[EL] ELB News and Commentary 12/22/16

Wed Dec 21 16:45:21 PST 2016

Blogging Break and Happy Holidays!<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90166>
Posted on December 21, 2016 4:43 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90166> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Blogging will be light through New Year’s–-regular ELB News and Commentary mailings for Election Law listserv members will resume on January 3.
Once again it has been a busy year for the Election Law Blog and, with all the surprises of 2016, who knows what 2017 will bring?  I certainly didn’t expect to be covering so much on the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause of all things.
I was honored that the Election Law Blog remains in the ABA Journal‘s “Blawg 100” Hall of Fame<http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/2013_blawg_100_hall_of_fame>.
2016 saw the publication of my new book, Plutocrats United<http://www.amazon.com/Plutocrats-United-Campaign-Distortion-Elections/dp/0300212453/ref=la_B0089NJCR2_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430416698&sr=1-7>. I had great discussions on a book tour in the winter and spring.
I have a number of projects in the works for 2017, and if all goes very well, I hope a new book will appear in the upcoming year.
In addition, the 6th edition of the Election Law casebook (with Lowenstein, Tokaji, and Stephanopoulos) will be out for the fall, as will the 4th edition of my Remedies: Examples and Explanations book.
I wish all my readers a safe, healthy, and happy 2017.
Below the fold you’ll find a list of articles and opeds that I’ve published (or that were released in draft) in 2016. I have also listed this year’s ELB podcasts. Thanks for reading (and listening)!
Continue reading →<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90166#more-90166>
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Virtually no fraud in U.S. vote”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90178>
Posted on December 21, 2016 3:58 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90178> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
News and Observer editorial:<http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article122312654.html>
Despite their considerable victories in November’s elections, Republicans have lost badly on one issue – voter fraud.
Republican-led states, most notably North Carolina, have passed laws preventing people from voting in the name of another or registering people who are not eligible to vote, even as those restrictions made it harder or impossible for thousands of eligible voters to cast a vote. It’s a necessary protection, Republicans maintain. Indeed President-elect Donald Trump tweeted that “millions” of people voted illegally.
More than a month after the general election, a fine combing of the results shows what opponents of restrictive voting laws have always contended: voting fraud is a myth used to justify the suppression of voters likely to vote Democratic.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“National legal writing expert applies ‘plain-English’ principles to California reform project”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90176>
Posted on December 21, 2016 3:11 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90176> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Wow, Prof. Bryan Garner helping to make<http://cafwd.org/reporting/entry-new/national-legal-writing-expert-applies-plain-english-principles-to-californi> the California Political Reform Act readable.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“The failed electoral-college rebellion bodes ill for future elections”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90174>
Posted on December 21, 2016 2:46 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90174> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Steven Mazie<http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2016/12/dangerous-gambit?fsrc=rss> for the Economist:
The failure of the rebellion will not be more than a footnote to the 2016 presidential election. Yet it may leave an enduring legacy. The campaign waged by Mr Lessig and others encouraged electors to think for themselves rather than feel bound to represent the winning candidate in their states. Thousands of e-mails and hundreds of letters to electors urged them to pick someone—anyone—other than Mr Trump. “You are not cogs”, Mr Lessig beseeched electors. The duty to uphold the elector pledge, he said, is “not your only moral obligation. You also have an obligation to the Constitution. And to your fellow citizens. And to your God. And to yourself.” It is fine to be a rubber stamp in typical election years, Mr Lessig wrote. In 56 presidential elections, “we haven’t needed” electors to exercise “judgment”. But, he implored, “we do now”.
Here we find a mantra among instigators of the failed electoral coup: this election is different. Mr Trump represents a unique threat to the American republic. The electoral college should thumb its nose at democratic laws and norms as an emergency measure to save the union. This time only. When a Trumpian figure is not on the ballot, there will be no need for the electors to take such radical measures to prevent America from sliding into the abyss.
This point contains a deep fallacy. Once the electoral college is untethered from its traditional role as rubber stamp of the state results, there is no way to pin back its power. Mr Lessig and his political allies may not view elections to come as appropriate times for electors to rebel, and they may have excellent reasons for electors to stay even-tempered and dutiful in those contests. But other voices may drown out the law professors’ carefully reasoned appeals. And once the principle is established that electors are self-justifying sources of their own political scruples, the question of when to revolt no longer lies in commentators’ hands. Whether to ratify or to rebel becomes the province of the individual elector. And while it will remain highly unlikely, for various reasons, that dozens of electors will flip their votes in any particular election, the 2016 experience shows that a half-dozen or so is a live possibility, and a concerted effort could easily attract more.
That tantalising fact makes it much more likely that future close elections will be an exercise in elector-courting
(h/t Bainbridge<http://www.professorbainbridge.com/professorbainbridgecom/2016/12/lessig-levinson-et-al-may-have-ruined-american-elections.html>)
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Posted in electoral college<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>

Hawaii Democrats and Montana Republicans File Cert Petitions Challenging Mandatory Open Primaries<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90170>
Posted on December 21, 2016 2:30 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90170> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Hawaii petition<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Hawaii-open.pdf>
Montana petition<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/montana-open.pdf>
This could well get taken up by the new Supreme Court.
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Posted in political parties<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, primaries<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

--
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
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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