[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/20/16

[Rick Hasen]

“ACLU Sues West Virginia Clerk for Refusing to Accept Online Voter Registrations “<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87800>
Posted on October 20, 2016 8:37 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87800> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Release:<https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-sues-west-virginia-clerk-refusing-accept-online-voter-registrations>
The American Civil Liberties Union today sued a West Virginia county clerk for refusing to accept and process online voter registrations.
State law provides for online voter registration, and all other West Virginia counties accept it save for Cabell County, where County Clerk Karen Cole has balked at allowing it.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Democrats Play Up Donald Trump’s Hedge on Accepting Election Result”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87798>
Posted on October 20, 2016 8:36 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87798> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Alex Burns for the NYT.<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/us/politics/campaign-election-trump-clinton.html?ref=politics&_r=0>
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Donald Trump Brings Election ‘Rigging’ Charges Front and Center”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87796>
Posted on October 20, 2016 8:29 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87796> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Byron Tau <http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-brings-election-rigging-charges-front-and-center-1476914927?tesla=y> for the WSJ:
Charges that election results might be rigged<http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-steps-up-claims-of-a-rigged-election-1476663365> have moved from the fringes of U.S. politics to a central issue in the closing days of the 2016 campaign as RepublicanDonald Trump<http://topics.wsj.com/person/T/Donald-Trump/159> has repeatedly and without corroborating evidence suggested a fair outcome may be impossible.
The 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections were hard-fought contests that all contained scattered allegations and conspiracies of fraud or mismanagement—most notably, the largely unsubstantiated claims that the Ohio election results from the 2004 campaign were inaccurate.
But those claims have taken on an official veneer in the 2016 campaign as Mr. Trump has spent the final weeks of the race raising doubts about the integrity of his contest against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton<http://topics.wsj.com/person/C/Hillary-Clinton/6344> before most votes have even been cast.
 He has accused the media, the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a “global power structure” of conspiring to rig the November election against him.
At Wednesday’s debate, Mr. Trump alleged that there are “millions of people that are registered to vote that shouldn’t be registered to vote” and cast doubt on whether he would accept the election results.
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Fact check: Arizona GOP’s misleading claim on ‘ballot harvesting'”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87794>
Posted on October 20, 2016 8:26 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87794> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Arizona Republic. <http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/fact-check/2016/10/19/fact-check-arizona-republican-party-ballot-harvesting-claim/92433500/>
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Let’s take Rudy Giuliani’s voter-fraud theories to their natural conclusion”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87792>
Posted on October 20, 2016 8:24 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87792> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Philip Bump:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/20/lets-take-rudy-giulianis-voter-fraud-theories-to-their-natural-conclusion/>
In the most recent RealClearPolitics polling average<http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/pa/pennsylvania_trump_vs_clinton_vs_johnson_vs_stein-5964.html> in the state, Hillary Clinton leads Trump by 6.2 points, earning 46.4 percent to Trump’s 40.2. Assuming 6 million people vote, that means that we’d expect the final vote tally in the state to be 2.8 million votes for Clinton and 2.4 million votes for Trump, with a margin of 372,000 votes.
Meaning that we’d need to bus 372,000 people into Pennsylvania to vote, assuming the results are rigged.
This is obviously stupid already — how is Clinton only winning by “fraud” if she’s up 6 points in the polls? — but let’s keep going with it. Giuliani wouldn’t lie to us, after all, and if we are expecting that margin of victory for Clinton, that had better be the result to avoid raising suspicions.
Let’s assume the people perpetrating this fraud are using school buses, a line of them cruising from New York and New Jersey into the Philadelphia environs like the opening scene of “The Dark Knight.” This is slightly more inconspicuous than a stream of tourist buses; not that many people want to eat cheesesteak and see the Liberty Bell. The always-useful site SchoolBusInfo.com<https://www.schoolbusinfo.com/faq.asp> tells us that 72 people can fit on a regular school bus. That’s little kids, mind you. Only 48 high schoolers can fit on the same bus. But let’s assume we really pack these fraudsters in, have them standing in the aisles and so on. So: 72 each.
We need to line up 5,167 buses to make our plan work. At a length of 45 feet apiece, that’s 44 miles of school buses — just shy of half the distance from New York to Philly (assuming they’re moving bumper-to-bumper). And, of course, we need to line up 372,000 people to go do the illegal voting.
