[EL] ELB News and Commentary 12/6/17

Tue Dec 5 20:25:17 PST 2017

“Some of Alabama County’s Sample Ballots Marked for Doug Jones”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96236>
Posted on December 5, 2017 8:18 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96236> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WAAY:<http://www.waaytv.com/content/news/Some-of-Alabama-countys-sample-ballots-marked-for-Doug-Jones-462202293.html>
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill confirms some sample ballots in one Alabama county were marked for Democratic US Senate candidate Doug Jones.
This comes after Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore’s campaign wrote an open letter to Merrill Friday asking him to investigate potential voter fraud in Bullock County. The county seat of Bullock County, Union Springs, is approximately 45 miles southeast of Montgomery.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D96236&title=%E2%80%9CSome%20of%20Alabama%20County%E2%80%99s%20Sample%20Ballots%20Marked%20for%20Doug%20Jones%E2%80%9D>
Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Federal appeals judges question challenge to revised Texas voter ID law”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96234>
Posted on December 5, 2017 8:13 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96234> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Texas Tribune:<https://www.texastribune.org/2017/12/05/texas-heads-back-5th-circuit-long-winding-voter-id-fight/>
In Texas’ bid to keep its voter identification law intact, it was its legal foes — lawyers representing voting and civil rights groups and individual voters of color — who faced a tougher line of questioning Tuesday before a federal appellate court.
In light of recent revisions to the state’s voter ID law, two judges on the three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals raised questions about claims that lawmakers intentionally discriminated against voters of color when they passed rules on which photo IDs can be presented at the polls. That intentional discrimination claim, which a lower court affirmed this year, is key to the case over the state voter ID restrictions.
“If there is nothing that says we are trying to advantage white voters … isn’t that proof that there wasn’t discriminatory intent?” Judge Edith Jones, a Reagan appointee, said of the plaintiffs’ lack of a smoking gun to prove purposeful discrimination by lawmakers, despite thousands of pages of memos and transcripts of debates over the voter ID requirements.
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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>

“Former Colorado GOP chairman accused of voter fraud blames diabetic episode in Weld District Court”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96232>
Posted on December 5, 2017 8:07 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96232> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Seriously?<https://www.greeleytribune.com/news/crime/former-colorado-gop-chairman-accused-of-voter-fraud-blames-diabetic-episode-in-weld-district-court/>
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D96232&title=%E2%80%9CFormer%20Colorado%20GOP%20chairman%20accused%20of%20voter%20fraud%20blames%20diabetic%20episode%20in%20Weld%20District%20Court%E2%80%9D>
Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Free Pizza for College Students Voting Apparently OK in Boulder, Colorado<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96230>
Posted on December 5, 2017 8:02 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96230> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Daily Camera reports.<http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-election-news/ci_31502925/free-pizza-upheld>
The no-no would be if it was intended to get someone to vote one way or another.
In federal elections, goodies for turnout would be clearly illegal.<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=257564>

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Posted in vote buying<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=43>

“FEC Draft Ruling Would Require Disclaimers on Facebook Ads”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96228>
Posted on December 5, 2017 7:49 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96228> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Ken Doyle<http://news.bna.com/mpdm/MPDMWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=124571888&vname=mpebulallissues&jd=000001602872d1a3affeff7602090001&split=0> for Bloomberg BNA:
Political ads on Facebook would have to carry disclaimers stating who paid for each ad, under a new draft advisory opinion<http://saos.fec.gov/aodocs/201712.pdf> set to be considered by the Federal Election Commission.
Disclaimer requirements for online political ads have been uncertain since the FEC commissioners deadlocked in 2011 on an advisory opinion request in which Facebook Inc. asked for an exemption from disclaimer requirements….
The draft is expected to be considered by the FEC commissioners Dec. 14 at their last meeting of the year. Alternative drafts could be released before the meeting. At least four votes are required to approve any final ruling, and there are currently five commissioners, as one seat is vacant.
The FEC also is working on a new regulation which could impose broad new disclaimer requirements on all online political ads. A draft rule is expected to be completed by FEC staff in the coming weeks, according to Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic FEC commissioner, who spoke at this week’s annual meeting of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws in Toronto.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, social media and social protests<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>

“Trump’s voter fraud commission plans to create a massive voter database. Former national security officials say it could be hacked.”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96226>
Posted on December 5, 2017 7:40 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96226> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/12/05/trumps-voter-fraud-commission-plans-to-create-a-massive-voter-database-former-national-security-officials-say-it-could-be-hacked/?utm_term=.96960e76c45c>
More than a half-dozen technology experts and former national security officials filed an amicus brief<http://www.law.georgetown.edu/academics/centers-institutes/constitutional-advocacy-protection/upload/common-cause-amicus-brief.pdf> Tuesday urging a federal court to halt the collection of voter information for a planned government database.
Former national intelligence director James R. Clapper Jr., one of the co-signatories of the brief, warned that a White House plan to create a centralized database containing sensitive information on millions of American voters will become an attractive target for nation states and criminal hackers. This summer, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity issued a sweeping request to state officials to submit voter data to “analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2017/06/PEIC-Letter-to-Connecticut-1.pdf>.” The commission, which is chaired by Vice President Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), was established after President Trump claimed that he would have won the popular vote if not for as many as 5 million illegally cast ballots. State officials haven’t found any indication that there was widespread voter fraud.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D96226&title=%E2%80%9CTrump%E2%80%99s%20voter%20fraud%20commission%20plans%20to%20create%20a%20massive%20voter%20database.%20Former%20national%20security%20officials%20say%20it%20could%20be%20hacked.%E2%80%9D>
Posted in 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
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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