[EL] ELB News and Commentary 7/6/16

Wed Jul 6 10:07:25 PDT 2016

“California’s very long November ballot is now official — and it might get even longer”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84093>
Posted on July 6, 2016 10:04 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84093> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

John Myers<http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-november-ballot-propositions-certified-20160630-snap-story.html> for the LAT:

California elections officials announced Thursday that 17 measures have earned a spot on the Nov. 8 statewide ballot, a bumper crop of voter choices ranging from marijuana legalization to repeal of the death penalty and even new workplace rules for actors in adult movies.

It is the longest list of state propositions on a single ballot since March 2000<http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-november-ballot-measures-20160516-snap-story.html>, and could grow longer still as lawmakers consider placing three more measures on the ballot in August.
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, direct democracy<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=62>

“Questionable tax-free payments to Trump staffers raise ‘red flags'”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84091>
Posted on July 6, 2016 9:58 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84091> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNBC<http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/05/questionable-tax-free-payments-to-trump-staffers-give-experts-pause.html?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cheadline%7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=103758264&yptr=yahoo&ref=yfp>:

A series of filing anomalies point to a Donald Trump<http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/> camp that is either unaware of campaign finance law, or is actively funneling donors’ cash to insiders, according to several experts interviewed by CNBC.

These “red flags,” as one expert deemed them, include a total lack of disclosure on which vendors staffers for the presumptive Republican nominee are paying, an “unusual” six-figure payout to campaign staff for nontaxable expenses and what appeared to be double reimbursements for some employees’ expenses.

When asked about the apparently unusual filing practices, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email that “the report speaks for itself.”

But experts said that message was not entirely clear, and at the very least broke with long-established protocols — something that would be entirely keeping in character for one of the most surprising campaigns in the modern era.

“In my view, the situation is significant if (what) we are seeing is a pattern that reflects serious problems with the campaign,” Larry Noble, general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center who also worked for 13 years as Federal Election Commission general counsel, told CNBC. “If the report is speaking for itself, it’s not saying anything coherent.”
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“BPC Report Looks At ‘The New Realities Of Voting By Mail In 2016′”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84089>
Posted on July 6, 2016 9:54 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84089> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Doug Chapin<http://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2016/07/06/bpc-report-looks-at-the-new-realities-of-voting-by-mail-in-2016/>:

Regular readers of this blog will remember that the last year has seen a sharp uptick in stories about how issues with the U.S. Postal Service have begun to affect states’ and localities’ management of vote by mail ballots. Many of those officials have wondered what to do about it – and the Bipartisan Policy Center has just issued a new report<http://cdn.bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BPC-Voting-By-Mail.pdf> that examines the “new realities” of vote by mail and makes recommendations about how everyone involved can and should respond
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Posted in absentee ballots<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“A Campaign is Not a Personal Piggy Bank”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84087>
Posted on July 5, 2016 5:57 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84087> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs.<https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/campaign-not-personal-piggy-bank>
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“Los Angeles County Unveils New Voting System Prototype”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84085>
Posted on July 5, 2016 11:44 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84085> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Doug Chapin<http://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2016/07/05/los-angeles-county-unveils-new-voting-system-prototype/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HHHElections+%28The+Election+Academy%29>:

One of the most eagerly-anticipated projects in elections took another step forward last week as Los Angeles County, CA unveiled the prototype of the new voting system developed through its Voting System Assessment Project (VSAP). The LA Times has more<http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-county-voting-system-20160630-snap-story.html>.

Disclosure: I am a new member of the VSAP but I missed the unveiling of the prototype last week when I was travelling.
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Posted in voting technology<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>

“Free Webinar July 12: Supreme Court Redistricting Cases”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84083>
Posted on July 5, 2016 11:11 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84083> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Lisa Sorenen blogs<http://www.ncsl.org/blog/2016/07/05/free-webinar-july-12-supreme-court-redistricting-cases.aspx> about a webinar.  I’m one of the speakers.

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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

Mitt Romney on the Campaign Finance Mess<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84081>
Posted on July 5, 2016 10:18 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84081> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Speaking to John Dickerson at the Aspen Ideas Festival (via a transcript):

DICKERSON: You were known as a pretty good fund-raiser. Did you though enjoy it?  Is it something that if you could fix the system you would say, you know, we could really do without that because that’s 70 percent of the time, boy, I could be spending it meeting with those people or talking about policy?

ROMNEY: Look, it’s fun to be with fund-raisers because the people are gracious, they are supporting you, they are writing checks to you and it’s a wonderful thing, but it’s a bad part of politics.  And I’d far rather — as a person running for office, I’d far rather be out with voters and —

(Applause)

ROMNEY: — and trying to convince people why they should vote for me.  We’ve got a real mess.  I mean, I hope you realize it, but the combination of what the Constitution demands and also what Congress put in place with campaign finance reform is that campaigns are less and less responsible for the message of the candidate and these super PACs which are not run by the campaign or by the candidate are taking a larger and larger role.  And so there’s really no limit on campaign investing if you will, contribution.  There’s no limit basically at all anymore.  But the changes that instead of the money going to the candidate who’s then responsible for what’s said and done with the money, it goes to outside groups.

And so in some respects and I think in a lot of respects, it’s worse than if there were no campaign finance limits at all, and all the money went to candidates, but right now we’ve got a very unfortunate financial setting in campaigns, and I don’t want to be too partisan, I’m kind of impartisan obviously, but we didn’t have as much of a problem when the people running for office were following the federal guidelines, taking federal money and that limited what they could do, but when President Obama ran the first time, he’s the first post-Nixon presidential candidate to say I’m not going to abide by federal limits.  And John McCain didn’t agree to the same thing and therefore got borne away and now I think it’s changed for ever.  And with the current system we’ve got a real mess and it’s got to change.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

--
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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