[EL] ELB News and Commentary 3/9/17

[Rick Hasen]

“Civil rights leaders ask Sessions to scuttle Trump voter fraud probe”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91532>
Posted on March 8, 2017 9:01 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91532> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Josh Gerstein<http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/03/civil-rights-leaders-trump-voter-fraud-probe-235798> from Politico:
Civil rights leaders who met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions Tuesday asked him to urge President Donald Trump not to proceed with his plans for a blue-ribbon panel to investigate Trump’s own claims that millions of people voted illegally for his opponent in last year’s presidential race….
A White House spokeswoman had no update Tuesday on plans for the task force or its membership.
A spokeswoman for Sessions declined to comment on the meeting, but Ifill said the attorney general was noncommittal.
“Voter fraud has been studied time and again. I repeated to the attorney general what has been found in those studies: that you have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than participating in in-person voter fraud and that any effort by this administration to advance an investigation in search of this mythological voter fraud that targets our communities will be met with our resistance,” Ifill said.
Rev. Al Sharpton, head of the National Action Network, acknowledged the blunt tone of the meeting.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Valid voter fraud complaints in California? Dozens, not millions”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91530>
Posted on March 8, 2017 8:55 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91530> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Laurel Rosenhall <https://calmatters.org/articles/valid-voter-fraud-complaints-in-california-dozens-not-millions/> for CalMatters:
With President Donald Trump alleging serious voter fraud in California, and the state’s top election official calling his claim untrue, how much voter fraud is actually under investigation in the Golden State?
Not much—certainly not enough to sway the election, in which California voters chose Hillary Clinton over Trump by 4.3 million votes<http://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/sov/2016-general/sov/17-presidential-formatted.pdf>.
And while the California Secretary of State is investigating some cases of potential fraud, not a single case opened last year involves allegations of voting by an immigrant who is in the country illegally—a stark contrast to the picture painted by Trump.
The Secretary of State received 948 election-related complaints in 2016, according to its response to a CALmatters’ Public Records Act request. The office determined that more than half (525) did not merit criminal investigation. Of the remaining complaints, 140 are still being screened, 194 were non-criminal problems referred to local officials, and 89 triggered investigations by the Secretary of State.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


At Least 36 Lobbyists Came to Work for Trump Administration in “Beachhead Teams”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91528>
Posted on March 8, 2017 7:07 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91528> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
ProPublica:<https://www.propublica.org/article/meet-hundreds-of-officials-trump-has-quietly-installed-across-government>
While President Trump has not moved<http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/25/politics/donald-trump-cabinet-vacancies/> to fill many jobs<https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-administration-appointee-tracker/database/> that require Senate confirmation, he has quietly installed hundreds of officials to serve as his eyes and ears at every major federal agency, from the Pentagon to the Department of Interior.
Unlike appointees exposed to the scrutiny of the Senate, members of these so-called “beachhead teams<http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2017/01/beachhead-teams-agenda-inauguration-day-233774>” have operated largely in the shadows, with the White House declining to publicly reveal their identities.
While some names have previously dribbled out in the press, we are publishing a list of more than 400 hires<https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/beachhead>, providing the most complete accounting so far of who Trump has brought into the federal government.
The White House said<http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2017/01/beachhead-teams-agenda-inauguration-day-233774> in January that around 520 staffers were being hired for the beachhead teams.
The list we obtained includes obscure campaign staffers, contributors to Breitbart and others who have embraced conspiracy theories, as well as dozens of Washington insiders who could be reasonably characterized as part of the “swamp” Trump pledged to drain.
The list is striking for how many former lobbyists it contains: We found at least 36, spanning industries from health insurance and pharmaceuticals to construction, energy and finance. Many of them lobbied in the same areas that are regulated by the agencies they have now joined.
ProPublica has obtained a list of more than 400 people hired by the Trump administration to fill key roles across the federal government. Read the story.<https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/beachhead>
That figure is almost certainly an undercount since we only included those who formally registered as lobbyists, a process increasingly avoided<https://sunlightfoundation.com/2016/04/19/what-is-shadow-lobbying-how-influence-peddlers-shape-policy-in-the-dark/> by many in Washington.
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Posted in lobbying<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=28>


