[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/14/17

Mon Nov 13 20:51:49 PST 2017

“In Idaho, program to fight voter fraud may cause more problems than it catches”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95986>
Posted on November 13, 2017 7:05 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95986> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Idaho Statesman:<http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article184229328.html>
Ada County elections employees have been leery of the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program since 2014 — the year they got burned by it.
It was Idaho’s first year as a member. Ada County received a list of possible duplicate voter registrations and began to revoke several thousand of them, including then-West Ada School District Superintendent Linda Clark, radio personality Ken Bass and former U.S. Attorney and prominent Democrat Betty Richardson.
Those voters began to call. What appeared to be duplicate records, weren’t at all. When the county realized it was in error, it quickly halted the revocations….
Former Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa worked for the office for 28 years, then served as its chief officer for another 12 until his retirement in early 2015. Though he is the one who first signed Idaho up for Crosscheck, he said Friday that he cannot recall any significant cases of voter fraud while he was in office.
“Looking for voter fraud in Idaho? I do not think it is there,” he said.
He also cast doubt upon allegations of widespread voter fraud in the U.S.: “It is looking for a needle in haystack, but the question is if the needle is even there.”
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

Special Master Nate Persily Issues Proposed NC State Maps to Cure Racial Gerrymander, Setting Deadline for Comments<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95984>
Posted on November 13, 2017 3:58 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95984> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Order<https://t.co/GjPzA9yLjQ>
Proposed maps<https://t.co/qp1Mt6goMc>

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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

Wikileaks Urged Trump Not to Concede If He Lost<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95982>
Posted on November 13, 2017 3:37 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95982> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
From blockbuster Atlantic report<https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-secret-correspondence-between-donald-trump-jr-and-wikileaks/545738/> on emails between Donald Trump Jr. and Wikileaks, comes the following nugget:
WikiLeaks didn’t write again until Election Day, November 8, 2016. “Hi Don if your father ‘loses’ we think it is much more interesting if he DOES NOT conceed [sic] and spends time CHALLENGING the media and other types of rigging that occurred—as he has implied that he might do,” WikiLeaks wrote at 6:35pm, when the idea that Clinton would win was still the prevailing conventional wisdom. (As late as 7:00pm that night, FiveThirtyEight, a trusted prognosticator of the election, gave<https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/election-night-forecast-2016/> Clinton a 71 percent chance of winning the presidency.) WikiLeaks insisted that contesting the election results would be good for Trump’s rumored plans to start a media network should he lose the presidency. “The discussion can be transformative as it exposes media corruption, primary corruption, PAC corruption, etc.,” WikiLeaks wrote.
During the election many of us were very concerned that Trump would not concede if he lost, something which would be very dangerous for American democracy. Learning that a foreign agent with ties to Russia was urging Trump to take that course is quite disconcerting.
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Cato Symposium on Gerrymandering<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95980>
Posted on November 13, 2017 8:25 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95980> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Interesting:<https://www.cato-unbound.org/issues/november-2017/gerrymandering-fair-congressional-districts>
LEAD ESSAY

  *   Why Libertarians – and Others – Should Care About Gerrymandering<https://www.cato-unbound.org/2017/11/06/walter-olson/why-libertarians-others-should-care-about-gerrymandering> by Walter Olson<https://www.cato-unbound.org/contributors/walter-olson>November 6, 2017
Walter Olson describes why gerrymandering is a serious problem in our political system: Gerrymandering entrenches the incumbents. Those who already have power and influence grow stronger, while new voices and new political movements are shut out of the process. The effort to draw congressional districts in a fair manner, such that the results reflect the will of the electorate, is still young, but Olson outlines some of the traits that any fair system would necessarily have. He also considers why some popular approaches won’t necessarily succeed.
RESPONSE ESSAYS

  *   Building New Districts, Fairly and Cheaply<https://www.cato-unbound.org/2017/11/10/michael-mcdonald/building-new-districts-fairly-cheaply> by Michael McDonald<https://www.cato-unbound.org/contributors/michael-mcdonald>November 10, 2017
Michael McDonald argues that it’s not difficult at all to build fair congressional districts. A variety of private initiatives have shown that when political incentives are removed, ordinary citizens can use simple, inexpensive software to satisfy a range of general requirements for compactness, community representation, and fairness. It would appear that politics really is the problem.

  *   In Defense of Bargaining and Muddling Through<https://www.cato-unbound.org/2017/11/13/raymond-j-la-raja/defense-bargaining-muddling-through> by Raymond J. La Raja<https://www.cato-unbound.org/contributors/raymond-j-la-raja>November 13, 2017
Gerrymandering is a problem, but the solutions aren’t so clear, says Raymond J. La Raja. Multiple legitimate values are at stake, and sometimes they conflict. There likely is no one optimal solution that we can all agree on. In a situation like that, bargaining becomes a preferred strategy, and La Raja recommends it here. Constituents, politicians, parties, and public interest groups all have a stake in the outcome, and muddling through may not be so bad after all.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

--
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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