[EL] ELB News and Commentary 1/28/17

Sat Jan 28 11:28:51 PST 2017

“Voter fraud investigations have already happened. They don’t support Trump’s assertions.”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90766>
Posted on January 28, 2017 11:26 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90766> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bangor Daily News editorial<https://bangordailynews.com/2017/01/28/opinion/editorials/voter-fraud-investigations-have-already-happened-they-dont-support-trumps-assertions/>.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90766&title=%E2%80%9CVoter%20fraud%20investigations%20have%20already%20happened.%20They%20don%E2%80%99t%20support%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20assertions.%E2%80%9D>
Posted in The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Republicans in Congress don’t want anything to do with Trump’s voter-fraud probe”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90764>
Posted on January 28, 2017 11:23 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90764> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/27/why-republicans-in-congress-dont-really-want-anything-to-do-with-trumps-voter-fraud-investigation/?postshare=4361485520490795&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.4619e84b9598>
If President Trump is waiting for the Republican Congress to join him in his quixotic quest to launch the first investigation in American history that will uncover systematic voter fraud  — well, he may be waiting a while.
ABC reported<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-donald-trump-vows-launch-major-investigation-alleged/story?id=45033266> Wednesday that Trump would like Congress’s help as he launches a “major<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/824227824903090176>” investigation to find the 3 million to 5 million votes he claims were cast illegally. For a variety of political and logistical reasons — but mostly political — Congress will almost definitely not have Trump’s back.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90764&title=%E2%80%9CRepublicans%20in%20Congress%20don%E2%80%99t%20want%20anything%20to%20do%20with%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20voter-fraud%20probe%E2%80%9D>
Posted in The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Republican redistricting is taking a beating in the courts, right now”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90762>
Posted on January 28, 2017 11:15 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90762> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/28/republican-redistricting-is-taking-a-beating-in-the-courts-right-now/?utm_term=.659e3b21c4e4>
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90762&title=%E2%80%9CRepublican%20redistricting%20is%20taking%20a%20beating%20in%20the%20courts%2C%20right%20now%E2%80%9D>
Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

