[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/26/17

Wed Oct 25 22:15:25 PDT 2017

“Cleveland grand jury rejects charges against 17 identified in Jon Husted’s illegal voting probe”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95684>
Posted on October 25, 2017 4:58 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95684> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Cleveland.com:<http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/10/cleveland_grand_jury_rejects_c_1.html>
A grand jury voted not to charge 17 Cuyahoga County residents who were among dozens of non-U.S. citizens identified by Ohio Sec. of State Jon Husted’s office as illegally voting or registering to vote in past elections.
The grand jury voted late Tuesday not to hand up false voter registration charges against 16 people, and not to charge a 17th person with illegal voting, according to court documents made public Wednesday.
The dates of offenses listed in court records date back to September 1996.
Voter fraud cases can be hard to bring because investigators must show the voter knew they were not allowed to register to vote or cast a ballot.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

Cleta Mitchell and von Spakovsky Advance Nutty Theory That Paying for Steele Dossier Violates Foreign Contribution Ban<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95681>
Posted on October 25, 2017 4:49 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95681> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
This seems <http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/did-hillary-clinton-break-the-law-hiring-trump-dossier-author/article/2638647> beyond a stretch:
“There’s this strong public policy historically that prohibits paying a foreign national or receiving anything of value from a foreign national in a U.S. campaign,” Mitchell said. “If it involves an amount over $25,000 and it’s knowing and willful, it’s a felony.”
Mitchell points to the words “expenditure” and “disbursement” in 11 CFR 110.20<https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/11/110.20>, and says it will be important to learn more about Steele’s citizenship, residency, interaction with other foreigners and the ownership of Fusion GPS.
Hans von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commission member who now works at the Heritage Foundation, shared a similar view when asked to evaluate Mitchell’s theory that paying foreigners may be a violation.
“Yes, they are in potential trouble,” von Spakovsky said…..
“This is a crazy stupid theory,” the person close to the Clinton campaign said.
“Under it Trump would have violated it by buying hats and t-shirts manufactured abroad,” they said.
Mitchell said she believes there’s a difference between merchandise, and that “the FEC regulations prohibit anyone from getting foreign nationals involved in a federal, state or local election, in a manner that causes them to make disbursements related to the election.”
Others doubt Mitchell’s legal interpretation, however, including Rick Hasen, a University of California at Irvine law professor and founder of the Election Law Blog.
“The law prohibits accepting contributions from foreigners or providing substantial assistance to foreigners in making independent expenditures,” Hasen said. “It does not prohibit paying foreigners at market value to perform services.”
Jan Baran, an attorney and election law expert at Wiley Rein LLP who has argued several cases before the Supreme Court, said he also knew of no law banning campaigns from hiring foreigners.
But Baran added that he believes the Clinton campaign could be in trouble for not accurately disclosing its payments to the law firm.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Ky: “Fired elections staffer alleges Grimes improperly gathered voter data during campaigns”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95679>
Posted on October 25, 2017 3:47 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95679> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Lexington Herald-Leader:<http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article180856371.html>
The recently fired assistant to the director of the State Board of Elections alleged in a letter to some members of the board that the office of Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes improperly gathered voter information from the state’s voter registration system during campaigns.
In the letter, Matthew Selph, who was fired by the Board of Elections on Tuesday<http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article180712386.html> along with director Maryellen Allen, recalled a conversation with a staffer in the Secretary of State’s Office who said he was directed by the office to gather information “probably 3 or 4 times. . . every time they were running.”
He did not specify what information was gathered. Selph has reported the conversation to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Israel Eyes Measures To Prevent Election Cyber Sabotage”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95677>
Posted on October 25, 2017 3:45 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95677> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
News from Israel:<https://www.vosizneias.com/283069/2017/10/25/tel-aviv-israel-eyes-measures-to-prevent-election-cyber-sabotage/>
Israel is on guard against hacking ahead of the next general election, one of its most senior cyber security officials said, identifying Iran as posing the greatest overall risk to the country’s cyber security.
The government is bracing against the risks of fake news, possible denial of service attacks on civic institutions, or efforts to hack the correspondence of politicians or government officials in order to leak embarrassing details.
“We are on the way to identifying and assisting from a distance everywhere we find or identify as a vulnerability … and make it tougher for the bad guys to hack,” Yigal Unna, head of technology at the prime minister’s cyber directorate, told a Reuters Cyber Security Summit.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Alabama elections chief wants to send citizens to prison for 5 years for voting”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95675>
Posted on October 25, 2017 10:46 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95675> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Think Progress:<https://thinkprogress.org/crossover-voting-alabama-9b0eda42de54/>
Merrill told ThinkProgress in an interview Tuesday that he thinks the individuals who switched party affiliations should be sent to prison for five years and hit with a $15,000 fine, the maximum allowable punishment for the low-level felony.
“If these people knowingly and willfully voted because they didn’t like the law, they thought the law was wrong, they thought the law was stupid, they didn’t think the law should be enforced, our intentions are to identify those people, fully investigate them, if it’s warranted to have them indicted, to have them prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said. “I want every one of them that meets that criteria to be sentenced to five years in the penitentiary and to pay a $15,000 fine for restitution. That’s what I want.”
He added that he is not the prosecutor, but he believes none of these instances of “voter fraud” should be afforded leniency.
Randall Marshall, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama, said he was “stunned” by Merrill’s recommended prosecution.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Virginia Supreme Court to hear appeal in redistricting case”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95673>
Posted on October 25, 2017 8:49 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95673> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
AP:<http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/virginia-supreme-court-to-hear-appeal-in-redistricting-case/article_b05feabc-9a5b-5382-b70e-d50aacb624d6.html>
Virginia’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal by a redistricting advocacy group challenging a judge’s decision upholding 11 state House and Senate districts.
The court on Tuesday granted a petition filed by the advocacy group OneVirginia2021, which claims that during the 2011 redistricting process, lawmakers violated the requirement that election districts must be compact.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

