[EL] ELB News and Commentary 7/8/16

Fri Jul 8 09:00:00 PDT 2016

“‘Politics are corrupt’: fears about money and its influence on elections loom large”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84148>
Posted on July 8, 2016 8:55 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84148> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Guardian reports.<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/08/trump-clinton-sanders-super-pacs-election-money>
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

Justice Ginsburg’s First Draft in Evenwel Said Use of Total Population, Rather Than Voters, Required and Not Just Permitted<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84146>
Posted on July 8, 2016 8:48 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84146> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

From RBG’s must-read interview<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SUPREME_COURT_GINSBURG?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT> with AP’s Mark Sherman:

Ginsburg was pleased with her majority opinion in yet another case from Texas in which the court upheld the state’s decision to count everyone, and not just eligible voters, in drawing its electoral districts. A ruling against the state would have diminished Hispanic political clout because, as Ginsburg noted, their population includes many who are not citizens. Also, she said, “Hispanics have a lot more children,” who also are ineligible to vote.

Her opinion said that using total population was permissible, but it stopped short of declaring that Texas and the rest of the states must count everyone. “I didn’t say it. I was writing for the court. … All things considered, you want to have as many people on board as you can,” she said, stressing the need to sometimes compromise to form or add to a majority. “So I had many first drafts written the way they’d be written if I were queen and they’ll be in my papers some day.”

Let us hope that Justice Ginsburg, a big believer in transparency, makes her papers available just as soon as she leaves the Court.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“Anti-Trump lawsuit may lead judge to strike down Va. law on presidential convention voting”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84144>
Posted on July 8, 2016 8:41 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84144> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.<http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/article_3774666e-d85d-5eaf-a8f3-7a709ed7e15a.html>
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Posted in political parties<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>

“Congresswoman Corrine Brown And Chief Of Staff Charged With Fraud Scheme Involving Bogus Non-Profit Scholarship Entity”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84142>
Posted on July 8, 2016 8:41 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84142> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

DOJ press release.<https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/congresswoman-corrine-brown-and-chief-staff-charged-fraud-scheme-involving-bogus-non>
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“McAuliffe unveils electronic voter registration at Va. DMV”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84140>
Posted on July 8, 2016 8:36 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84140> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcauliffe-unveils-change-to-how-dmv-handles-voter-registrations/2016/07/07/6751c084-445d-11e6-8856-f26de2537a9d_story.html>
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

Marc Elias on Why the New SpeechNow Challenge May Be the Wrong Vehicle To Challenge Case and CU<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84136>
Posted on July 7, 2016 7:36 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84136> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Via Twitter.<https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/751230355760439297>

As I suggested in response, the most straightforward way might be for a local jurisdiction to adopt contribution limits to independent expenditure committees and defend them in court.

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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“Groups Seek Emergency Relief and Judicial Oversight for Elections in Maricopa County, Arizona”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84134>
Posted on July 7, 2016 2:38 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84134> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Release<https://lawyerscommittee.org/press-release/groups-seek-emergency-relief-judicial-oversight-elections-maricopa-county-arizona/>:

Today, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP and Osborn Maledon, P.A. filed a motion for preliminary injunction, arguing that the Arizona secretary of state and Maricopa County officials should be required to produce Election Administration Plans (EAP), and obtain judicial approval of those plans, ahead of the August 30, 2016 primary election and the November 8, 2016 general election. The motion seeks to prevent a repeat of the disastrous March 2016 presidential preference primary in which state and county officials oversaw a drastic reduction in the number of polling places in Maricopa County from 403 in 2008, to 211 in 2012, to just 60 this year. The reduction resulted in unbearable wait times in excess of five hours in many locations and effectively disenfranchised countless voters.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“SF voters could see 39 — yes, 39! — city ballot measures”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84132>
Posted on July 7, 2016 2:34 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84132> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

This does not count<http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/SF-voters-could-see-39-yes-39-city-8344592.php> the at least 17 state ballot measures for CA.
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Posted in direct democracy<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=62>

