[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/2/16
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Sun May 1 19:40:04 PDT 2016
“Sanders makes a public plea for Democratic superdelegates to switch
allegiances” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82459>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 7:23 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82459>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo reports
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/05/01/sanders-makes-a-public-plea-for-democratic-superdelegates-to-switch-allegiances/>;
White House hopeful Bernie Sanders, who has fought the Democratic
establishment throughout his campaign, made an extraordinary appeal
Sunday for party insiders to help deliver the nomination to him,
even if he doesn’t catch rival Hillary Clinton in the remaining
primaries and caucuses.
Addressing reporters at the National Press Club in Washington,
Sanders made a public plea for Democratic superdelegates to
reconsider their allegiances to Clinton, particularly those in
states where he has won nominating contests or those who committed
to Clinton before he entered the race.
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Posted inpolitical parties
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>,primaries
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>
“Scalia’s death affecting next term, too? Pace of accepted cases at
Supreme Court slows.” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82457>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 6:25 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82457>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bob Barnes for WaPo
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/scalias-death-affecting-next-term-too-pace-of-accepted-cases-at-supreme-court-slows/2016/05/01/1d304d1c-0ecb-11e6-bfa1-4efa856caf2a_story.html>:
The number of cases the justices have accepted has fallen, meaning
that a docket that in recent years has been smaller than what is
traditional is shrinking still.
The court has accepted only six cases since Scalia died Feb. 13. The
number is low compared with the average, Scotusblog.com editor Amy
Howe said at an event last week reviewing the Supreme Court’s work.
And none of the cases that the court has accepted for the term that
begins in October approach the level of controversy that have marked
the dramatic rulings of recent years.
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Posted inSupreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Stricter Rules for Voter IDs Reshape Races”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82455>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 6:21 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82455>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Monday’s must-read
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/us/stricter-rules-for-voter-ids-reshape-races.html>just
posted at the NY Times:
As the general election nears — in which new or strengthened voter
ID laws will be in place in Texas and 14 other states for the first
time in a presidential election — recent academic research indicates
that the requirements restrict turnout and disproportionately affect
voting by minorities. The laws are also, as in the case of Mr.
Gallego, reshaping how many campaigns are run — with candidates not
only spending time to secure votes, but also time to ensure those
votes can be cast.
Thirty-three states
<https://ballotpedia.org/Voter_identification_laws_by_state>now have
ID laws, at least 17 of them — including Texas — requiring not just
written proof of identity, but requiring or requesting a photograph
as well.
Most research suggests that the laws result in few people being
turned away at the polls. But a study of the Texas ID requirement
byRice University
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/rice_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>’s
Baker Institute for Public Policy released in August found that many
more qualified voters, confused or intimidated by the new rules,
have not tried to vote at all.
“What voters hear is that you need to have an ID,” said Mark P.
Jones of the Baker Institute, an author of the study. “But they
don’t get the second part that says if you have one of these types
of IDs, you’re O.K.”
A second study
<http://pages.ucsd.edu/%7Ezhajnal/page5/documents/VoterIDLawsSuppressionofMinorityVoters.pdf>,
by theUniversity of California, San Diego
<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/university_of_california/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,
concluded in February that the strictest voter ID laws — those that
require an identity card with a photograph — disproportionately
affect minority voters.
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Posted inelection 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>
“Amicus: This Is Not Corruption” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82453>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 6:09 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82453>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Dahlia Lithwick talks to Nancy Gertner
<http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/amicus/2016/04/mcdonnell_v_united_states_and_the_limits_of_federal_corruption_law.html>on
the McDonnell case.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
Anita Earls Talks “The Right to Vote” on Open Mind (PBS Thirteen)
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82451>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 5:51 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82451>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Watch and read transcript.
<http://www.thirteen.org/openmind/civil-rights/the-right-to-vote/5410/>
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Posted inThe Voting Wars <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>,Voting
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>
“Justices Leave Texas Voter ID Law Intact, With a Warning”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82449>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 3:03 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82449>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Adam Liptak reports
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/us/politics/justices-leave-texas-voter-id-law-intact-with-a-warning.html>for
the NYT.