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Donald Trump’s charge on the election’s integrity reverberates in both campaigns”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87790>
Posted on October 20, 2016 8:20 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87790> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/both-campaigns-grapple-with-day-after-scenarios-amid-trump-defiance-over-election-integrity/2016/10/20/1b8c973c-96b5-11e6-bc79-af1cd3d2984b_story.html>
Questioned directly as to whether he would accept the outcome should Democratic nominee Clinton prevail Nov. 8, Trump demurred. “I’ll keep you in suspense,” the Republican nominee said. Clinton called Trump’s answer “horrifying,” saying he was “talking down our democracy.”
Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who appeared on multiple morning shows Thursday, said it was too early to say whether voting irregularities could make the difference between winning and losing the presidential race.
“He’s saying that until the results are actually known, certified and verified, he’s not going to concede the election,” she said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” She added at one point: “He respects the principles of democracy, it’s just that he can’t say what’s going to happen.”
In a separate interview on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends,” Conway said Trump has “been reading stories about irregularities. . . . So it’s not without basis.”
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“Wisconsin Election Officials Refute Trump’s Prediction of Massive Voter Fraud”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87788>
Posted on October 20, 2016 8:05 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87788> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WUWM reports.<http://wuwm.com/post/wisconsin-election-officials-refute-trumps-prediction-massive-voter-fraud#stream/0>
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Kobach warns that non-citizens could tip election”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87786>
Posted on October 20, 2016 7:52 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87786> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bryan Lowry<http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article109346967.html> for the Wichita Eagle:
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, an early endorser and adviser to Trump, says he thinks enough non-citizens are registered to vote in swing states that it could tip the balance of the presidential election.,,,
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the 30 cases of non-citizens registering to vote in Kansas prior to the state’s adoption of a proof of citizenship requirement “fall well short of the showing necessary to rebut the presumption” that voters are citizens when they attest to that fact on their registration forms.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, said that “all of the evidence of non-citizen voting shows that it is a very small problem.”
Kobach often points to Sedgwick County in support of his claims about non-citizen voting. Eleven non-citizens registered to vote in Sedgwick County between 2003 and 2010. Three cast a ballot; all but one of them have since become naturalized citizens, according to documents from Kobach’s office.
Another 14 have attempted to register to vote but were blocked from doing so since the state adopted its proof of citizenship requirement in 2013, according to the same documents.
“Despite all of Kobach’s rhetoric for the last decade, non-citizen voting has consistently been found to be a very small problem,” Hasen said. “This is more about Kobach promoting his own agenda, his own anti-immigration and voter fraud agenda, than it is about any real problem with how we run our elections.”
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


RNC, Desperate to Try to Avoid Extension of Voter Intimidation Consent Decree, Tries to Distance from Trump<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87783>
Posted on October 20, 2016 7:39 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87783> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Back on August 12, <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85289> I wrote:
With Trump’s dangerous and irresponsible hyperventilating<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85282> about voter fraud and cheating in Pennsylvania potentially costing him the election, it is probably no surprise, as reported by theWeekly Standard,<http://www.weeklystandard.com/trump-campaign-seeks-election-observers-to-prevent-rigged-election/article/2003813?custom_click=rss?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=TWSAutoTweet> that Trump is seeking “election observers<https://www.donaldjtrump.com/lp/volunteer-to-be-a-trump-election-observer>” to stop “Crooked Hillary” from “rigging this election.”
However, there’s a longstanding consent decree that bars the RNC from engaging in such activities….
I said the legal question would be whether Trump, if he is engaging in “ballot security measures” which would violate the consent decree<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85351>, is acting as an agent of the RNC. If so, then the consent decree against the RNC could be extended another 8 years.
Last night MSNBC reported that the Trump campaign was hoping to work with the RNC to be on the lookout for (phantom) voter fraud, leading Republican attorney Ben Ginsberg to warn that this could put the RNC into hot water.
Well this WSJ article shows that the RNC is desperate to distance itself from Trump on this:<http://www.wsj.com/articles/rnc-asks-members-to-avoid-poll-watching-other-ballot-security-activities-1476925215>
RNC general counsel John Ryder wrote to members on Wednesday to “remind you of the restrictions placed on the RNC by the consent decree.” …
RNC members often also serve as officers in state or local Republican parties, and are often active in their personal capacity in politics. Mr. Ryder warned that they are advised not to engage in those measures even when acting independently of their job with the party.
“You are encouraged not to engage in ‘ballot security’ activities even in your personal, state party or campaign capacity. If you elect to do so, please be aware that the RNC in no way sanctions your activity,” Mr. Ryder wrote.
