[EL] ELB News and Commentary 7/24/17

Sun Jul 23 21:13:02 PDT 2017

“EXCLUSIVE: Voter fraud in Palm Beach County: State attorney finds crimes, but no suspect”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94007>
Posted on July 23, 2017 9:08 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94007> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Palm Beach Post:<http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/exclusive-voter-fraud-palm-beach-county-state-attorney-finds-crimes-but-suspect/buShkHum7thKuTKE8F69QO/>
Detectives with the State Attorney’s Office found clear-cut evidence of voter fraud in last year’s August election<http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/special-reports/exclusive-winning-candidates-helped-voters-fill-out-their-ballots/V0ieae6VcZNNWF6I9ylRdM/>, with nearly two dozen people’s signatures forged on requests for absentee ballots.
But prosecutors are dropping the case.
Why? They can’t find a suspect.
In a bizarre 24-page memo, detectives described their efforts to get to the bottom of allegations of voter fraud<http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/special-reports/exclusive-winning-candidates-helped-voters-fill-out-their-ballots/V0ieae6VcZNNWF6I9ylRdM/> in the primary election. State Sen. Bobby Powell, Palm Beach County Commissioner Mack Bernard and state Rep. Al Jacquet, a tight-knit trio of rising stars in the Democratic Party, won their races by generating extraordinary turnout in absentee ballots, and their opponents and voters cried foul.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D94007&title=%E2%80%9CEXCLUSIVE%3A%20Voter%20fraud%20in%20Palm%20Beach%20County%3A%20State%20attorney%20finds%20crimes%2C%20but%20no%20suspect%E2%80%9D>
Posted in absentee ballots<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Kobach is a ‘useful idiot’ for Russia”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94005>
Posted on July 23, 2017 9:05 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94005> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Jennifer Rubin<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/07/20/kobach-is-a-useful-idiot-for-russia/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.aa2547bd1095> for WaPo:
And that in a nutshell is the problem: We have an administration that finds it more helpful to fan Russian propaganda than to speak simple truths about America’s democratic system and Russia’s corrupt thugocracy.  Supporting Russian propaganda now seems part and parcel of the commission’s assignment. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) remarked to me, “The far right has never seemed to care about facts in their crusade to keep certain people from voting, but this astonishing denial of the election outcome stands out as the kind of phoniness that undermines the country’s faith in the very democratic institutions our system is built on.  This is nonsense, but it’s dangerous nonsense.”…
Trump, and now Kobach, do Putin’s handiwork far more effectively than he ever dreamed. Along with the Trump flunkies at Fox News, they take Russia’s side in its assault on Western democracies’ free and fair elections. Frankly, if the members of the commission had backbone and principles they’d denounce Kobach’s comments and do their best to demonstrate that there is no systematic fraud in our electoral system.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D94005&title=%E2%80%9CKobach%20is%20a%20%E2%80%98useful%20idiot%E2%80%99%20for%20Russia%E2%80%9D>
Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

Utah: “San Juan County election maps must be redrawn again, U.S. judge rules”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94003>
Posted on July 23, 2017 8:54 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94003> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
AP:<http://www.sltrib.com/home/5533385-155/san-juan-county-election-maps-must>
The boundaries of election districts in a southeastern Utah county are unconstitutional and violate the rights of American Indians who make up roughly half the county’s population, a federal judge has ruled for the second time.
San Juan County, a roughly 7,800-square-mile county that touches Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, was ordered last year to redraw its county commission and school board election districts after U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby ruled that they were unconstitutional.
Last week, Shelby ruled that the county’s new maps are still unconstitutional and primarily drawn on race.
From the district court’s opinion:
The record establishes that San Juan County predominated racial considerations over other traditional districting criteria when drawing its County Commission Districts 1 and 2 and School Board District 3, and it did so without providing any reason to think it would violate the Voting Rights Act if it simply drew districts based on race-neutral factors. To the contrary, it did so even while maintaining there was no Section 2 issue that required it to take race into account in redistricting. This runs afoul of Supreme Court pronouncements against racial classifications in drawing voting districts. The court thus concludes School Board District 3 and County Commission Districts 1 and 2 in the County’s proposed remedial plans are unconstitutional. For this reason, the court cannot accept the County’s proposed plans.