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>,voter id
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>,Voting Rights Act
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>
“Prosecutors Ask U.S. Supreme Court To Allow Investigation Of Walker
To Continue” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82447>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 3:01 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82447>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Wisconsin Public Radio reports.
<http://www.wpr.org/prosecutors-ask-u-s-supreme-court-allow-investigation-walker-continue>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,chicanery
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Voting Gets Harder in Kansas” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82445>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 2:59 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82445>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT editorial:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/opinion/sunday/voting-gets-harder-in-kansas.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>
Excited to participate in the presidential election, more than
22,000 people in Kansas applied to register to vote in a three-week
period in February just days before the state presidential caucuses.
It was a reassuring display of democracy — except that two-thirds of
that group remain officially held “in suspense,” unregistered and
unable to vote. This is because they have not met the draconian
requirement of the state law, approved by the Republican
Legislature, that they provide a passport, birth certificate or
naturalization papers.
This electoral limbo amounts to crude voter suppression, and no one
seems certain whether all qualified citizens in Kansas will be
allowed to vote in the primary election in August for state offices
and in the November general election. Court challenges are underway,
with the American Civil Liberties Union documenting what it calls
the “chaos” wrought by the state law. It stands contrary to federal
law, which allows people to register when they get a driver’s
license or state ID and attest, under criminal threat of perjury,
that they are citizens.
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
“At age 92, Judge Manuel Real is still abusing his power”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82443>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 2:58 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82443>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Alison Frankel for Reuters
<http://blogs.reuters.com/alison-frankel/2016/04/29/at-age-92-judge-manuel-real-is-still-abusing-his-power/>:
The 9th Circuit opinion shows that age has not mellowed Judge Real,
who was born in 1924 and appointed to the bench in 1966 by President
Lyndon Johnson. For much of his long career, the judge has
beendogged by controversy
<http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/real_trouble>and
overruled by the 9th Circuit. As the Los Angeles Timesreported in
2009
<http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/16/local/me-judge-real16/2>,
Judge Real’s reversal rate has been as high as 10 times the average
for federal judges. The Times found the appeals courtremoved Real
<http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/14/local/me-real14>from
presiding over remanded cases at least 11 times.
Real was called to testify at a 2006 House Judiciary
Committeehearing
<http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju29969.000/hju29969_0f.htm>exploring
his alleged misconduct in the handling of a bankruptcy case and
related California unlawful detainer action. The House dropped the
matter but he was later publicly reprimanded by the 9th Circuit.
Since 2006, according toWestlaw statistics
<http://blogs.reuters.com/alison-frankel/files/2016/04/Judicial-Reversal-Report-for-Real-Hon-Manuel-L.pdf>on
Judge Real’s record at the 9th Circuit, he has been reversed 87
times. The judge has been affirmed 233 times. His reversal rate in
the last 10 years – not counting his 47 partial reversals – is
nearly 17 percent. (I calculated the rate by dividing the number of
complete reversals by the sum of complete reversals plus complete
affirmances.) In 2015, according to the Westlaw report, the judge
was reversed 12 times and affirmed 20, an astonishing 37.5 percent
reversal rate. Before Wednesday’s decision in the Wijegunaratne
case, Judge Real had been reversed in two other cases in 2016,
compared to seven affirmances.
This is the judge thatrecently
decided<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82119>against the state of
California and in favor of the Koch Brothers-linked Americans for
Propserity on disclosure issues, soon to face a 9th Circuit appeal.
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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Accidental Republican candor about voter-ID laws”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82441>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 2:54 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82441>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Steve Benen
<http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/accidental-republican-candor-about-voter-id-laws>:
But DeMint then turned to voter-ID laws. “[I]t’s something we’re
working on all over the country because in the states where they do
have voter ID laws you’ve seen, actually, elections begin to change
towards more conservative candidates,” he said.