I think it is already too late for the RNC, and I’m sure Democrats are collecting the evidence they need to in order to go back into court to extend this another 8 years.
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Trump couldn’t overturn election, but could undermine it”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87781>
Posted on October 20, 2016 7:24 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87781> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Politico reports.<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-history-challenge-230051>
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Trump’s Irresponsible Statements About Keeping Us in “Suspense” About Election Concession is Lead Story from Yesterday’s Debate<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87779>
Posted on October 20, 2016 7:07 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87779> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
From Politico Playbook:
THE BIG DEBATE MOMENT:
CHRIS WALLACE : “I want to ask you here on the stage tonight, do you make the same commitment that you’ll absolutely accept the result of the election?”
DONALD TRUMP: “I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking at anything now. I’ll look at it at the time.”
HOW IT PLAYED — NOTICE A TREND? — NYT (lead story, A1), “TRUMP WON’T SAY IF HE WILL ACCEPT ELECTION’S RESULT — ‘I Will Keep You in Suspense,’ He Says – Clinton Calls It ‘Horrifying'” http://nyti.ms/2ewmNAi<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3f7f93f59f2dfa6d7c0527e9551783ac82ea24ff85d521bcc4> …WaPo (banner headline, five columns), “Trump won’t vow to honor results”http://bit.ly/2abLGj6<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3f86915117b8afb78f0af00dbe28d60000196e4c32f3be216d> … WSJ (five-column banner headline), “Trump Wavers on Accepting Result” http://bit.ly/2eJml5H<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3fbbe877161a8601305be46d0dc04e7ff3053116e9a0c8a80f> … Columbus Dispatch (banner headline using the AP’s story), “Accept defeat? Trump won’t say”http://politi.co/2dpEKDr<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3fdba58dd7c8734f4c6c0dc4f3faf4eaf1a0e787f1744c12a2> … Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Trump balks at vow to honor vote result” http://politi.co/2eaApWv<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3f6c0d064d5a27a269efb83d789c0797553643293d8a6ab8b4> … Charlotte Observer (four-column banner headline), “Trump refuses to say he’d accept a loss”http://politi.co/2eayWiP<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3f936dae24390024bf768a5186ea18eb37aad314646f28673a> … Philadelphia Inquirer (four-column banner headline), “Trump suggests he might not accept results of election: The Final Battle” http://politi.co/2ewuhmM<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3ff0b3e5cb1cad37a4f71235bb4fbeb3f4b8b534eba3c536d7> … Cincinnati Enquirer (five columns), “‘SUSPENSE’ — ELECTION 2016 Trump leaves voters hanging on acceptance of election results” http://politi.co/2dpFTLd<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3f90c06eabace4983f0b60f3e06543fad6ba65081457aff7d3>
AP’s LEDE (by Julie Pace and Lisa Lerer) — “Threatening to upend a fundamental pillar of American democracy, Donald Trump refused to say in debate that he will accept the results of next month’s election if he loses to Hillary Clinton. The Democratic nominee declared Trump’s resistance ‘horrifying.'” http://apne.ws/2eluISk<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3f2f4ce89edcb690e9d6ea671185ccd9e84576d56f98e4efbc>
N.Y. POST cover, “HE’S IN A FIX — Trump harumphs in final debate — Refuses to say he’ll accept election results — Oh, and Emmys were rigged too” http://nyp.st/2elkTnc<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3f79ca1341d71a9bc63301e2fb164e1cfe3f5e627179b1fa57>
— BRET STEPHENS, columnist at the WSJ (@StephensWSJ) at 10:09 p.m.: “Trump’s answer on accepting the outcome of the vote is the most disgraceful statement by a presidential candidate in 160 years.”
