[EL] still more news 6/30/17

Fri Jun 30 10:12:05 PDT 2017

“Trump’s Voter Fraud Endgame; His ‘election integrity’ investigation is a pretext to repeal the National Voter Registration Act. It won’t work”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93470>
Posted on June 30, 2017 10:06 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93470> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
I have written this piece<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/06/donald_trump_s_voter_fraud_commission_is_itself_an_enormous_fraud.html> for Slate. It begins:
Donald Trump’s attempt at voter suppression through his “election integrity” commission<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/05/kris_kobach_is_leading_trump_s_vote_fraud_commission_that_s_terrifying.html> is a voting rights nightmare that is being enacted so clumsily it just might backfire…..
Kobach’s likely going to use this information to try to “match” voters and show there is bloat on the voter rolls, such as dead voters and people who have moved but have not been removed from the rolls. He’ll also likely find a small number of noncitizens who are registered to vote. Doing this kind of matching well is tough business<https://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2017/06/29/first-thoughts-about-the-pence-commission-voting-list-request/>: It is easy to claim that two people with the same name are the same person, or that someone is a felon because he has the same name as a felon. But Kobach will not be relying on election administration professionals to do that work; he’s going to use the president’s staff.
The report will likely conclude that even if there is no evidence of actual voter fraud, the potential for voter fraud and noncitizen voting is there because of inaccurate rolls. Accordingly, they will argue it is necessary to roll back the 1993 National Voter Registration Act<https://www.justice.gov/crt/about-national-voter-registration-act> (or “motor voter” law)—a law which folks like Kobach hate because among other things it requires states to offer voter registration at public service agencies. They’ll want federal law to do what federal courts have so far forbidden Kobach to do: Require people to produce documentary proof of citizenship before registering to vote. In other words, show us your papers or you can’t register.
Repealing the enfranchising parts of the motor voter law would be a terrible thing, but the good news is that the “electoral integrity” commission’s efforts are already so outlandish and lacking in credibility that it will do nothing to help get the law repealed. Serious Democrats and Republicans know this effort is a sham. This is a faux commission that is not following sound social science or bipartisan principles.
That’s not to say there won’t be an attempt to kill the motor voter law. Indeed, the move toward voter suppression is proceeding apace. Just this week<http://www.routefifty.com/management/2017/06/trump-election-integrity-commission-state-voter-data/139107/>, a House committee voted to defund the United States Election Assistance Commission, a federal agency which is charged with certifying the security of voting machines and coming up with best practices for election administration. And the U.S. Department of Justice is looking to make states enforce the voter purge provisions of the 1993 motor voter law.
But the Trump commission process has been so poorly handled that whatever it concludes will be likely ignored by serious people, even while the president latches onto it to make it harder for people to register and vote. He’s overplayed his hand, and we should be thankful for that.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93470&title=%E2%80%9CTrump%E2%80%99s%20Voter%20Fraud%20Endgame%3B%20His%20%E2%80%98election%20integrity%E2%80%99%20investigation%20is%20a%20pretext%20to%20repeal%20the%20National%20Voter%20Registration%20Act.%>
Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

Supreme Court of Texas, in Tea Party Group Case, Upholds Ban on Corporate Campaign Contributions, But Tees Up Issue for SCOTUS<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93466>
Posted on June 30, 2017 9:53 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93466> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The Supreme Court of Texas has issued this opinion <http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/150320.pdf> in King Street Patriots v. Texas Democratic Party.
But a concurring opinion<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/150320c.pdf> tees up the issue for U.S. Supreme Court review should it choose to review it:
In sum, I concur in the Court’s judgment because I agree with the Court’s application of a case we unfortunately must follow. That said, Beaumont is incorrect and cannot be reconciled with Citizens United, McCutcheon, or, most importantly, the First Amendment. Nor can Texas’s blanket ban on corporate contributions.
The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down multiple chances to overturn Beaumont and allow direct corporate contributions to candidates.
We’ll see if the Gorsuch Court <http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-hasen-gorsuch-scalia-20170627-story.html> is different. It well might be.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93466&title=Supreme%20Court%20of%20Texas%2C%20in%20Tea%20Party%20Group%20Case%2C%20Upholds%20Ban%20on%20Corporate%20Campaign%20Contributions%2C%20But%20Tees%20Up%20Issue%20for%20SCOTUS>
Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

Take Care Podcast on WI Partisan Gerrymandering Case Before #SCOTUS<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93464>
Posted on June 30, 2017 9:40 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93464> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Listen.<https://takecareblog.com/blog/versus-trump-where-there-s-a-gil-on-partisan-gerrymandering>
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93464&title=Take%20Care%20Podcast%20on%20WI%20Partisan%20Gerrymandering%20Case%20Before%20%23SCOTUS>
Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

Justin Levitt: Pence-Kobach “Election Integrity” Commission Requests May Violate Federal Law<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93462>
Posted on June 30, 2017 6:58 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93462> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Justin<https://takecareblog.com/blog/all-your-voter-data-are-belong-to-us> at Take Care on the requests for voter information I expressed concern <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93440> about yesterday:
In the abstract, the information itself isn’t the real problem.  There are ways that careful researchers engage voter files that can assist and enlighten.  But those researchers don’t just jam hundreds of millions of partial records willy-nilly into a wide-open public pot and stir.  It is wildly irresponsible for a federal entity to ask for all of this information without first discussing how it will be used, and whether collecting it for those purposes is a good idea.
And leave aside, for just a moment, what the commission actually plans to do with the data.  (Kobach apparently thinks he can match the information he collects with other sources to assess the state of the voter rolls.  With the information he’s likely to get, he’ll have profound problems with the accuracy of any conclusions.  More on that here<https://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2017/06/29/first-thoughts-about-the-pence-commission-voting-list-request/> and here<http://www.routefifty.com/management/2017/06/trump-election-integrity-commission-state-voter-data/139107/>, from people who know.  And here<https://ssrn.com/abstract=997888>, from me.)
What Kobach is asking may also be illegal.
We’ve long had privacy and security concerns about government recordkeeping in this country.  Back in 1974, Congress passed the Privacy Act<https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2015-title5/pdf/USCODE-2015-title5-partI-chap5-subchapII-sec552a.pdf>, regulating how federal government entities keep records.  There are a number of substantive requirements for a body like the Kobach commission.  Those actually include specific limits on data that Kobach has asked for, like voting history and party affiliation.
And there are also a bunch of procedural requirements, including the requirement to publicize some basic facts on the records you’re collecting – and even to run it by specific Congressional committees.  Things like who you’re getting information about, what information you’re getting, where you’re getting it from, how you’re going to use it, how you’re going to regulate access to it, how you’re going to secure it, and how you’re going to protect people from being embarrassed or harmed by your inevitable misuse of it.

[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93462&title=Justin%20Levitt%3A%20Pence-Kobach%20%E2%80%9CElection%20Integrity%E2%80%9D%20Commission%20Requests%20May%20Violate%20Federal%20Law>
Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, 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/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20170630/40439b0a/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/20170630/40439b0a/attachment.png>