[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/2/17

Mon May 1 19:49:00 PDT 2017

“The Ways That the 2016 Election Was Perfectly Normal”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92329>
Posted on May 1, 2017 7:45 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92329> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Lynn Vavreck<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/upshot/the-ways-that-the-2016-election-was-perfectly-normal.html?ref=politics> for NYT’s The Upshot:
Despite the robust record of these models, they didn’t get much attention leading up to 2016. Mr. Trump was such a nontraditional candidate — in his fund-raising; support for atypical G.O.P. positions on trade and on protection of Social Security<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/social_security_us/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> and Medicare<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/medicare/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>; minimal advertising; and seemingly arbitrary ground game — that politicians and analysts alike thought he would knock the election out of the equilibrium where structural factors like party and the economy mattered. “If it were a normal year” or “with any other candidate” were common refrains<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/08/23/never-forget-the-2016-presidential-election-is-supposed-to-be-one-that-republicans-can-win/?utm_term=.a7fa46d2a6e6> that came as fundamentals models were dismissed.
In actuality, the state of the nation’s economy — growing slowly — was predicting a very close election in 2016: a contest that either party could win.
For all of the exceptionalism of 2016, the outcome was remarkably typical. The final vote share was very close, as the low growth rate and lack of an incumbent suggested it would be.
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“Maryland Election Board Put Voters’ Personal Data at Risk, Auditors Claim”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92327>
Posted on May 1, 2017 7:39 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92327> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Baltimore Sun:<http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-elections-audit-20170428-story.html>
A report released by legislative auditors Friday says the State Board of Elections needlessly exposed the full Social Security numbers of almost 600,000 voters to potential hacking, risking theft of those voters’ identities.
The determination that election officials did not fully protect voters’ personal information was one of several highly critical findings in the report. The audit also faulted state election officials’ handling of issues including ballot security, disaster preparedness, contracting and balancing its books.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92327&title=%E2%80%9CMaryland%20Election%20Board%20Put%20Voters%E2%80%99%20Personal%20Data%20at%20Risk%2C%20Auditors%20Claim%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Top Ethics Officer Challenges Trump Over Secret Waivers for Ex-Lobbyists”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92325>
Posted on May 1, 2017 5:39 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92325> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/politics/top-ethics-officer-challenges-trump-over-secret-waivers-for-ex-lobbyists.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0>
The federal government’s top ethics officer is challenging the Trump administration’s issuance of secret waivers that allow former lobbyists to handle matters they recently worked on, setting up a confrontation between the ethics office and President Trump.
The move by Walter M. Shaub Jr.<https://oge.gov/Web/OGE.nsf/Organization/Senior%20Leadership>, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, is the latest sign of rising tension between Mr. Shaub and the Trump White House. Mr. Shaub has tried several times to use his limited powers to force Mr. Trump to broadly honor federal ethics rules as well as the ethics order that Mr. Trump himself signed in late January<https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/28/executive-order-ethics-commitments-executive-branch-appointees>.
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Posted in conflict of interest laws<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=20>, lobbying<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=28>

Expedited Texas Redistricting Trial on Remaining Voting Rights Claims July 10 Before Three Judge Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92322>
Posted on May 1, 2017 4:36 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92322> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
This extremely long running case will be coming to a conclusion with a 5 day trial on July 10,<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Perez-v.-Abbott-trial-schedule-5-1-2017.pdf> followed by an inevitable appeal directly to the Supreme court.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92322&title=Expedited%20Texas%20Redistricting%20Trial%20on%20Remaining%20Voting%20Rights%20Claims%20July%2010%20Before%20Three%20Judge%20Court>
Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“Just the Facts on Fraud”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92320>
Posted on May 1, 2017 10:25 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92320> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
David Becker blog post:<https://www.electioninnovation.org/news/2017/5/1/just-the-facts-on-fraud>
Six months after the election, there’s still discussion about the extent to which voter fraud exists and whether the White House will follow through with an investigation. In the meantime, election officials across the country have been quietly doing their jobs and are wrapping up investigations from the last election while preparing for the next. The reviews to date confirm what most election officials have been publicly stating for some time – that while the amount of actual voter fraud is not zero, it’s very close, with only an infinitesimal number of cases of potential voter fraud nationwide.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92320&title=%E2%80%9CJust%20the%20Facts%20on%20Fraud%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

3-Judge Court Rejects Texas Request for Summary Judgment, Ability to Appeal to 5th Circuit, in Redistricting Case<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92318>
Posted on May 1, 2017 10:08 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92318> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Two posts from Michael Li:
Court sets stage for trial on 2013 plans<http://txredistricting.org/post/160196062761/court-sets-stage-for-trial-on-2013-plans>
Court denies Texas’ request to certify appeal to Fifth Circuit<http://txredistricting.org/post/160195102386/court-denies-texas-request-to-certify-appeal-to>

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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

--
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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