The court must now consider how best to proceed to the adoption of remedial election districts. The court previously stated it would evaluate Navajo Nation’s proposed redistricting plans if the County’s plans failed.161<https://1.next.westlaw.com/Document/Ifd4ffe406b6011e7bcf2cc0f37ee205d/View/FullText.html?transitionType=UniqueDocItem&userEnteredCitation=2017+WL+3016782&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&CobaltRefresh=55225#co_footnote_B01612042180310> The court indicated that if it reached the Navajo Nation’s plans, and if they were legally sound, the court likely would enter its plans as a final order.162<https://1.next.westlaw.com/Document/Ifd4ffe406b6011e7bcf2cc0f37ee205d/View/FullText.html?transitionType=UniqueDocItem&userEnteredCitation=2017+WL+3016782&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&CobaltRefresh=55225#co_footnote_B01622042180310> Having considered the issue more carefully in the time that has passed since its earlier Order, the court no longer believes such an approach would lead to a satisfactory result.
The Supreme Court has cautioned, “redistricting and reapportioning legislative bodies is a legislative task which the federal courts should make every effort not to pre-empt.”163<https://1.next.westlaw.com/Document/Ifd4ffe406b6011e7bcf2cc0f37ee205d/View/FullText.html?transitionType=UniqueDocItem&userEnteredCitation=2017+WL+3016782&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&CobaltRefresh=55225#co_footnote_B01632042180310> The Court also instructs district courts to “undertake an ‘equitable weighing process’ to select a fitting remedy for the legal violations it has identified, taking account of ‘what is necessary, what is fair, and what is workable.’ ”164<https://1.next.westlaw.com/Document/Ifd4ffe406b6011e7bcf2cc0f37ee205d/View/FullText.html?transitionType=UniqueDocItem&userEnteredCitation=2017+WL+3016782&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&CobaltRefresh=55225#co_footnote_B01642042180310> Heeding this guidance, the court here attempted to avoid a result in which voting districts were drawn by anyone other than the elected representatives in the County. That attempt failed and the court must now become involved.
*19 Drawing new election districts in San Juan County is an especially sensitive task given the County’s demographics; its residents’ legitimate, competing, and important interests implicated by redistricting; and its complicated voting rights history. In view of this reality, the court believes adopting Navajo Nation’s proposed redistricting plans—the product of an adversarial, litigation-driven process—could jeopardize, and possibly undermine confidence in, the legitimacy of the County’s new legislative districts. Taking account of “what is necessary, what is fair, and what is workable” given the circumstances of this case, the court concludes the new districts must be a product of an independent, neutral process, with ample opportunity for participation and feedback from the parties.
For these reasons, the court declines to evaluate the proposed remedial plans submitted by Navajo Nation. It will instead appoint a special master to assist the court in formulating lawful remedial districts. The court will schedule a status conference to solicit input from the parties regarding this process.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D94003&title=Utah%3A%20%E2%80%9CSan%20Juan%20County%20election%20maps%20must%20be%20redrawn%20again%2C%20U.S.%20judge%20rules%E2%80%9D>
Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Gerrymandering Case May Be Most Important Decision SCOTUS Face”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94001>
Posted on July 23, 2017 8:43 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94001> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
HuffPost:<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ruth-bader-ginsburg-gerrymandering_us_59736a9de4b00e4363dfd3c8>
Supreme Court<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/supreme-court> Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/ruth-bader-ginsburg> says a case dealing with how far political parties can go<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/supreme-court-gerrymandering-case_us_59442033e4b01eab7a2d7ccd> to draw election districts to their benefit might be the “most important<https://twitter.com/adamliptak/status/888536922125213696>” the court will hear next term.