“Campaign Finance FEC Won’t Appeal Ruling on Presidential Debates”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91526>
Posted on March 8, 2017 6:55 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91526> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bloomberg BNA:<http://news.bna.com/mpdm/MPDMWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=106790399&vname=mpebulallissues&jd=a0m0c6w3u3&split=0>
The Federal Election Commission won’t appeal a federal judge’s ruling that challenged the FEC rules for presidential debates.
The decision announced by the FEC March 8 means the FEC will have to respond to the ruling by Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Chutkan’s Feb. 1 ruling said the FEC’s handling of presidential debates may have unfairly allowed the debates to include only the Democratic and Republican nominees, while excluding independent and minor-party candidates.
The judge has given the FEC a deadline of April 3 to respond to her ruling, either by altering previous enforcement and rulemaking decisions regarding debates or by providing a more convincing explanation of the agency’s previous actions (Level the Playing Field v. FEC, D.D.C., No. 15-cv-1397, order 2/10/17).
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, federal election commission<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>


“Ga. Republican Redistricting Plan Called ‘Blatant’ Power Grab”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91524>
Posted on March 8, 2017 5:21 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91524> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WABE:<http://news.wabe.org/post/ga-republican-redistricting-plan-called-blatant-power-grab>
Thousands of metro Atlanta voters would find themselves in different state House districts under a Republican plan that Democrats allege reduces the influence of minority voters.
Similar moves in other states have been challenged in federal courts, according to experts in voting law. If the Georgia plan is approved by the Republican dominated legislature, and Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, it could also be open to legal challenges.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Voting Rights Act<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


“New York in Violation of ‘Motor Voter’ Law and the Voting Rights Act”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91522>
Posted on March 8, 2017 12:59 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91522> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Release:<http://www.projectvote.org/press-releases/new-york-violation-motor-voter-law-voting-rights-act/>
Attorneys for Hispanic Federation, Voto Latino, Chhaya CDC, MinKwon Center for Community Action, and New York resident William Towbin sent a pre-litigation notice letter<http://www.projectvote.org/wp-content/uploads/NY-Sec-5-Notice-Letter-3-7-17.pdf> today, alleging that the state is failing to meet its obligations under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). The letter was sent to Todd D. Valentine and Robert A. Brehm, Co-Executive Directors of the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE), as well as Theresa L. Egan, Executive Deputy Commissioner of the New York Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Section 5 of the NVRA, commonly known as the “Motor Voter” law, requires the DMV to provide voter registration services whenever an individual applies for, renews, or changes their address on a driver’s license or state-issued identification card. The DMV is then required to transmit voter registration information to the appropriate election official within ten, or in some cases five, days. Further, under the language assistance protections of the VRA, the state must ensure that voters in numerous New York counties are provided voter registration services in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Bengali, in addition to English.
Today’s letter<http://www.projectvote.org/wp-content/uploads/NY-Sec-5-Notice-Letter-3-7-17.pdf>—sent by attorneys from Demos, Project Vote, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), and LatinoJustice PRLDEF— cites clear evidence that the DMV is failing to ensure that a driver’s license or identification card application, renewal, or change of address transaction serves as a voter registration application or change of address. The letter provides New York with official notice that its DMV offices are failing to comply with the NVRA, starting a 90-day timeline for the state to come into compliance or face litigation.
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Posted in NVRA (motor voter)<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=33>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Voting But for the Law: Evidence from Virginia on Photo Identification Requirements”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91520>
Posted on March 8, 2017 12:49 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91520> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Daniel J. Hopkins, Marc Merdith, Michael Morse, Sarah Smith, and Jesse Yoder have written this article<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jels.12142/full> for the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. Here is the abstract:
One contentious question in contemporary election administration is the impact of voter identification requirements. We study a Virginia law that allows us to isolate the impact of requiring voters to show photo identification. Using novel, precinct-level data, we find that the percentage of registered voters without a driver’s license and over age 85 are both positively associated with the number of provisional ballots cast due to a lack of a photo ID. To examine the law’s impact on turnout, we associate precinct-level demographics with the change in turnout between the 2013 gubernatorial and 2014 midterm elections. All else equal, turnout was higher in places where more active registered voters lacked a driver’s license. This unexpected relationship might be explained by a targeted Department of Elections mailing, suggesting that the initial impact of voter ID laws may hinge on efforts to notify voters likely to be affected.
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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>



--
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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