“There’s a reason Trump keeps lying about voter fraud”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90760>
Posted on January 28, 2017 9:44 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90760> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Jason Kander <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/theres-a-reason-trump-keeps-lying-about-voter-fraud/2017/01/27/8396adb4-e3ee-11e6-a453-19ec4b3d09ba_story.html?postshare=7411485546086285&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.42a6999506fb> WaPo oped:
No doubt realizing that he was losing the cable-news message war, President Trump has called for<http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/trump-calls-for-major-investigation-into-voter-fraud/index.html> a witch hunt in an attempt to prove the voter fraud lie he has been telling himself about why he lost the popular vote in November.
On both sides of the aisle, conventional wisdom chalks this up to the president being a very insecure person struggling with the reality that 54 percent of American voters chose someone else, but that doesn’t give the president his due. Trump’s staggering inferiority complex clearly is just one of two reasons he’s telling the biggest version yet of a lie that his party has been telling about voter fraud for years. The other reason is that he’d like his party to win the 2018 midterm elections and he’d like to be reelected in 2020, and to do those things he needs to suppress voter turnout.
By deliberately undermining confidence in the integrity of our democracy, the president can make it quite a bit easier for his party to push legislation making it harder for certain eligible voters to vote. Curtailing voting rights by dishonestly inventing widespread fraud has been a major part of the Republican Party’s political strategy for a while. Now that plan is getting a major boost from a president who has no problem just making stuff up.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90760&title=%E2%80%9CThere%E2%80%99s%20a%20reason%20Trump%20keeps%20lying%20about%20voter%20fraud%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Who Is Registered to Vote in Two States? Some in Trump’s Inner Circle”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90758>
Posted on January 28, 2017 9:31 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90758> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/politics/trump-cabinet-family-voter-registration.html?ref=politics>
Donald J. Trump<http://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/donald-trump?inline=nyt-per> spent his first week in office repeating the lie <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/politics/unauthorized-immigrant-voting-trump-lie.html> that between three million and five million people had voted illegally<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/us/politics/donald-trump-congress-democrats.html> in the November election, first to members of Congress, then on Twitter, then in an ABC News interview<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-abc-news-anchor-david-muir-interviews-president/story?id=45047602>, then again on Twitter on Friday, citing an unsubstantiated claim popular in conspiracy circles.<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/politics/donald-trump-voter-fraud.html>…
Since then, a variety of news organizations have found that several members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle were registered in more than one state during the election. Several still are. There is no evidence that any of them voted twice.
Registered in two states
• Steve Bannon, Mr. Trump’s strategist, was registered to vote in Florida and New York, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune found<http://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20170124/column-does-stephen-bannon-live-in-sarasota-county-because-hes-registered-to-vote-here>.
• Tiffany Trump<http://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/tiffany-trump?inline=nyt-per>, Mr. Trump’s youngest daughter, was registered in Pennsylvania and New York, NBC News reported<http://www.today.com/news/kellyanne-conway-donald-trump-s-daughter-tiffany-isn-t-registered-t107422>.
• Sean Spicer, his press secretary, was registered in both Virginia and Rhode Island, according to The Washington Post<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/26/it-turns-out-trump-son-in-law-jared-kushner-is-also-registered-to-vote-in-two-states/?utm_term=.8bfbe5cfb2d5&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1>.
• Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and close adviser, was registered in New York and New Jersey, according to The Washington Post<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/26/it-turns-out-trump-son-in-law-jared-kushner-is-also-registered-to-vote-in-two-states/?utm_term=.8bfbe5cfb2d5&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1>.
• Steven Mnuchin, who is nominated to lead the Treasury Department, was registered in New York and California, CNN found<http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/kfile-mnuchin-voter-registration/index.html>.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90758&title=%E2%80%9CWho%20Is%20Registered%20to%20Vote%20in%20Two%20States%3F%20Some%20in%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20Inner%20Circle%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Dubious Vote-Fraud Claim Gets the Trump Seal of Approval”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90756>
Posted on January 28, 2017 9:29 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90756> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/politics/donald-trump-voter-fraud.html?ref=politics>
To support his call for a sweeping federal inquiry into his claims of vast voting fraud, President Trump turned on Friday to a little-known conservative activist whose work on the issue has been widely discredited and who has trafficked in conspiracy theories.
“Gregg Phillips and crew say at least 3,000,000 votes were illegal,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, a reference to a claim by Mr. Phillips, who helped create an app to report voter fraud, that he had “verified” such irregularities. With those words, Mr. Trump bestowed the imprimatur of the presidency on new ground: the feverish online fringes of American politics.
In elevating Mr. Phillips, who last month on Twitter cited “spook friends” to claim that “the Israelis impersonated the Russians” and interfered in the American election, Mr. Trump returned to a familiar pattern.
After a campaign in which he gave voice to outlandish falsehoods, including claims that Justice Antonin Scalia was suffocated by a pillow and Senator Ted Cruz’s father had a connection to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Mr. Trump has not left his penchant for conspiracy-mongering at the White House door.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90756&title=%E2%80%9CDubious%20Vote-Fraud%20Claim%20Gets%20the%20Trump%20Seal%20of%20Approval%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“The Voter Fraud Fantasy”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90754>
Posted on January 28, 2017 9:27 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90754> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT editorial.<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/opinion/the-voter-fraud-fantasy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region>
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90754&title=%E2%80%9CThe%20Voter%20Fraud%20Fantasy%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Trump’s evidence-free attack on the vote could cause serious harm”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90751>
Posted on January 28, 2017 9:24 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90751> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo editorial.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-evidence-free-attack-on-the-vote-could-cause-serious-harm/2017/01/27/f32e58ee-e4bf-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html?utm_term=.7c74511d7404&wpmk=MK0000200>
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90751&title=%E2%80%9CTrump%E2%80%99s%20evidence-free%20attack%20on%20the%20vote%20could%20cause%20serious%20harm%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Trump Pushes Voter Fraud Claim Citing Fringe Blogger”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90749>
Posted on January 28, 2017 9:18 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90749> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
ABC News:<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-pushes-voter-fraud-claim-citing-fringe-blogger/story?id=45101155>
Asked by ABC News if he had evidence to support his claim that millions of people voted illegally, Phillips demurred, saying he “is building that case right now.”
“I may be a whacko, I may be a nut, I don’t know, I don’t really care what they say about me,” he said.
Trump thought enough of Phillips’s theory that he cited it on Twitter….
Gerald Hebert, director of the Voting Rights and Redistricting Program at the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, DC., said it looked to him like President Trump was peddling a theory in search of validation.
“I mean this [voter fraud] has been studied, this isn’t just me theorizing about this, this has actually been studied, and it just, it doesn’t exist,” Hebert said.
The notion that voter fraud is being perpetrated by Democrats for a political advantage is undermined by the fact that the majority of state election offices are overseen by Republicans.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90749&title=%E2%80%9CTrump%20Pushes%20Voter%20Fraud%20Claim%20Citing%20Fringe%20Blogger%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Trump’s Threat to Investigate American Voters is a Danger to Democracy”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90747>
Posted on January 27, 2017 4:16 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90747> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Liz Kennedy and Danielle Root<https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/news/2017/01/27/297605/trumps-threat-to-investigate-american-voters-is-a-danger-to-democracy/> for CAP.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90747&title=%E2%80%9CTrump%E2%80%99s%20Threat%20to%20Investigate%20American%20Voters%20is%20a%20Danger%20to%20Democracy%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Sen. McConnell Does Not See Any Evidence of Widespread Voter Fraud<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90744>
Posted on January 27, 2017 2:51 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90744> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
File this <https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/825112737915170816> in the better late than never department:
SSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Friday that voter fraud should be dealt with at the state level and that he doesn’t see “any evidence” that millions of people illegally voted in the 2016 presidential election, as President Trump has claimed<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/802972944532209664?s=03>.
“I don’t believe the federal government needs to look at this,” said McConnell in an interview with National Journal in his office at the Capitol. “Our whole election system is state-based. There are a number of states who have been concerned about ballot security that have done something about it.”
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90744&title=Sen.%20McConnell%20Does%20Not%20See%20Any%20Evidence%20of%20Widespread%20Voter%20Fraud>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Report of Presidential Commission on Electoral Administration Appears Gone<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90741>
Posted on January 27, 2017 2:45 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90741> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The website www.supportthevoter.gov<http://www.supportthevoter.gov/> appears to have disappeared.
Here is an archived version<http://web.archive.org/web/20170125230314/https:/www.supportthevoter.gov/> of at least part of the site.
Intentional?

