[EL] Michigan seeks emergency SCOTUS relief/more news 9/2/16

Fri Sep 2 11:49:55 PDT 2016

Michigan Asks for Emergency #SCOTUS Relief in Straight-Ticket Voting Case<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86158>
Posted on September 2, 2016 11:08 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86158> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Yesterday I reported<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86107> that Michigan lost a bid for en banc review of a stay a trial court order stopping Michigan from getting rid of straight-ticket (party lever) voting, on grounds that doing so would be a Voting Rights Act violation.

Now Chris Geidner reports <https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/771769849894801408> that Michigan is seeking emergency relief at the Supreme Court in this case, and it wants a resolution by Sept. 8. That’s a tight time frame with Labor Day weekend. (In the Ohio case, Justice Kagan just gave Ohio until the 8th to file its response).

I haven’t seen the full petition yet, so it is hard for me to judge what’s likely to happen in the case. But from what I know at this point, getting a stay will be tough going for the state.

UPDATE: Here<https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3039086/16A225-Stay-Application.pdf%20%E2%80%A6> is the stay request. OK, this is really not well done.  The introduction promisesa Purcell type argument<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2545676>, the best type of argument to try to find a fifth liberal Justice who could get interested in the case. But then the brief does not mention Purcell again, at all!

And then the lead argument is that this case is in contradiction with Crawford, the case rejecting a facial challenge to Indiana’s voter id law. NOT the way to attract a fifth Justice, and not really responsive to the argument that the law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. (The petition does address the VRA issue second). (And I don’t think the weakness of the brief is intentional, as it might have been with the Clement brief)<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86119>.

Add to that the fact that the Sixth Circuit said a stay made sense because Michigan failed to offer any affirmative evidence supporting its view that straight ticket voting did not burden minority voters.

These weaknesses and the really quick timetable make me think this is not going to be a winner for emergency SCOTUS relief for the state of Michigan, even if, after a full appeal, the state of Michigan could well win its case.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

Justice Kagan Asks for OH to Respond to “Golden Week” Emergency Petition<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86156>
Posted on September 2, 2016 10:46 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86156> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Response due<https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/771718655788851200> Thursday, Sept. 8.

See my earlier coverage and thoughts<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86121> on this case.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>, Voting Rights Act<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

“North Carolina May End Up Back In Court Over Its Foot Dragging On Early Voting”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86154>
Posted on September 2, 2016 10:37 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86154> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

TPM reports.<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/north-carolina-early-voting-state-board>
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Posted in election 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>

“Are ‘Instant Runoffs’ a Better Way to Vote?”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86152>
Posted on September 2, 2016 10:35 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86152> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Stateline reports.<http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/09/02/are-instant-runoffs-a-better-way-to-vote>
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Posted in alternative voting systems<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>

“Armed Men Once Patrolled the Polls. Will They Reappear in November?”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86150>
Posted on September 2, 2016 10:34 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86150> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Must-listen WNYC<http://www.wnyc.org/story/armed-men-once-patrolled-polls-will-they-reappear-november/> on the RNC consent decree and chances of Trump being caught up in it:

Republicans have a long history<http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/poll-election-monitor-challengers-vote-laws-watchers-214189> of aggressively “watching” the polls, and Trump has more than a passing connection to the 1981 voter suppression case. His late brother-in-law and personal attorney, John Barry, was the lawyer representing the Republicans in the lawsuit that stemmed from the controversy.

And Trump seems to have been prompted to talk about the issue this summer by Roger Stone, a political operative and longtime adviser who worked on the 1981 Kean campaign. Stone, who often pushes conspiracy theories, told WNYC that he had nothing to do with the National Ballot Security Task Force but he is concerned about computer manipulation of voting machines. Days after Stone was heard warning<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bPR846gO8U> of such criminality on a Breitbart News radio show (“I think we have widespread voter fraud”), Trump began bringing it up on the campaign trail. …

The consent decree “had a legitimate chilling effect on their engaging in some of these efforts that they purport to maintain are matters of legitimate ballot security,” said Angelo Genova, an attorney who represented Democrats in the case. The settlement is “an effective tool over the last three decades to keep the Republican National Committee’s apparent inclinations in check.”

Genova, who is one of the most prominent election lawyers in the state, said the consent decree could place legal limits on Trump’s efforts to patrol polls on Election Day if the Republican National Committee is in any way funding or backing his ballot security program.

Back on August 12, I first suggested Democrats could move against Trump’s actions under the consent decree.<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85289>
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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>

“U.S. Attorney’s Office recommends putting Robert McDonnell on trial again”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86148>
Posted on September 2, 2016 10:28 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86148> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-attorneys-office-recommends-putting-robert-mcdonnell-on-trial-again/2016/09/02/3ea3eff0-6fb8-11e6-8533-6b0b0ded0253_story.html?postshare=5131472835054095&tid=ss_tw>
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Posted in bribery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=54>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Putin Says DNC Hack Was a Public Service, Russia Didn’t Do It”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86146>
Posted on September 2, 2016 10:27 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86146> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Totally credible.<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-09-02/putin-says-dnc-hack-was-a-public-good-but-russia-didn-t-do-it>
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

NYT: Congressman Introduced Tobacco Lobbyist Bill Verbatim; Sen. Landrieu Failed to Register as Lobbyist<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86144>
Posted on September 2, 2016 10:22 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86144> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Eric Lipton on business as usual <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/03/us/politics/e-cigarettes-vaping-cigars-fda-altria.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1> in DC.
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Posted in legislation and legislatures<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=27>, lobbying<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=28>

“Inside the Republican creation of the North Carolina voting bill dubbed the ‘monster’ law”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86142>
Posted on September 2, 2016 10:19 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=86142> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Today’s must-read<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/inside-the-republican-creation-of-the-north-carolina-voting-bill-dubbed-the-monster-law/2016/09/01/79162398-6adf-11e6-8225-fbb8a6fc65bc_story.html> at WaPo:

A review of these documents shows that North Carolina GOP leaders launched a meticulous and coordinated effort to deter black voters, who overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. The law, created and passed entirely by white legislators, evoked the state’s ugly history of blocking African Americans from voting — practices that had taken a civil rights movement and extensive federal intervention to stop.
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Posted in election 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>

--
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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