EDITORIALS all singing the same tune — NYT, “Donald Trump’s Contempt for Democracy” http://nyti.ms/2eJGN6u<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3f7cae8b3c937a5768c9c2e2c5d338f59f9f7f81b1441a9774> … WaPo, “Trump’s breathtaking repudiation of American democracy” http://wapo.st/2enfue2<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3fba8d72402bed5671585b2a619ec8a79010f0e5b32d288911> … WSJ, “Trump vs. Trump vs. Clinton: He held his own on the issues, but his ego keeps getting in the way.” http://on.wsj.com/2ewKEQg<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d29fc5b15bcd6d3f221dd66065de70f0c938b73383ce3ebd35df20b5ad97a00b>


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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“eBenchbook Project Assists Judges & the Public in Understanding State Election Laws”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87777>
Posted on October 20, 2016 7:00 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87777> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Reminder via email about an important resource:
Wondering what the Virginia election code has to say about campaign volunteers and others at the polls? Want context on statutes that govern voter registration in Florida? Curious about how Colorado election statutes impact voter registration lists?  Whether you are a judge, a legal or media professional, or a citizen who wants to know more about state laws governing elections, we welcome you to explore the State Election Law eBenchbook site<applewebdata://BEC94111-530D-465F-8CB6-F7279C7AB31B/ebenchbook.wm.edu>. Interested in creating an election law eBenchbook for your state? Contact us at ebenchbook at wm.edu<mailto:ebenchbook at wm.edu>. To explore the Election Law eBenchbook, visit ebenchbook.wm.edu<http://ebenchbook.wm.edu/>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Indiana SOS, Who Yelled Voter Registration Fraud, Now Has to Walk It Back<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87774>
Posted on October 20, 2016 6:56 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87774> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
IBJ:<http://www.ibj.com/articles/60892-indiana-election-official-clarifies-registration-fraud-probe?utm_source=eight-at-8&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=2016-10-20>
A day after warning of potential widespread voting fraud, Indiana’s secretary of state acknowledged Wednesday that many of the thousands of altered registration forms she flagged might just be from residents rushing to correct their names or birth dates ahead of the election.
Republican Secretary of State Connie Lawson told The Associated Press she wanted Indiana State Police to investigate to ensure there was no widespread fraud after her office found a heavier than usual number of changes to voter registration forms this election cycle.
“It’s very possible that because of heightened activity this year that many of those changes are changes that the individual made,” Lawson told the AP. “… That should give Indiana voters the comfort that we are vigilant and we are protecting their rights and the elections here are not rigged.”
What nonsense.
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


Donald Trump’s Makes Chilling and Unprecedented Debate Comment About Not Accepting the Result of the Election<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87772>
Posted on October 19, 2016 8:13 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87772> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT:<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/us/politics/presidential-debate.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=span-abc-region&region=span-abc-region&WT.nav=span-abc-region>
Mr. Trump also insisted, as he has in recent days, that the general election has been rigged against him, and he twice refused to say that he would accept its result.
“I will look at it at the time,” Mr. Trump said. “I will keep you in suspense.’’
“That’s horrifying,” Mrs. Clinton replied. “I am appalled that someone who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that position.”
This is appalling and unprecedented in modern American history. There was no hedging from Trump, as in, of course I’d accept the results unless the results were very close and there was room to contest things. Nothing like that. This is the full Breitbartization of the election, and it makes me worry about violence in the streets from his supporters if Trump loses.
This is not new, but saying it again, in this debate at this point in the campaign, made it especially chilling.  As I wrote on October 1:
One of the things we take for granted is that even in tumultuous times when elections are hard fought, the losers concede the election and embrace the process, even if things did not go well. That’s what Al Gore did after the Supreme Court decided Bush v. Gore. He did not call for demonstrations in the streets, which could have been destabilizing. In 2008, after great controversy over the Bush years, Obama v. McCain was very hard fought, but we were able to come together again as a country. As I blogged on Inauguration Day<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=11905> in 2009:
Regardless of your politics, today is a day to celebrate the remarkable peaceful transitions to power that occur in this country with each presidential transition. It is something we should not take for granted.
Donald Trump threatens this peace by raising the prospect not only of sending his supporters<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87054>, unsupervised, into polling places (likely in minority neighborhoods). This can lead to voter intimidation on election day<http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-hasen-vote-rigging-20160816-snap-story.html>. He has also backed off his earlier, somewhat ambiguous statement <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86893> that he would support Hillary Clinton if she won. Now, speaking to the New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/01/us/politics/donald-trump-interview-bill-hillary-clinton.html?ref=politics> he made a chilling statement:
Mr. Trump, aiming to unnerve Mrs. Clinton, even indicated that he was rethinking his statement at their last debate that he would “absolutely” support her if she won in November, saying: “We’re going to have to see. We’re going to see what happens. We’re going to have to see.”
This is already having an effect on his supporters. According to an AP-NORC poll<https://www.apnews.com/20b98547e9164d0cafc7419915608ce8/AP-NORC-Poll:-Half-of-Trump-backers-don't-trust-vote-count?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP>:
Only about one-third of Republicans say they have a great deal or quite a bit of confidence that votes on Election Day will be counted fairly, according to a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Half the people who have a favorable opinion of the Republican nominee say they have little to no confidence in the integrity of the vote count, the poll finds.