[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90741&title=Report%20of%20Presidential%20Commission%20on%20Electoral%20Administration%20Appears%20Gone>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“A Dubious Vote-Fraud Claim Gets the Trump Seal of Approval”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90739>
Posted on January 27, 2017 12:19 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90739> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/politics/donald-trump-voter-fraud.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news> on Phillips and President Trump.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90739&title=%E2%80%9CA%20Dubious%20Vote-Fraud%20Claim%20Gets%20the%20Trump%20Seal%20of%20Approval%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Pres. Trump Floats Idea of Eliminating Electoral College, and Sen. McConnell Immediately Talks Him Out of It<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90737>
Posted on January 27, 2017 12:13 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90737> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Government by impulse:<http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-first-week-governing-without-a-script-1485544924>
Two days later, the president had senior lawmakers over to the White House for an informal gathering. The group included the House and Senate leadership. During the gathering, the talk turned to campaigns, elections and voter fraud.
Mr. Trump then told the group that he was interested in getting rid of the Electoral College and replacing it with a national popular vote, say people who attended. Mr. Trump lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, a fact that has irritated the president to the point that he has called for a national probe of alleged voter fraud.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, spoke up, pointing him to the 2000 recount in Florida that lasted more than a month until it was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court. Imagine what a nationwide recount would look like. Mr. Trump demurred, and said he was fine to leave the current system in place.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90737&title=Pres.%20Trump%20Floats%20Idea%20of%20Eliminating%20Electoral%20College%2C%20and%20Sen.%20McConnell%20Immediately%20Talks%20Him%20Out%20of%20It>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Phillips Rejects Complaints He Has Offered No Public Evidence To Support His False Claim of 3 Million Illegal Voters<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90735>
Posted on January 27, 2017 11:25 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90735> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Mark Murray<http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/who-gregg-phillips-man-trump-name-checked-prove-voter-fraud-n713186> for NBC News:
When the fact-checking group PolitiFact<http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2016/nov/18/blog-posting/no-3-million-undocumented-immigrants-did-not-vote-/> looked into Phillips’ claims, it said his inability to release the proof made his findings suspect. “Phillips will not provide any evidence to support his claim, which happens to be undermined by publicly available information. If Phillips does release a more detailed report, we will consider that information. But for now, this claim is inaccurate. We rate it False.”…
Richard Hasen, an election-law expert at the University of California-Irvine School of Law, doesn’t buy Phillips’ allegations. “He’s offered nothing credible whatsoever. It is his word, with absolutely no evidence so far.”
Hasen adds that there have been cases of voter fraud in the past, but never on this massive scale. “Of course voter fraud exists. It is a real, but very small, problem, and the rate of impersonation fraud is minuscule. The rate of noncitizen voting is quite small as well, though there are some documented cases.”
In an interview with NBC News, Phillips said he didn’t care about complaints like Hasen’s that he has offered no public evidence. “I don’t care. I’m just an average citizen who has access to a big database … and an understanding of what I’ve got,” he said, adding that he’s taking his time to make the information public because he doesn’t want to wrongly accuse anyone of voting illegally.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90735&title=Phillips%20Rejects%20Complaints%20He%20Has%20Offered%20No%20Public%20Evidence%20To%20Support%20His%20False%20Claim%20of%203%20Million%20Illegal%20Voters>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

It Gets Better with Phillips: “Trump’s voter fraud expert owes US more than $100,000 in unpaid taxes”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90733>
Posted on January 27, 2017 11:03 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=90733> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Guardian reports<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/27/trump-voter-fraud-gregg-phillips-unpaid-taxes>.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D90733&title=It%20Gets%20Better%20with%20Phillips%3A%20%E2%80%9CTrump%E2%80%99s%20voter%20fraud%20expert%20owes%20US%20more%20than%20%24100%2C000%20in%20unpaid%20taxes%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

--
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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