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

[Rick Hasen]

“McAuliffe vetoes bills he says could restrict voting rights”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91653>
Posted on March 16, 2017 8:31 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91653> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
News3:<http://wtkr.com/2017/03/16/mcauliffe-vetoes-bills-he-says-could-restrict-voting-rights/>
Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Wednesday vetoed a bill that he said could disenfranchise qualified voters but Republican legislators said could reduce voter fraud.
HB 2343<http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?ses=171&typ=bil&val=hb2343>, sponsored by Del. Robert Bell, R-Charlottesville, would have required the state Department of Elections to provide local registrars with a list of voters who, according to data-matching systems, have been found to be registered in another state.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Defining ‘dark money’ and discussing the state of money, politics and ethics in Missouri”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91650>
Posted on March 16, 2017 8:22 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91650> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
St. Louis Public Radio:<http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/defining-dark-money-and-discussing-state-money-politics-and-ethics-missouri#stream/0>
Earlier this month, the spotlight was cast<http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article137209643.html> on the brand new nonprofit called A New Missouri Inc. Formed by Gov. Eric Greitens’ campaign treasurer, the group’s focus will be to advocate for the governor’s policy agenda. Its nonprofit status assigned by the IRS means that A New Missouri can take unlimited contributions and it does not have to release information about who gave those contributions.
While the non-profit’s status is perfectly legal, this raises questions about so-called “dark money,” political contributions and ethics in the state of Missouri. This non-profit is viewed by some as a potential loophole out of Amendment 2<http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/amendment-2-could-bring-campaign-donation-limits-back-missouri>, which placed caps on campaign donation limits in Missouri.
It should be noted that politicians on both sides of the aisle, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, utilize such loopholes in campaign finance.
On Thursday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh spoke with several people from across the political spectrum about how money and politics are treated in today’s world.
Wally Siewert, the director of the center for ethics in public life at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, is organizing a conference on this subject for March 24<http://cepl.umsl.edu/cepl-conference-2017-ethics-money-politics-2/> and joined the program. Alongside him were University of California-Irvine Professor Richard Hasen and the Show Me Institute’s Director of Government Accountability Patrick Ishmael.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law and election law<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>


Former Texas Congressman Steve Stockman with the Exchange of the Day<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91648>
Posted on March 16, 2017 8:19 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91648> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
News<http://www.click2houston.com/news/former-texas-congressman-steve-stockman-accused-of-violating-federal-election-law> from a federal court in Houston:
According to the complaint, in 2011 Stockman set up a non-profit called Life Without Limits in Las Vegas. A single contributor donated $350,000 to the charity, which Stockman then allegedly funneled back to himself through donations made by his employees.
Stockman said he understood the charge. Judge Stephen Smith set bail at $25,000.
When the judge told Stockman he needed to obtain an attorney by Friday, the following exchange ensued:
Stockman: You said 2 o’clock tomorrow? I should have counsel by two?
Judge: Yes.
Stockman: I’ll have to hustle with that.
Judge: Yeah, you will. These are serious charge
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Judge throws out final challenge in 2012 Arizona redistricting case”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91644>
Posted on March 16, 2017 8:09 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91644> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
AP:<http://ktar.com/story/1494883/judge-throws-out-final-challenge-in-2012-arizona-redistricting-case/>
A judge on Thursday dismissed the final challenge to Arizona’s congressional and legislative district maps drawn by an independent commission in 2012.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Roger Brodman dismissed the challenge to the congressional map brought by a group of voters following the adoption of the maps. The U.S. Supreme Court has previously upheld the legality of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission itself and the legislative district maps.
Brodman rejected arguments that commissioners used improper procedures and illegally made decisions behind closed doors. He noted that it was important for him to rule because the appeals will likely take years and there are only two more general elections before the next mapmaking effort by a new commission.
You can find the Court’s opinion at this link<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2017-03-13-AIRC-Leach-Ruling-on-Cross-Motions-for-Summary-Judgment.pdf>.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>


“White House Official May Have Violated Campaign Finance Laws”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91642>
Posted on March 16, 2017 8:05 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91642> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Mother Jones:<http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/03/kt-mcfarland-fec-campaign-expenses-trump>
top White House national security official may have violated federal law by using campaign funds for personal business, campaign finance experts tell Mother Jones.
K.T. McFarland—who currently serves as President Donald Trump’s deputy national security adviser—appears to have used thousands of dollars of campaign money several years ago for the design and maintenance of a website promoting her work as a paid political pundit and for payments to a self-described “agent for expert commentators who enjoy being frequent guests on talk radio and TV.”
“Payments for a website to promote her business appear to be an illegal personal use of campaign funds,” says Lawrence Noble of the Campaign Legal Center.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