Question of the Day for Sens. Flake and Corker (from Greg Sargent)<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95671>
Posted on October 25, 2017 8:03 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95671> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
“Shouldn’t you — and your party — speak out more forcefully against Trump’s nonstop lies about how millions voted illegally in our elections, which undermine faith in our institutions and in liberal democracy’s integrity?”

—Greg Sargent<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/10/25/five-questions-for-flake-and-corker-about-the-gops-dangerous-enabling-of-trump/?utm_term=.f5ec79c5c74c>
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Posted in The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

Texas Voter ID Appeal Oral Argument in Fifth Circuit Will Be Dec. 5 in New Orleans<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95669>
Posted on October 25, 2017 7:50 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95669> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
It will be in the en banc courtroom but not an an banc hearing.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

NY: “Fixing government from the ground up: Say no to a constitutional convention and focus on local reform”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95667>
Posted on October 25, 2017 7:48 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95667> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Jerry Goldfeder oped i<http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/skip-reform-government-ground-article-1.3575318>n the NYDN.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Center for Competitive Politics Changes Name to Institute for Free Speech, But Still No Trump Condemnation for Free Press Attacks<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95665>
Posted on October 25, 2017 7:46 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95665> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Announcement here.<http://www.ifs.org/welcome-to-the-institute-for-free-speech/>
Still waiting for the Institute to denounce President Trump’s incessant attacks on the free press. So far, I’ve not seen anything (and when I call them out on it, I’m labeled a “speech suppressor” who does not have standing to raise such an issue).
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Posted in election law biz<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>

More on Marc Elias/Perkins Role in Steele Dossier Matter<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95663>
Posted on October 25, 2017 7:43 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=95663> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/us/politics/clinton-dnc-russia-dossier.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0>
The presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee paid for research that was included in a dossier made public in January<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/us/politics/donald-trump-russia-intelligence.html> that contained salacious claims about connections between Donald J. Trump, his associates and Russia.
A spokesperson for a law firm said on Tuesday that it had hired Washington-based researchers last year to gather damaging information about Mr. Trump on numerous subjects — including possible ties to Russia — on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the D.N.C.
The revelation, which emerged from a letter <https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4116755-PerkinsCoie-Fusion-PrivelegeLetter-102417.html> filed in court <https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4116755-PerkinsCoie-Fusion-PrivelegeLetter-102417.html> on Tuesday, is likely to fuel new partisan attacks over federal and congressional investigations<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/us/politics/russia-investigation-congress-intelligence-committees-gowdy.html> into Russia’s attempts to disrupt last year’s election and whether any of Mr. Trump’s associates assisted in the effort….
The spokesperson said that neither the Clinton campaign, nor the D.N.C., was aware that Fusion GPS had been hired to conduct the research.
Earlier this year, Mr. Elias had denied that he had possessed the dossier before the election.
Anita Dunn, a veteran Democratic operative working with Perkins Coie, said on Tuesday that Mr. Elias “was certainly familiar with some of, but not all, of the information” in the dossier. But, she said “he didn’t have and hadn’t seen the full document, nor was he involved in pitching it to reporters.” And Mr. Elias “was not at liberty to confirm Perkins Coie as the client at that point,” Ms. Dunn said.
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

--
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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