In case anyone, including DeMint, needs arefresher
<http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/house-republican-accidentally-tells-the-truth-about-voter-id>,
the line Republicans and proponents of voter-suppression tactics
are/supposed/to take is that voter-ID policies have nothing to do
with partisanship or affecting the outcome of elections, and
everything to do with the integrity of the voting process. “We’re
not trying to disenfranchise Democrats,” GOP officials say, “that’s
just the accidental byproduct of our policies.”
The argument is obviously untrue, but at least in public,
Republicans generally try to pretend that the talking points have merit.
Except that’s not at all what DeMint said. Rather, the Heritage
Foundation chief argued that the right is working on voter-ID
policies across the country “because” these laws help elect
conservatives.
It’s one of those classic cases of someone making a mistake by
accidentally telling the truth.
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>,voter id
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>
“From Albany to Prison: Ex-Lawmakers on Life Behind Bars”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82439>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 2:52 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82439>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Extensive NYT report.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/nyregion/from-albany-to-prison-ex-lawmakers-on-life-behind-bars.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share>
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Posted inchicanery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
“Eric Holder & Alex Padilla on Voting Reform: How Automatic
Registration Could Add Millions of New Voters”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82437>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 2:33 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82437>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
//
<http://www.brennancenter.org/event/automatic-voter-registration-why-and-how>Brennan
Center event
<http://www.brennancenter.org/event/automatic-voter-registration-why-and-how>May
18.
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,voter registration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>
“It’s time to move ahead with the SEC nomination process”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82435>
Posted onMay 1, 2016 2:31 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82435>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo editorial:
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-time-to-move-ahead-with-the-sec-nomination-process/2016/04/30/054d5e8c-0bca-11e6-8ab8-9ad050f76d7d_story.html>
UNQUESTIONABLY, THERE’S a lot of money in politics. Also
unquestionably, much of it flows through corporations without the
full disclosure that the Supreme Court assumed would occur when it
liberated corporate (and union) donations in its/Citizens
United/ruling six years ago. The latest manifestation is “dark money
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dark-money-donors-accomplices-in-the-government/2016/04/11/1125437e-fb75-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html>”
flowing from large individual donors to campaigns via sham
corporations set up to evade disclosure rules.
What is open to question is the best way to get more disclosure —
which brings us to the current stalemate in the Senate over
President Obama’s nominees to fill two vacancies on the five-member
Securities and Exchange Commission. Three members is the minimum for
the SEC to transact business, which means any member can block it
from acting by refusing to show up for a vote. Sensing leverage,
some Banking Committee Democrats, led by Sen. Charles E. Schumer
(D-N.Y.), are linking the corporate campaign finance issue to a
confirmation voteon the president’s picks
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-sec-whitehouse-idUSKCN0SE2O120151020>—
law professors Hester Peirce, a Republican, and Lisa M. Fairfax, a
Democrat. They want the pair to declare their views on greater
disclosure by public corporations of political donations, including,
possibly, an SEC rule requiring contributions to be reported in
annual reports to shareholders.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
“U.S. Supreme Court John Doe petition lays out legal questions in
Scott Walker campaign finance coordination, judicial recusal”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82433>
Posted onApril 29, 2016 3:57 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82433>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The Capital Times reports.
<http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/u-s-supreme-court-john-doe-petition-lays-out-legal/article_3ed807aa-0221-5207-b9e8-24504bc11b4e.html>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,chicanery
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman sent to solitary confinement”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82431>
Posted onApril 29, 2016 3:55 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82431>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo:
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/04/29/former-alabama-governor-don-siegelman-sent-to-solitary-confinement/?postshare=8411461969775543&tid=ss_tw>
Former Alabama governor Don E. Siegelman was sent to solitary
confinement this week at the Louisiana facility in which he is
imprisoned on political corruption charges, according to his son
Joseph Siegelman.
Siegelman, 70, was quoted extensively in a Washington Post
article this week on former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell,
whose 2014 conviction on public corruption charges was reviewed by
the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Siegelman was transferred to solitary confinement at the federal
correctional institution at Oakdale, La., on Monday after the story
was posted online, according to his son, who said he found the
timing suspicious.
