consultants:                                                                                       $364,000                              5%
(E.g. election experts, communications support)
Administrative expenses:                                                            $353,618                              5%
(E.g. office and travel costs and donation processing fees)
Compliance costs:                                                                            $150,000                              2%

*Note: the Stein campaign’s initial fundraising target for PA was $500,000, which covered requisite filing fees and associated notary costs. The actual number, however, was lowered due to Pennsylvania’s bottom-up process, which required 27,000 voters in 9,000-plus precincts to submit official, notarized petitions to county boards, in time for shifting, divergent and secret deadlines known, in order to start a statewide recount.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Activists Brace for Fight Over Campaign Finance Law”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89916>
Posted on December 13, 2016 7:03 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89916> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Roll Call:<http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/campaign-finance-republicans-reshape>
Key Republicans, in fact, have already begun laying the groundwork to dramatically reshape campaign finance laws: Sen. Ted Cruz<http://data.rollcall.com/members/44748?rel=memberLink> of Texas and Rep. Mark Meadows<http://data.rollcall.com/members/44624?rel=memberLink> of North Carolina said last month that they will introduce legislation next year that would let a single donor contribute as much as he or she wanted to the candidate of their choice.
The bill would erase caps — which currently limit donors from giving more than $2,700 to individual general election candidates — that have existed since 1974.
Even its supporters acknowledge that such a sweeping overhaul faces long odds of congressional approval. But major changes, experts and advocates say, are now more likely to come through the legislative process than at any time since 2002, when Congress approved the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (known as “McCain-Feingold”).

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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Georgia, DHS At Odds After Alleged Attempted “Hack””<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89914>
Posted on December 13, 2016 7:01 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=89914> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
A ChapinBlog.<http://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2016/12/13/georgia-dhs-at-odds-after-alleged-attempted-hack/>
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>

--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
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rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
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http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>
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