[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/13/17

Thu Apr 13 08:07:59 PDT 2017

“Man pleads guilty in Kansas voter fraud case”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92095>
Posted on April 13, 2017 8:04 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92095> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
AP:<http://www.kmbz.com/articles/man-pleads-guilty-kansas-voter-fraud-case>
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has announced his first known prosecution of a non-citizen voting illegally since lawmakers in 2015 gave him the authority to prosecute voter fraud.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92095&title=%E2%80%9CMan%20pleads%20guilty%20in%20Kansas%20voter%20fraud%20case%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Top federal election official: voting fraud ‘not an epidemic’”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92093>
Posted on April 13, 2017 7:57 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92093> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
CPI:<https://www.publicintegrity.org/2017/04/13/20813/top-federal-election-official-voting-fraud-not-epidemic>
“You take a look at the registration, you have illegals, you have dead people you have this — it’s really a bad situation, it’s really bad,” Trump told<http://video.foxnews.com/v/5311416183001/?#sp=show-clips> Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in February when asked about election integrity.
That’s not how Matthew Masterson sees it.
Masterson — the newly minted,<https://www.eac.gov/news/2017/02/27/masterson-named-new-eac-chairman/> Republican-nominated chairman of the bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission<https://www.eac.gov/about-the-useac/> — ranks Election 2016 among the most trouble-free elections ever.
The Center for Public Integrity<http://www.publicintegrity.org/politics> last week spoke with Masterson about a range of election-related topics. Among them: voter fraud and suppression, U.S. House Republicans’ attempts<https://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/12/12/13993/kill-election-assistance-commission> to<https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/07/bill-to-eliminate-commission-overseeing-voting-system-security-advances-in-congress/> kill<https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/election-assistance-commission-republicans-congress/516462/> the Election Assistance Commission and his own goals for his one-year chairmanship at the tiny agency<https://www.eac.gov/assets/1/6/FY_2016_CBJ_Jan_29_2015_FINAL.pdf>.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92093&title=%E2%80%9CTop%20federal%20election%20official%3A%20voting%20fraud%20%E2%80%98not%20an%20epidemic%E2%80%99%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, Election Assistance Commission<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=34>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Gorsuch Arrives At The Supreme Court At A Crucial Moment For Voting Rights”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92091>
Posted on April 13, 2017 7:53 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92091> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
TPM:<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gorsuch-voting-rights-supreme-court>
Less then a week into the job, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch will have his first chance, behind closed doors at least, to weigh in on voting rights.
When the justices meet Friday for their private conference, the first since Gorsuch’s confirmation, among the cases that they will be considering whether to take up is an appeal<https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docketfiles/16-833.htm> of a landmark ruling striking down North Carolina’s mammoth restrictive voting law.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92091&title=%E2%80%9CGorsuch%20Arrives%20At%20The%20Supreme%20Court%20At%20A%20Crucial%20Moment%20For%20Voting%20Rights%E2%80%9D>
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>

Look at How Much Influence Super PAC Donors Have Over Even Very Rich Presidents<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92087>
Posted on April 13, 2017 7:51 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92087> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT:<https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/us/politics/steve-bannon-white-house-trump.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0&referer=https://t.co/0KYNW7GgiE>
Mr. Bannon’s allies have already begun discussing a post-White House future for him. On Friday, his main political patron, Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of Robert Mercer, a major Trump donor, holed up in her office at Cambridge Analytica in New York, discussing possibilities for Mr. Bannon should he leave, according to two people briefed on the meeting. Mr. Bannon served on the data-mining firm’s board until last summer.
And while the president has grown weary of directives from donors like the Mercers, he is mindful that they are among his major financial backers, and he is said to be conscious of the need to keep it that way.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92087&title=Look%20at%20How%20Much%20Influence%20Super%20PAC%20Donors%20Have%20Over%20Even%20Very%20Rich%20Presidents>
Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“Study: Texas Voter Education Campaign Failed To Prevent ID Confusion”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92085>
Posted on April 12, 2017 6:08 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92085> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Texas Tribune:<http://keranews.org/post/study-texas-voter-education-campaign-failed-prevent-id-confusion>
Texas’ court-ordered $2.5 million voter education campaign failed to prevent widespread confusion about the state’s identification rules ahead of the 2016 general election, according to a study released Monday.
And such a misunderstanding may have kept some eligible voters in key political battlegrounds from showing up to the polls, the University of Houston study<https://ssl.uh.edu/class/hobby/voterid2016/voterid2016.pdf> found.
A federal judge last year ordered the Texas Secretary of State’s office to spend $2.5 million educating Texans about its voter ID requirements ahead of the 2016 elections. The requirements were relaxed after a federal appeals court last year ruled that Texas’ strict 2011 ID law discriminated against minority voters.
The education efforts — a mix of television and radio advertisements and online media — fell short, the research suggested.
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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>

“Dallas Pastor Concerned About Voter Fraud”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92083>
Posted on April 12, 2017 5:57 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92083> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NBC<http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Dallas-Pastor-Concerned-About-Voter-Fraud-419129294.html> DFW:
West Dallas pastor has raised concerns of multiple attempts at voter fraud after several members of his church received mail-in ballots that they did not apply for.
Community Fellowship Church Pastor James Armstrong said Monday at least 10 members of his church, all of whom are senior citizens, have filed complaints with the Dallas County Elections office after they received ballots for the upcoming May 6 election.
“West Dallas has a history of being taken advantage of and it’s really unbelievable that in 2017 we are still being disenfranchised,” Armstrong said.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92083&title=%E2%80%9CDallas%20Pastor%20Concerned%20About%20Voter%20Fraud%E2%80%9D>
Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

TX: “Analysis: A law that lets political majorities cheat — and win”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92081>
Posted on April 12, 2017 5:54 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92081> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Ross Ramsey<https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/12/analysis-law-lets-political-majorities-cheat-and-win/> for the Texas Tribune:
The state seems to be doing everything in its power to prove that it cannot be trusted with voting rights.
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Posted in The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>, 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
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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