But Bureau of Prison officials, who refused to confirm that the
former governor was in solitary confinement, said that there was no
link.
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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Prosecutors: Walker campaign, conservative group ‘one and the
same'” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82429>
Posted onApril 29, 2016 2:41 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82429>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Patrick
Marley<http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/prosecutors-walker-campaign-conservative-group-one-and-the-same-b99715959z1-377631481.html>for
the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on the John Doe cert. petition.
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Posted incampaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>,chicanery
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
President Obama Talks Gerrymandering, Voting Wars, Money in Politics
at Student Journalist Press Conference
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82427>
Posted onApril 29, 2016 2:20 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82427>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Remarks
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/04/28/remarks-president-college-reporters>:
Q Hi, Mr. President. Earlier today, we spoke about —
THE PRESIDENT: What’s your name?
Q Patrick Forrest (ph) from the Fresno City College Rampage.
THE PRESIDENT: From the what?
Q Fresno City College, the Rampage.
THE PRESIDENT: Fresno City College. Fantastic.
Q Earlier today, one thing we talked about was civic engagement,
and a line was used in the State of the Union address of “don’t give
into the cynicism of the day.” A poll released by Reuters yesterday
shows that nearly half of Americans feel that the elections are
rigged in some way. Is there any goal or plan of the administration
to help revitalize the faith in democracy that seems to be lacking?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know what, this is something that I’ve
tried to do ever since I got into public office. As you know, I
came into this work as a community organizer and strongly believed
that our democracy only works when people participate.
There are a lot of forces that feed cynicism. And there’s no
dispute that our democracy is not working as well as it should. I
can tell you some of the reasons for that. One of it is that we
have set up a system for electing state legislatures and members of
Congress that involve the drawing of district lines that are
gerrymandered. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the phrase,
it basically means that those who are already in power draw the maps
in such a way where they can be assured that these are either going
to be Democratic seats or Republican seats. And what that’s done is
it’s made very few seats competitive.
So, for example, in the last election, in 2012, Democrats actually
cast substantially more votes in congressional elections, but ended
up with substantially fewer seats. And the reason for that is, in
2010, when the census was done and re-districting of congressional
and House legislative seats were drawn, Republican governors and
Republican majorities were responsible for drawing most of the seats.
Now, I want to be clear, Democrats aren’t blameless on this, either.
But California, for example, has gone to a process of nonpartisan
districting. The advantage there is not only do you make more seats
competitive, but it also means that politicians have to compete for
everybody’s votes because they’re not in safe seats, they’re not in
a safely Republican district or a Democratic district. And what
that does is it means they’ve got to not just appeal to the extremes
of their party.
Part of the reason we’ve seen polarization and gridlock here in
Washington is because there’s been this great sorting, and Democrats
have moved much further — have moved left. Republicans have just
gone way to the right. And it’s harder, then, to compromise,
because members of Congress — and the same thing is true in state
legislatures — are always looking over their shoulder seeing if
somebody in their own party might challenge them. And then the
system doesn’t work.
So that’s a big chunk of why people are cynical — because they feel
like their votes don’t count. And if you draw districts that are
ironclad one party or another, then they’re not entirely wrong.
Another reason that people are cynical is money in politics. The
Supreme Court issued a ruling — Citizens United — that allowed super
PACs and very wealthy individuals to just finance all these ads that
you guys see on TV all the time. Half the time nobody knows who’s
funding them. And that makes you cynical partly because most of
this money is spent on negative ads. So you’re just hearing
constantly how horrible everybody is. That will make you feel
pretty bad about the political process.
And I’m a strong believer in finding ways in which we can make the
financing of campaigns more democratic. Now, we’ve seen some
interesting work being done. You’ve got to give Bernie Sanders, for
example, credit, building off some of the work that I did. I, in
turn, built off the work that Howard Dean did for smaller donations,
grassroots donors to be able, in small contributions, to allow
candidates to be competitive.