This is what happens when a candidate irresponsibly sows doubts.
Trump’s gambit may be planned or, more likely, he’s just making it up as he goes along. It is no joke. Our democracy is a fragile thing which depends upon accepting the rules of the game.
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Election law brawl; Soros v. Lincoln”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87770>
Posted on October 19, 2016 5:24 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87770> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
San Diego Reader: <http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2016/oct/19/radar-election-law-brawl/>
San Diego Republicans are facing off against liberal billionaire George Soros in an improbable big-money brawl about whether the city should change its election laws. The way it is now, candidates for city office who get more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary are automatically elected and don’t have to face the second-highest vote-getter in the fall. The San Diego chamber of commerce’s political action committee has put up $50,000 so far to defeat Measure K, a proposal to require run-offs in all cases. The GOP Lincoln Club has done the same.
Now comes the Open Society Policy Center of Washington DC, ponying up $200,000 in favor of the measure.
Huh.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


Federal Court in Ohio Issues Order to Allow Purged Voters to Cast Ballots Which Will Count<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87763>
Posted on October 19, 2016 3:34 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87763> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Back in September a 6th Circuit panel ruled 2-1 that Ohio’s voter purge procedures violated the NVRA.<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86811>
Meanwhile, following the panel decision, the federal district court (which had earlier found the purge procedures did not violate the NVRA) has now issued this order<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/randolph-remand.pdf>, which seems to give the plaintiffs some good protections to get many wrongly purged voters’ ballots counted.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, NVRA (motor voter)<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=33>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Local TX GOP Recruits Poll Watchers With Claim Of ‘Voter Fraud’ In Dem Areas”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87760>
Posted on October 19, 2016 1:21 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87760> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
TPM:<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/tarrant-county-gop-poll-watchers?utm_content=buffer9691e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer>
The local Republican Party in Tarrant County, Texas – which includes Fort Worth and is state’s third most populous county – is being accused of egging on discriminatory voting practices with an email it sent calling for “poll watchers” for “Democrat-controlled polling locations.” The email said the GOP wants workers “to make sure OUR VOTER ID LAW IS FOLLOWED,” without noting that the Texas voter ID law was recently softened after an appeals court ruled it had racially discriminatory effects.
A voting rights advocacy group has sent a letter of complaint about the email to the Department of Justice.
The email from the Tarrant County Republican Party was titled “ALERT***EMERGENCY VOTER FRAUD INFORMATION
INSIDE***ALERT**” according to the complaint letter, and said that the party is “looking for Poll Watchers for Early Voting location sites and Election Day polling locations.”
“We especially need poll watchers in Democrat-controlled polling locations. Voter ID is still required in Texas,” the email, which is also available online, said. “We want to make sure OUR VOTER ID LAW IS FOLLOWED.”

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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Will The New era Of Limited Federal Monitoring Still Protect Voter Rights?”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87758>
Posted on October 19, 2016 12:52 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87758> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Nina Totenberg reports <http://www.npr.org/2016/10/19/498559568/for-the-first-time-in-50-years-federal-observers-wont-be-monitoring-the-election?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=politics&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews> for NPR.
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Posted in Department of Justice<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Two Democratic operatives lose jobs after James O’Keefe sting”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87756>
Posted on October 19, 2016 12:39 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87756> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Weigel<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/19/two-democratic-operatives-lose-jobs-after-james-okeefe-sting/> at WaPo:
Scott Foval and Robert Creamer, two little-known but influential Democratic political operatives, have left their jobs after video investigations by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas Action found them entertaining dark notions about how to win elections. Foval was laid off Monday by Americans United for Change, where he had been national field director; Creamer announced Tuesday night<http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/project-veritas-action-robert-creamer-donald-trump-rallies/> that he was “stepping back” from the work he was doing for the unified Democratic campaign for Hillary Clinton.
The moves came after 36 hours of coverage, led by conservative and social media, for O’Keefe’s video series “Rigging the Election.” In them, Foval is filmed telling hidden-camera-toting journalists about how they have disrupted Republican events. Foval also goes on at length about how an organization might cover up in-person voter fraud. In another Tuesday night statement, the Creamer-founded Democracy Partners, which used Foval as a contractor, denounced both Project Veritas and the statements caught on camera….