“Judge Gorsuch’s Writings Signal He Would Be A Conservative On Social Issues”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91640>
Posted on March 16, 2017 8:02 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91640> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Nina Totenberg <http://www.npr.org/2017/03/16/519501771/judge-gorsuchs-writings-signal-he-would-be-a-conservative-on-social-issues?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social> for NPR:
With the Senate Judiciary Committee set to open hearings on the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court, the game of confirmation cat and mouse is about to begin. Senators will try to get a fix on Gorsuch’s legal views — and the nominee will try to say as little as possible.
Supreme Court scholars and practitioners on the right and left may disagree about whether they want to see Gorsuch confirmed, but in general there is little doubt about the nominee’s conservatism. Indeed, his conservative pedigree is the reason he was picked.
“On issues like abortion and affirmative action and gun rights and states’ rights, we can expect him overall to be a reliable conservative vote and someone who is going to forcibly and eloquently put forward conservative positions on the court,” predicts Richard Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine.
Not that Gorsuch has ruled on all these issues. He has not. But the legal road signs are there.
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Posted in Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Republicans move to curb Dem powers in the states”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91638>
Posted on March 16, 2017 5:35 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91638> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Reid Wilson<http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/324309-republicans-move-to-restrict-dem-powers-in-the-states> in The Hill:
Republicans who control legislatures in key states around the country are moving to seize power from Democratic executive officers and independent judges, enraging Democrats, who say the moves undermine the will of voters.
Republicans defend the proposals as steps necessary to balance power between branches of government — and analysts say the GOP is doing now what both Republicans and Democrats have done since the founding of the republic.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“No Charges, but Harsh Criticism for de Blasio’s Fund-Raising”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91636>
Posted on March 16, 2017 2:10 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91636> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/nyregion/mayor-bill-de-blasio-investigation-no-criminal-charges.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news>
The federal inquiry found a pattern in which Mr. de Blasio or his associates solicited contributions from donors seeking favors from the city and then contacted city agencies on their behalf, according to a statement from the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. But the decision not to bring charges, the statement said, came after weighing among other things, “the high burden of proof, the clarity of existing law” and challenge of proving corruption without “evidence of personal profit.”
State prosecutors, who examined Mr. de Blasio’s unsuccessful 2014 effort to help Democrats regain control of the State Senate, concluded that the aspects of the undertaking amounted to an “end run” around limits on contributions to candidates, according to a 10-page letter<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/16/nyregion/cyrus-vance-letter-de-blasio.html> outlining their findings.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
“Call for Papers: Summer Conference on Election Science, Reform, and Administration”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91634>
Posted on March 16, 2017 1:47 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91634> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Announcement:<http://earlyvoting.net/evic-news/call-for-papers-2017-summer-conference-on-election-science-reform-and-administration/>
Paper proposals are being invited for a Summer Conference on Election Science, Reform, and Administration, hosted by Reed College and Portland State University, and co-sponsored by the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College<http://earlyvoting.net/> and the Election Data and Science Lab at MIT<http://electionlab.mit.edu/news/election-data-and-science-lab-launches-mit>. The conference will be held in Portland, OR from July 26-27, 2017.
The goals of the conference are, first, to provide a forum for scholars in political science, public administration, law, computer science, statistics, and other fields who are working to develop rigorous empirical approaches to the study of how laws and administrative procedures affect the quality of elections in the United States; and, second, to build scientific capacity by identifying major questions in the field, fostering collaboration, and connecting senior and junior scholars.
The conference is designed to facilitate close attention to the papers presented, including extensive feedback and discussion. Therefore, papers should represent new work, with early drafts of papers encouraged.
We hope that a wide variety of topics will be addressed at the conference. We are particularly interested in new and innovative projects that address long standing questions about the impact of election reforms on registration and turnout at both the state and federal level; how the voter experience has improved or eroded during the two recent waves of election reform; and the research design and methodological challenges in election science. The following is a list provides a few sample ideas, but should not be considered exhaustive:

