[EL] ELB New and Commentary 6/13/17

Tue Jun 13 08:10:01 PDT 2017

“Senate GOP won’t subject its health care bill to public scrutiny until the last possible minute”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93096>
Posted on June 13, 2017 8:03 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93096> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Think Progress:<https://thinkprogress.org/senate-gop-trumpcare-public-e2ddd9f90ecb>
Senate Republicans plan to send their health care bill to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for analysis but don’t yet have a plan to release a draft of the bill for public scrutiny, according to Axios<https://www.axios.com/senate-gop-wrapping-up-health-care-bill-but-wont-release-it-2440345281.html>.
“We aren’t stupid,” an aide to a Senate Republican told Axios.
It’s perhaps understandable that Senate Republicans would want to shine as little light as possible on an unpopular bill that could cause millions of people to lose their health insurance.
The Senate is reportedly<https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/9/15763926/senate-republican-health-care-plan-path> putting the final touches on a health care bill that looks very similar to the so-called American Health Care Act (AHCA) passed by the House. According to the CBO, the House version would cost 23 million Americans their health insurance<http://www.npr.org/2017/05/24/529902300/cbo-republicans-ahca-would-leave-23-million-more-uninsured> while dramatically increasing costs for older Americans and people with pre-existing conditions, in part because of the bill’s $834 billion cut to Medicaid over the next decade.
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Posted in legislation and legislatures<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=27>

Great Read: Ari Berman’s NYT Mag Profile of SOS Kobach: “The Man Behind Trump’s Voter Fraud Obsession”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93094>
Posted on June 13, 2017 7:44 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93094> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
What I learned<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/magazine/the-man-behind-trumps-voter-fraud-obsession.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news> in this fascinating piece: the Samuel Huntington connection.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Russian Cyber Hacks on U.S. Electoral System Far Wider Than Previously Known”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93092>
Posted on June 13, 2017 7:41 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93092> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bloomberg:<https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-13/russian-breach-of-39-states-threatens-future-u-s-elections>
Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported.
In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data. The hackers accessed software designed to be used by poll workers on Election Day, and in at least one state accessed a campaign finance database. Details of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said.
The scope and sophistication so concerned Obama administration officials that they took an unprecedented step — complaining directly to Moscow over a modern-day “red phone.” In October, two of the people said, the White House contacted the Kremlin on the back channel to offer detailed documents of what it said was Russia’s role in election meddling and to warn that the attacks risked setting off a broader conflict.
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Charles Stewart’s New ‘Graphic Of The Week’ Focuses On Partisan Gap In Voter Confidence”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93090>
Posted on June 13, 2017 7:28 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93090> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
A Chapin Blog.<http://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2017/06/13/charles-stewarts-new-graphic-of-the-week-focuses-on-partisan-gap-in-voter-confidence/>
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Friend Says Trump Is Considering Firing Mueller as Special Counsel”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93088>
Posted on June 12, 2017 8:55 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93088> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/us/politics/robert-mueller-trump.html?ref=politics>
 Under Justice Department rules, Mr. Trump would seemingly have to order Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to rescind department regulations protecting a special counsel from being fired for no good reason, and then to fire Mr. Mueller. If Mr. Rosenstein refused, Mr. Trump could fire him, too — a series of events that would recall the “Saturday Night Massacre” during Watergate, when President Richard M. Nixon sought to dismiss a special prosecutor, Archibald Cox.
White House officials referred questions to Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz, as they have recently on all matters relating to the Russia investigation. A spokesman for Mr. Kasowitz declined to comment.
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Posted in Department of Justice<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>

“Democrats seek a change in California recall elections, and it could help an embattled state senator”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93086>
Posted on June 12, 2017 8:44 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93086> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
John Myers<http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-democrats-seek-a-change-in-california-1497298160-htmlstory.html> for the LAT:
State Senate Democrats introduced legislation Monday to change the rules governing recall elections to remove a lawmaker from office, potentially helping one of their own survive an effort now underway in Southern California.
The proposal, contained in one of the bills enacting a new state budget, comes after backers of an effort to remove state Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) from office have submitted more than 31,000 voter signatures to trigger a special election
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Posted in recall elections<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=11>

“Commentary: Opportunity for reform”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93084>
Posted on June 12, 2017 8:27 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93084> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
J.H. Snider:<http://www.timesunion.com/article/Commentary-Opportunity-for-reform-11210916.php>
On Nov. 7, New Yorkers will be asked whether they want to call a state constitutional convention. New York’s Constitution mandates that every 20 years this question be placed on the ballot. Based on the recent history of New York and other states, New Yorkers will most likely vote no.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“After the Override: An Empirical Analysis of Shadow Precedent”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93082>
Posted on June 12, 2017 8:24 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93082> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Brian Broughman and Deborah Widiss have written this important article <http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/689835> for the Journal of Legal Studies. Here is the abstract:
Congressional overrides of prior judicial interpretations of statutory language are typically defined as equivalent to judicial overrulings, and they are presumed to play a central role in maintaining legislative supremacy. Our study is the first to empirically test these assumptions. Using a differences-in-differences research design, we find that citation levels decrease far less after legislative overrides than after judicial overrulings. This pattern holds true even when controlling for depth of the superseding event or considering only the specific proposition that was superseded. Moreover, contrary to what one might expect, citation levels decrease more quickly after restorative overrides—in which Congress repudiates the prior Supreme Court decision as incorrect—than after overrides intended to update or clarify the law. This suggests that ongoing citation of overridden precedents, what we call shadow precedents, may be driven more by information failure or ambiguity than by ideological disagreements between the branches of government.
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Posted in legislation and legislatures<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=27>, statutory interpretation<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=21>

“Avoiding the Seduction of the Dark Side”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93080>
Posted on June 12, 2017 8:21 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93080> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs.<https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/avoiding-seduction-dark-side>
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Election Administration and the Politics of Voter Access”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93078>
Posted on June 12, 2017 8:00 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93078> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Kevin Pallister has written this new book<https://www.amazon.com/Election-Administration-Politics-Voter-Access/dp/0415793173/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=>:
Democratic countries vary widely in the extent to which the administration of the electoral process facilitates voter participation, showing a great deal of variation in everything from voter registration to the casting of ballots.
This book is the first systematic study to investigate why it is easier to vote in some democracies than in others. It develops the concept of election administration inclusiveness, which considers all of the administrative requirements and procedures that a citizen confronts in exercising his or her right to vote. It then draws on in-depth case studies from Central America and data from Latin America more broadly to address how political parties and other actors interact in constructing election administration rules and procedures. Using a theoretical framework centred on electoral threat, party capacity, and electoral management body composition, the author identifies multiple pathways to inclusive and restrictive election administration.
This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of elections, democracy studies, Latin American politics, and more broadly comparative politics and law.
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Posted in comparative election law<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=107>

--
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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