“Write-in legislative candidates win spots on the November ballot, in some cases with only a handful of votes”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84130>
Posted on July 7, 2016 2:02 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84130> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

LAT reports.<http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-updates-write-in-legislative-candidates-win-a-1467920806-htmlstory.html>
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Posted in ballot access<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“Missouri voter ID bill vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84128>
Posted on July 7, 2016 1:59 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84128> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KC Star<http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article88186502.html>:

Gov. Jay Nixon on Thursday vetoed a bill establishing a photo ID requirement to cast a ballot<http://house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB1631&year=2016&code=R>, calling the legislation “an affront to Missourians’ fundamental right to vote.”

“Making voting more difficult for qualified voters and disenfranchising certain classes of people is wrong,” Nixon said in a letter to lawmakers explaining his veto.

In 2006, Republicans pushed through a photo ID bill that was later struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court. The court ruled that the law amounted to a “heavy and substantial burden on Missourians’ free exercise of the right of suffrage.”

Republicans have pushed for voter ID every year since that Supreme Court ruling, and each time the effort has been derailed by either a court ruling or Nixon’s veto pen. Kansas adopted a voter photo ID law in 2011.

This year, Senate Republicans negotiated a compromise with Democrats….

In addition to the bill setting up the photo ID requirements, lawmakers also approved an amendment to Missouri’s constitution that permits the establishment of a photo ID requirement. That proposed amendment, which will appear on the statewide ballot in November, is necessary because of the 2006 state Supreme Court decision.

If voters reject the amendment, then a photo ID requirement continues to be unconstitutional.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“McDonnell Decision Unjustified, But Leaves Avenues to Prosecute Corruption”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84126>
Posted on July 7, 2016 11:40 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84126> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Stuart McPhail blogs.<http://www.citizensforethics.org/blog/entry/mcdonnell-decision-unjustified-but-leaves-avenues-to-prosecute-corruption>
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Posted in bribery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=54>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“DNC Lacks 501(c)(3) Exemption For Philadelphia Convention, Putting Donors’ Charitable Deductions At Risk”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84124>
Posted on July 7, 2016 11:38 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84124> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

TaxProf reports.<http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/07/dnc-lacks-501c3-exemption-for-philadelphia-convention-putting-donors-charitable-deductions-at-risk.html>
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Posted in political parties<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, tax law and election law<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>

What If Trump Pulled Out After Winning?<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84122>
Posted on July 7, 2016 11:37 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84122> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/us/politics/donald-trump-president.html>

On the off chance he actually is planning to back out, what would happen?

Alexander Keyssar<https://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/alex-keyssar>, a historian at Harvard who is working on a book about the Electoral College, said the process of succession would depend on “the precise moment at which he said, ‘Nah, never mind.’ ”

The party representatives who make up the Electoral College would suddenly have real power rather than a rubber stamp. If Mr. Trump bowed out after winning on Nov. 8 but before the electors met in each state<http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/key-dates.html> to cast their ballots on Dec. 19, then the electors could have the opportunity to vote for another candidate, Professor Keyssar said.

A majority of the 538 electors would be Republicans, but they might not agree on the best alternative candidate. If no one won a majority of the electors, the contest between the top three vote-getters — one of whom would presumably be Mrs. Clinton — would go to the House of Representatives, where each state would be given one vote, while the Senate would select the vice president. House Republicans hold 33 states to the Democrats’ 14, with three evenly split. It is unclear whether the vote would take place before or after newly elected representatives were seated.

It is also unclear what would happen, Professor Keyssar said, if Mr. Trump bid adieu after the electoral votes were cast but before they were officially counted, per the 12th Amendment, by the president of the Senate before a joint session of Congress in January. And if Mr. Trump left after the votes were counted in Congress but before he was sworn in on Jan. 20, Professor Keyssar said the closest guidance would probably come from Section Three of the 20th Amendment: “If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the president, the president-elect shall have died, the vice president-elect shall become president.”

“Nothing like this has ever happened,” Mr. Keyssar said.
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Posted in electoral college<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>

--
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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