  *   How new or changed election laws affect the size and makeup of the pool of registered voters and the federal, state, and/or local electorates;
  *   Professionalization (or the lack thereof) and the quality of election administration;
  *   Evaluating the impact of voting centers, consolidated precincts, and convenience voting;
  *   How election reform has differentially impacted historically disadvantaged segments of the electorate;
  *   The analytical and methodological tools needed to work with voter registration and voter history files, and challenges in making causal inferences when working with these files;
  *   New methods for connecting other behavioral records (e.g. survey data) or geospatial data with voter history and voter turnout data
Airfare, lodging, and conference meals will be covered for paper presenters and discussants. Other scholars are welcome to attend if they can cover conference costs (details to be announced within a month).
Lonna Atkeson, University of New Mexico<http://www.unm.edu/~atkeson/>, and Bernard Fraga, Indiana University<http://polisci.indiana.edu/faculty/profiles/bfraga.shtml>, will serve as program co-chairs, and Paul Gronke, Reed College<http://people.reed.edu/~gronkep/> and Phil Keisling, Center for Public Service at PSU<https://www.pdx.edu/cps/phil-keisling>, will act as conference organizers and hosts.
Paper proposals of no more than 250 words should be submitted by April 15, 2017.  Submit proposals at http://bit.ly/PDXelection – we expect to announce decisions by May 1.  Any questions can be sent to atkeson at umn.edu<mailto:atkeson at umn.edu>, bfraga at indiana.edu<mailto:bfraga at indiana.edu>, or gronke at reed.edu<mailto:gronke at reed.edu>.
Scholars wishing to attend without presenting a paper should also contact Emily Hebbron (hebbron at reed.edu<mailto:hebbron at reed.edu>) by May 1st.  Further details about the conference will posted on the conference Web site soon thereafter.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“The Voting Rights of Ex-Felons and Election Outcomes in the United States”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91632>
Posted on March 16, 2017 1:45 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91632> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Tilman Klumpp, Hugo Mialon, and Michael Williams have posted this draft<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2934489> on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Approximately one in forty adult U.S. citizens has lost their right to vote, either temporarily or permanently, as a result of a felony conviction. Because laws restricting voting by felons and ex-felons disproportionately affect minorities, and minorities tend to vote for Democratic candidates, it has been hypothesized that felony disenfranchisement hurts Democratic candidates in elections, thus helping Republican candidates. We test this hypothesis using variation in felony disenfranchisement laws across U.S. states and over time. During the 2000s, a number of states restored the voting rights of ex-felons. Using difference-in-differences regressions, we estimate the effect of laws re-enfranchising ex-felons on the vote shares of major party candidates in elections for seats to the U.S. House of Representatives. We argue that the regression estimates provide an upper bound for the true effect of restoring voting rights to ex-felons on the vote shares of major party candidates. Using this upper bound, no House majority would have been reversed in any year between 1998 and 2012, had all states allowed ex-felons to vote.
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, felon voting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>


“Lack of Oxford Comma Costs Maine Company Millions in Overtime Dispute”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91630>
Posted on March 16, 2017 1:31 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91630> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT reports.<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/us/oxford-comma-lawsuit.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur>
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Posted in statutory interpretation<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=21>


Nonprofit Vote and U.S. Elections Project Report on Voter Turnout<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91628>
Posted on March 16, 2017 7:46 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91628> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Release:<http://www.nonprofitvote.org/america-goes-to-the-polls-2016/>
Nonprofit VOTE and the U.S. Elections Project are excited to release “America Goes to The Polls,” a report that ranks all 50 states in voter turnout for the 2016 election and identifies policies that help contribute to higher turnout.
Highlights

  *   National turnout of eligible voters was 60.2% – 1.6 percentage points above the 58.6% turnout in 2012, though slightly lower than 2008. Four in 10 eligible voters did not vote.
  *   The highest turnout states were Minnesota (74.8%), Maine (72.8%), New Hampshire (72.5%), Colorado (72.1%), Wisconsin (70.5%), and Iowa (69.0%). All six offered same day voter registration, enabling voters to register or update their registration when they vote. Five were battleground states targeted by the campaigns.
  *   The lowest turnout states were Hawaii (43%), West Virginia (50.8%), Texas (51.6%), Tennessee (52.0%) and Arkansas (53.1%). These five states were at the bottom for the third consecutive presidential election. None were battleground states. All five cut off the ability to register or update a registration three to four weeks before Election Day.
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Posted in voting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>


--
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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