In the “voter fraud” video, Foval looks — somehow — even worse, describing how voters could be sent to Midwestern states to cast fraudulent ballots. But when PVAction edits this into a narrative, something gets lost. Foval says that “Bob Creamer comes up with a lot of these ideas,” but what the “ideas” are is lost to a quick edit. After a quick introduction of Creamer that covers his 2005 conviction for tax evasion, Creamer is seen talking to a journalist posing as a possible donor, rambling a bit as he describes how to get voter IDs to people who need them.
“What do you really need, okay?” says the journalist. “What makes you a citizen? And if you look at that checklist, it’s an ID card of any kind that shows you who you are and a pay stub that shows you’re getting paid at a local address some place.”…
o get registered, you mean?” asks Creamer.
“Yeah,” says the journalist. “Let’s say I had business inside of, say, Illinois or Michigan, and I hired people, and I had addresses for them, I could write them checks, I could use them as day laborers or whatever and use them and find my way around the voter registration law for Hispanics.”
Creamer quickly begins jotting down names of voter registration groups: “There are a couple of different organizations — that’s their big trick.” But while the implication is that the journalist is pitching mass voter fraud, he never says as much, and Creamer never agrees to it. In another tape, filmed at a restaurant, Creamer hears another version of the pitch and says, “My fear is that someone would decide that this is a big voter fraud scheme.”
In the end, PVAction’s evidence that Creamer might help with a voter fraud scheme is that Foval hints at it. In a follow-up clip, Foval tells the undercover journalist that Creamer was not onboard with any scheme to grant ID cards but that he told Creamer it could be handled by someone else. “We talk about a lot of things we don’t talk about,” Foval says conspiratorially. In PVAction’s telling, the “someone else” might be “dreamer” activist César Vargas, who is filmed saying he might be able to help another undercover journalist, if not in 2016.
But Vargas, as of now the only target of these videos who has not lost a job, claims<https://www.facebook.com/caesar.vargas.9/posts/861260176277>that PVAction left out exculpatory video of the interview. “They have a transcript of our conversation to confirm I told them that voting twice was illegal,” Vargas wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. “I will not respond to Fox News or the trolls but let them have their field day of conspiracies.”
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Homeless advocate fights for the right to run for office”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87753>
Posted on October 19, 2016 12:07 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87753> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Interesting case<http://www.montereyherald.com/social-affairs/20161006/homeless-advocate-fights-for-the-right-to-run-for-office> out of Salinas. (Trial court has rejected his bid<https://twitter.com/MelendezSalinas/status/788815135733231616> to run for office.)
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, residency<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=38>


Unanimous 10th Circuit Panel Rejects Kobach Arguments Regarding Proof of Citizenship, Calling His Claims of Major Non-Citizen Voting “Pure Speculation”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87751>
Posted on October 19, 2016 11:20 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87751> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
85-page opinon.<http://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/16/16-3147.pdf>
A perfect string of losses so far for Kobach.  It couldn’t have happened to a nicer charlatan.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, NVRA (motor voter)<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=33>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“If you want a more powerful President Trump, impose term limits on Congress”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87749>
Posted on October 19, 2016 10:58 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87749> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Thad Kousser <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/19/if-you-want-a-more-powerful-president-trump-impose-term-limits-on-congress/> for the Monkey Cage.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“This Election Is Being Rigged—but Not by Democrats”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87746>
Posted on October 19, 2016 10:40 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87746> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Excellent Ari Berman article <https://www.thenation.com/article/this-election-is-being-rigged/> with a lousy title (I don’t like the “rigged” framing). We should really avoid using that term except to refer to things like election officials changing vote totals.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
Wake Up Progressives: The 2016 Election is Now All About the Supreme Court and Every Issue You Care About<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87734>
Posted on October 19, 2016 10:15 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87734> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Tonight’s debate is going to focus in part on the Supreme Court, and for very good reason.
Barring some bombshell, the 2016 presidential election is over,<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/election/2016/us-president> and Hillary Clinton will beat Donald Trump. But control of the United States Senate is another matter. It is not at all clear<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/election/2016/us-senate> who will win control of the Senate, and with Senate control comes the ability to confirm or block a Supreme Court appointment. And with a Supreme Court majority comes control of every important issue liberals and conservatives care about, from voting rights to the environment to abortion rights to gun rights. Let me take each of these points in turn.