Ginsburg made the comments<https://twitter.com/shermancourt/status/888536785709547520> at a Duke Law School event Friday while referring to Gill v. Whitford<http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/gill-v-whitford/>, a case in which plaintiffs are challenging Wisconsin’s<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/wisconsin> 2011 map for the state assembly as unconstitutional. A panel of three federal judges ruled 2-1 last year the Republican-drawn map violated the constitution. After the redistricting, Republicans won 48.6 percent of the vote in 2012, but triumphed in 60 of the state’s 99 electoral districts.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D94001&title=%E2%80%9CRuth%20Bader%20Ginsburg%3A%20Gerrymandering%20Case%20May%20Be%20Most%20Important%20Decision%20SCOTUS%20Face%E2%80%9D>
Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“The Trump election commission exists solely to justify a Trump lie”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93999>
Posted on July 23, 2017 8:40 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93999> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
E.J. Dionne column.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-trump-election-commission-exists-solely-to-justify-a-trump-lie/2017/07/23/d1b63514-6e31-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html?utm_term=.96a6b5afc420&wpmk=MK0000200>
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93999&title=%E2%80%9CThe%20Trump%20election%20commission%20exists%20solely%20to%20justify%20a%20Trump%20lie%E2%80%9D>
Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“The Bogus Voter-Fraud Commission”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93997>
Posted on July 23, 2017 8:39 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93997> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Well done<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/22/opinion/sunday/the-bogus-voter-fraud-commission.html?_r=0> NYT editorial.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93997&title=%E2%80%9CThe%20Bogus%20Voter-Fraud%20Commission%E2%80%9D>
Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Scaramucci: ‘Probably Some Level Of Truth’ To Claim Millions Voted Illegally”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93994>
Posted on July 21, 2017 1:24 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93994> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
TPM: <http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scaramucci-probably-some-level-truth-millions-illegal-votes>
New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci refused on Friday to distance himself from the Trump administration’s baseless claim that 3 million illegal votes cast for Hillary Clinton lost Donald Trump the popular vote, quickly extinguishing hopes the investment-banker-turned-Trump-insider would usher in an era of truth-telling at the White House.
 …
“The President said 3 million people voted illegally, and there’s no evidence. Do you stand by that or not?” the reporter asked.
“OK,” Scaramucci said. “So if the President says it, let me do more research on it. My guess is that there’s probably some level of truth to that.”
“I think what we have found sometimes — the President says stuff, some of you guys in the media think it’s not true, and it turns out it’s closer to the truth than people think, so let me do more homework on that and I’ll get back to you,” he concluded.
Watch the video.<https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/888472287871197184>
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93994&title=%E2%80%9CScaramucci%3A%20%E2%80%98Probably%20Some%20Level%20Of%20Truth%E2%80%99%20To%20Claim%20Millions%20Voted%20Illegally%E2%80%9D>
Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“White House taps new acting ethics chief, elevating general counsel over chief of staff”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93992>
Posted on July 21, 2017 1:20 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93992> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/07/21/white-house-taps-new-acting-ethics-chief-elevating-general-counsel-over-chief-of-staff/?utm_term=.f9d819455825>
Shaub on Friday called Apol a “smart attorney,” but said he is concerned that his former colleague will bring a more permissive reading of federal ethics rules to the post.
When they worked together, “we balanced out one another’s views,” said Shaub, now senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a legal watchdog group. “But I’m concerned that the White House may be trying to ensure looser oversight.”
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93992&title=%E2%80%9CWhite%20House%20taps%20new%20acting%20ethics%20chief%2C%20elevating%20general%20counsel%20over%20chief%20of%20staff%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“A word with Kris Kobach; The voter-fraud commission relies on some really dodgy studies”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93990>
Posted on July 21, 2017 1:18 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93990> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The Economist:<https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21725348-one-them-cited-mr-kobach-based-sample-37-respondents-voter-fraud>
Research reports collected for years by the Brennan Centre for Justice at the New York University School of Law show that voter fraud in general and by non-citizens in particular is extraordinarily rare. In his own state, Mr Kobach has prosecuted just nine cases of voter fraud of which only one was a foreigner, a Peruvian who was in the process of becoming an American citizen when he voted. (Mr Kobach says that he knows of another 128 cases in Kansas but he cannot go after them because of the statute of limitations.) “Why would an undocumented immigrant risk deportation and a fine by voting, especially as immigration officials regularly check electoral rolls?” asks Justin Levitt at Loyola Law School, author of one of the Brennan Centre reports.
To counter the consensus among political scientists that voter fraud is very rare, Mr Kobach and other believers in widespread fraud cite a paper by Jesse Richman and others at Virginia’s Old Dominion University, which shows up to 15% of non-citizens surveyed voted at the presidential election in 2008. The controversial study, published in 2014, relied on just 339 respondents. The authors of that report warned that, “it is impossible to tell for certain whether the non-citizens who responded to the survey were representative of the broader population of non-citizens.” Mr Kobach hired Mr Richman to look at Kansas, where he used a grand total of 37 respondents to come up with the figure of more than 18,000 non-citizen voters.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93990&title=%E2%80%9CA%20word%20with%20Kris%20Kobach%3B%20The%20voter-fraud%20commission%20relies%20on%20some%20really%20dodgy%20studies%E2%80%9D>
Posted in 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/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20170724/7625a709/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2021 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20170724/7625a709/attachment.png>