But I think that — we don’t want to leave that to chance. And
that’s much harder to do for members of Congress who are lower
profile so they don’t get the sort of viral presence that allows
them to raise that kind of money to compete. So we’re going to have
to solve money in politics.
You as journalists are going to have a role to play in reducing
cynicism. It is very hard to get good stories placed. People will
assign you stories about what’s not working. It’s very hard for you
to write a story about, wow, this thing really works good.
And just to take the federal government as an example, every day
I’ve got 2 million people who work for the federal government —
whether in our military, our law enforcement, our environmental
protection, et cetera — and they’re doing great work. And you rely
on it in all kinds of ways, including when you check the weather,
because you can thank the National Weather Service for putting
satellites up so your smartphones tell you whether to bring an
umbrella or not. But we just take that for granted.
And if, out of those 2 million employees, one person screws up
somewhere — which every day you can count on somebody out of 2
million people probably doing something they shouldn’t be doing —
that’s what’s going to get reported on. Now, that helps keeps
government on its toes and accountable. But one of the things we
have to think about is how do we tell a story about the things we do
together that actually work so that people don’t feel so cynical
overall.
But look, here’s the bottom line, is that — let’s take the political
process. As cynical as everybody is, and everybody is always trying
to come up with these radical new plans to try to fix our democracy,
and we need to do this and we need to do that — the truth is, is
that part of the reason why our government doesn’t work as well is
because in a good presidential year, slightly more than half the
people vote who are eligible, and the other half don’t. And during
an off-year election, when the President is not at the top of the
ticket, and people aren’t getting as much attention, 40 percent of
the people vote.
Now, this system doesn’t work if people opt out. And the easiest
cure, the simplest cure for what ails our democracy is everybody
voting. Now, it’s true that there are some states that purposely
make it hard for people to vote. We’re the only major democracy in
the world that actively makes it hard for people to vote. And so
you should be, particularly in your student newspapers, as you go
back to your home states, you should be asking why is it that we
have laws that are purposely making it harder for people to vote,
purposely making it harder for young people to vote.
And there’s a political agenda there. The people in power don’t
want things to change. They want cynicism, because obviously the
existing system, as frustrating as it is for everybody else, works
for them. Well, if you want to upend that, we’ve got to vote.
But even in those states that purposely make it harder to vote, the
truth of the matter is, on your college campuses, half the folks,
maybe two-thirds of the folks who don’t vote don’t vote because
they’re just not paying attention. They don’t consider it
important. And they’re not willing to take the 15 minutes or half
hour that it takes to make sure that you’re registered and make sure
you actually vote.
Well, if you care about climate change, you care about college
costs, you care about career opportunities, you care about war and
peace and refugees, you can’t just complain. You’ve got to vote.
And what’s interesting is, is young people as a voting bloc are
the least likely to vote, but when you do vote, have the biggest
impact on elections.
During a presidential year, young people account for like 19 percent
of the total vote. During an off-year election, when folks aren’t
paying as much attention, they account for 12 percent. And that
means that the kinds of candidates that get elected and the
priorities that they reflect are entirely different, just based on
whether or not you guys are going to the polls.
So don’t let people tell you that what you do doesn’t matter. It
does. Don’t give away your power. That should be the main message
that you deliver all the time. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re
a Republican, Democratic, independent; whether you’re conservative
on some issues, liberal on others. If you participate and you take
the time to be informed about the issues, and you actually turn out
and your peers turn out, you change the country. You do. It may
not always happen as fast as you’d like, but you’ll change it.
So I’ll keep on talking about this even after I leave the
presidency. You got me started. I went on a rant, didn’t I?
(Laughter.)
All right. So I’m counting on you guys. Don’t let me down, all
right? Don’t let the country down. You guys are going to be
delivering the message to your peer group that this is the greatest
country on Earth, but only because we have great citizens who are
willing to invest their time and energy and effort to become
informed on the issues, to argue about it in a respectful way, and
to try to collectively solve the many challenges that we face.
The good news is, is that there are no challenges, as JFK said, that
“man creates that man can’t solve.” I would add women to that.
(Laughter.)
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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
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org
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