Senate control means control of the Supreme Court. Republicans have been blocking the appointment of older, moderate D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland for months, who President Obama nominated to replace Justice Scalia who died in February. They say it is to give the next president a chance to make the appointment, but it is really about preserving conservative control of the Supreme Court which has existed since the 1970s. Indeed, John McCain made waves this week<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/17/progressives-ponder-the-unthinkable-a-postelection-supreme-court-blockade/>when he suggested that Republicans in the Senate could block Hillary Clinton’s appointment to the Supreme Court for her entire term. (McCain’s office walked the claim back, but it is a pretty clear signal to conservatives to put all their efforts into keeping control of the Senate.) And now you have conservative Michael Stokes Paulson in the National Review that we should move <http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441188/supreme-court-2016-election-fewer-justices-would-curb-power> to a Supreme Court of six Justices. No doubt about it: if Clinton becomes president and Republicans control the Senate, there will be a concerted effort to block ANY of her nominations to the Supreme Court.
But what about a Republican filibuster? Even if Democrats take narrow control of the Senate, the current Senate rules provide that it takes 60 affirmative votes to overcome a filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee. Democrats when they last controlled the Senate eliminated this rule for judicial appointees (and executive nominations generally) aside from the Supreme Court. There is no doubt in my mind that whenever Democrats or Republicans will need to kill the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees to get someone through, they will. Forget about comity in the Senate, forget about the question about whether this will ruin the special nature of the Senate. In this polarized time, that debate is over. The parties will do whatever they need to to get their nominees through. And there’s a pro-democracy argument to be made in favor of Democrats nuking the filibuster: the Senate is itself an undemocratic institution, where small states (such as Wyoming) get as much representation as big states (such as California or Texas). Majority rule without the filibuster in the Senate actually promotes democracy, especially because Democratic Senators represent more people<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2010/02/let_the_majority_rule.html> than Republican Senators. The argument about the filibuster is essentially over. We are in an era of political hardball, and don’t expect Mitch McConnell to give a Clinton nominee even a hearing, and don’t expect Chuck Schumer to save the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees in the name of the Senate institution.
Multiple Supreme Court appointments in the next few years likely. I still expect if Clinton wins and Democrats retake the Senate, that the Republican Senate under McConnell will confirm Garland in the lame duck session of Congress (unless Obama withdraws the nomination, which I don’t expect). Why would he do this? Garland is older and more moderate than a likely Supreme Court nominee from Clinton. But even if that seat is filled, I expect Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, or both to go within the first two years of a Clinton presidency if there is a Democratic Senate in 2016. In 2018, there’s a very good chance Republicans will retake control of the Senate <http://www.rollcall.com/news/home/for-democrats-2018-senate-math-is-daunting> and block and further Supreme Court nominees. So there is a small window. The Supreme Court has had at least 5 (mostly) conservative Justices since the end of the Warren Court. From the 1970s on, we’ve had conservatives making decisions on the most important factors in American life. And now, all the conservatives on the Court are Republican-appointed and all the liberals are Democratic-appointed. This election may matter for up to a generation for control of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is the most important civil rights issue of our time. I argued last year<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/supreme-court-greatest-civil-rights-cause> that “The future composition of the Supreme Court is the most important civil rights cause of our time. It is more important than racial justice, marriage equality, voting rights, money in politics, abortion rights, gun rights, or managing climate change. It matters more because the ability to move forward in these other civil rights struggles depends first and foremost upon control of the Court. And control for the next generation is about to be up for grabs, likely in the next presidential election, a point many on the right but few on the left seem to have recognized.” This is the moment that this all matters. And it all comes down to the Senate.

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


“Appeals court denies more early voting time in Forsyth and four other NC counties”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87743>
Posted on October 19, 2016 10:11 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87743> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
AP reports<http://www.journalnow.com/news/elections/appeals-court-denies-more-early-voting-time-in-forsyth-and/article_a78e562a-9616-11e6-88d1-bfb26c75410e.html#.WAel1CU6H_k.twitter> on a 4th Circuit denial of an emergency motion.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Dem brags about bringing in carloads to disrupt rally”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87741>
Posted on October 19, 2016 10:08 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87741> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:<http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2016/10/18/democrat-talks-disrupting-event/92381328/>
Undercover videos released this week feature a Democratic activist bragging about disrupting a rally for Gov. Scott Walker last year, talking about bringing people into Wisconsin from out of state and decrying Midwesterners as racist.
The videos, released in two parts, were made by James O’Keefe, the conservative activist responsible for videos in 2009 that resulted in the dismantling of the community organizing group ACORN. Democrats have criticized him for misleading viewers by heavily editing his recordings.
The secretly recorded videos feature extended comments from Scott Foval, who has long been involved in politics in Wisconsin and recently performed work for liberal groups People for the American Way and Americans United for Change. CNN reported Foval had been fired because of the videos released this week.
Statement from Foval.<https://twitter.com/patrickdmarley/status/788780348465262592>
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Florida Motor Vehicle Offices are Violating Federal Voting Rights Law”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87739>
Posted on October 19, 2016 10:06 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87739> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Project Vote:<http://www.projectvote.org/press-releases/florida-motor-vehicle-offices-violating-federal-voting-rights-law/>
Citing clear evidence that Florida residents have been denied the opportunity to register to vote or update their registrations, attorneys from voting rights groups Project Vote and Demos sent a pre-litigation notice letter<http://www.projectvote.org/wp-content/uploads/10.19.16-FL-Notice-Letter_FINAL.pdf> today, on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVF), alerting the state that it is violating Section 5 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
Today’s notice letter<http://www.projectvote.org/wp-content/uploads/10.19.16-FL-Notice-Letter_FINAL.pdf> calls on Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner, and Terry Rhodes, Executive Director of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV), to take immediate steps to ensure that the Florida DHSMV complies with the voter registration requirements of the NVRA.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, NVRA (motor voter)<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=33>


“Trump thinks non-citizens are deciding elections. We debunked the research he’s citing.”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87732>
Posted on October 19, 2016 8:16 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87732> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Stephen Ansolabehere, Samantha Luks and Brian Schaffner<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/19/trump-thinks-non-citizens-are-deciding-elections-we-debunked-the-research-hes-citing/>:
Donald Trump has increasingly sought to cast doubt on the validity of the upcoming 2016 election outcome, claiming that the results will be “rigged.” He recently cited<https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/trump-says-non-citizen-votes-may-have-been-responsible-for-obamas-2008-victory-in-north-carolina/2016/10/17/029db1b2-94ca-11e6-9cae-2a3574e296a6_video.html> a study<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379415001420#bib1> by political scientists Jesse Richman, Gulshan Chattha, and David Earnest that purports to use data from a large national survey — the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) — to show that some non-citizens have voted in previous elections. This study was summarized<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/10/24/could-non-citizens-decide-the-november-election/> at The Monkey Cage and provoked three rebuttals (here<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/10/27/methodological-challenges-affect-study-of-non-citizens-voting/>, here<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/10/28/what-can-we-learn-about-the-electoral-behavior-of-non-citizens-from-a-survey-designed-to-learn-about-citizens/>, andhere<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/10/31/are-non-citizens-following-american-election-laws/>) as well as a response<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/11/02/do-non-citizens-vote-in-u-s-elections-a-reply-to-our-critics/> from the authors.
After this exchange, we published a peer-reviewed piece arguing that this study is wrong and that there is absolutely no evidence from the data that non-citizens voted in recent presidential elections.
We argue that the findings in the Richman et al. article can be entirely explained by measurement error. Specifically, survey respondents occasionally select the incorrect response to a question merely by accident.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D87732&title=%E2%80%9CTrump%20thinks%20non-citizens%20are%20deciding%20elections.%20We%20debunked%20the%20research%20he%E2%80%99s%20citing.%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Poll Workers Are Hoping For Calm But Preparing For The Worst”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87730>
Posted on October 19, 2016 8:15 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87730> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Pam Fessler reports<http://www.npr.org/2016/10/19/498455896/poll-workers-are-hoping-for-calm-but-preparing-for-the-worst> for NPR.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D87730&title=%E2%80%9CPoll%20Workers%20Are%20Hoping%20For%20Calm%20But%20Preparing%20For%20The%20Worst%E2%80%9D>
Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


Trump’s Campaign Manager, Unlike Cowardly Mitch McConnell, Willing to Say No Widespread Voter Fraud on Election Day<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87728>
Posted on October 19, 2016 7:56 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87728> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
See here.<https://twitter.com/HallieJackson/status/788736556789923840>
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D87728&title=Trump%E2%80%99s%20Campaign%20Manager%2C%20Unlike%20Cowardly%20Mitch%20McConnell%2C%20Willing%20to%20Say%20No%20Widespread%20Voter%20Fraud%20on%20Election%20Day>
Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


--
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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