[EL] ELB News and Commentary 9/11/17

[Rick Hasen]

“In Free-Range Trump, Many See Potential for a Third Party”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94745>
Posted on September 11, 2017 7:36 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94745> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT reports.<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/11/us/politics/trump-third-party-republican.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront>

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Posted in third parties<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=47>


“Trump Voter Fraud Panel Agenda Paints Picture Of Election System Rife With Fraud”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94743>
Posted on September 11, 2017 7:29 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94743> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Sam Levine<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-voter-fraud-panel_us_59b40850e4b0dfaafcf83485> for HuffPost:
One presentation submitted to the commission around 8,500 likely duplicate votes<https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/docs/pacei-govt-accountability-institute-problem-duplicate-voting.pdf>across 21 states. Unable to access data from all 50 states, the researchers extrapolate their findings to estimate that there are at least 45,000 instances of double voting across the country, a number still considerably short of the three to five million people Trump has alleged voted illegally last year. Those conducting the analysis compared voters’ first names, last names, dates of birth and the first five digits of their social security numbers, but other studies have also shown it’s extremely easy<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/07/27/pences-voter-fraud-commission-will-almost-certainly-find-thousands-of-duplicate-registrations-that-arent-duplicates-heres-why/?utm_term=.8f2b79be2c3f> to get false positives when comparing voter data.
Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida, is leading an effort to replicate and verify that study. He cautioned not to jump to any conclusions and that many instances in the report that appear to be double voting could in fact turn out to be administrative errors.
“These are all allegations at this point, none of this has been substantiated by election officials or law enforcement doing additional follow up,” he said in an interview. “The allegations are one thing, but then when you actually start investigating, you find something different. We have to be clear to distinguish allegations and there hasn’t been verification of the allegations in the report at this point.”
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Some Facebook ads bought by Russian company may have violated US election law”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94739>
Posted on September 11, 2017 7:21 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94739> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
ABA Journal reports.<http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/at_least_some_facebook_ads_by_russian_company_may_have_violated_us_election>
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Judge to Weigh Fate of Lawsuits Challenging New N.H. Voting Law”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94737>
Posted on September 11, 2017 7:20 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94737> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NHPR <http://nhpr.org/post/judge-weigh-fate-lawsuits-challenging-new-nh-voting-law#stream/0> reports.
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Posted in The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


Two of the Only 5 Democrats (Compared to 7 Republicans) on Pence-Kobach Fraud Commission Will Miss Tuesday Meeting<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94735>
Posted on September 11, 2017 7:12 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94735> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Sam Levine reports <https://twitter.com/srl/status/906188272929525761> that neither Alan King nor Mark Rhodes will attend tomorrow’s meeting of the sham commission.
That leaves only NH SOS Gardner, Maine SOS Dunlap, and former Arkansas lawmaker David Dunn as Democrats on the Commission.
I doubt either one will speak up the way Alan King did <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alan-king-trump-voter-fraud-probe_us_59b42303e4b0b5e531068520?0n> in his recent filing about the suppressive work of this commission.
[This post was corrected, adding the name of David Dunn.]
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Trump Voter Fraud Commission Poised To Double Down On Debunked NH Claims”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94733>
Posted on September 11, 2017 7:08 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94733> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
TPM Muckraker:<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/trump-voter-fraud-panel-to-push-debunked-new-hampshire-claims>
Gardner has since said that he doesn’t agree with Kobach’s claims, but argued that doesn’t mean he needs to step down from the panel, as he pushed back at the Democrats’ request.
“No, I’m not going to step down, and it’s hypocritical to ask me to step down as a member of a federal commission,” Gardner told WMUR.<http://www.wmur.com/article/gardner-refuses-call-by-congressional-delegation-to-step-down-from-trump-election-commission/12199895> “Have they ever stepped down from a Senate committee or a committee that they serve on because they disagreed with someone on the committee?”
Even before Kobach began touting the New Hampshire claims, Granite State politicos of both parties were grumbling about Gardner’s presence on the commission, as TPM previously reported.<http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/whys-the-dem-whos-kept-new-hampshire-first-in-the-nation-helping-trump> The materials slated for Tuesday’s meetings that were posted by the White House aren’t likely to make them feel any better.
Jasper’s correspondence with state officials about the data are among the materials posted, <https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-advisory-commission-election-integrity-resources> as is the report<https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/docs/pacei-nh-speaker-jasper-report.pdf> on them that he released last week.
The stats are also touted on a slide show<https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/docs/pacei-hans-von-spakovsky-election-presentation.pdf> being presented by GOP commission member Hans von Spakovsky, who has a reputation for pushing misleading claims about voter fraud.
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Posted in The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Can Congress Call A Special Election if Trump and Pence Are Impeached?”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94731>
Posted on September 11, 2017 7:06 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94731> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Richard Primus<https://takecareblog.com/blog/can-congress-call-a-special-election-if-trump-and-pence-are-impeached> for Take Care.
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Posted in electoral college<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>


“Trump’s Voter Fraud Panel, No Stranger to Controversy, Creates Another One”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94729>
Posted on September 10, 2017 12:42 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94729> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Michael Wines<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/us/trump-voter-fraud-panel.html?_r=0> in the NYT:
President Trump’s commission on voter fraud, which has ricocheted between controversies since its creation in May, is scheduled to hold its second public meeting on Tuesday in New Hampshire. Already, the commission’s de facto leader has warmed up for the session by suggesting that the election in November of Senator Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, was rigged.
The accusation led the state’s entire congressional delegation to demand that William M. Gardner, the New Hampshire secretary of state, resign from the commission. Mr. Gardner, a Democrat and the host of the meeting on Tuesday, refused to do so, and said the state’s two senators and two representatives were being hypocritical.
Uproar has become standard practice for the fraud panel, officially called the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Critics say the commission is a pretext for Republican efforts to make it harder to register and to vote, and that it will reach a predetermined conclusion, that tough new rules are needed to prevent fraud. Studies have repeatedly shown that illegal voting is very rare, and that voter impersonation — perhaps the main danger suggested by advocates of tighter election rules — is next to nonexistent.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


Max Hailperin Offers Critical Guide to Materials to be Used at Next Pence-Kobach Fraud Commission Meeting<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94727>
Posted on September 10, 2017 12:35 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94727> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Worth the read.<https://medium.com/@max.hailperin/presidential-advisory-commission-on-election-integrity-september-12-2017-meeting-materials-4512dd139ee6>

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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Nestled in House Spending Bill: Campaign Finance Deregulation”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94725>
Posted on September 10, 2017 12:26 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94725> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WSJ:<https://www.wsj.com/article_email/nestled-in-house-spending-bill-campaign-finance-deregulation-1504965600-lMyQjAxMTI3MDA5OTEwMzkyWj/>
The inclusion of the deregulatory measures in the spending package is prompting pushback from campaign-finance watchdogs, who worry they may ultimately become law.
If they do, churches may be able to contribute to candidates without fear of losing their tax-exempt status, furthering President Donald Trump’s promise to “get rid of and totally destroy” a law that forbids such activity.
Corporations would be able to ask their employees to donate to unlimited numbers of trade associations’ political action groups instead of limiting employee solicitations to one group per year.
Other measures included in the bill would continue to prevent the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission from implementing rules that would affect political activities of 501(C)(4) nonprofits and publicly traded corporations, respectively. And the government would again be prohibited from requiring federal contractors to disclose their political contributions and campaign expenditures.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


“Democrat On Trump Voter Fraud Probe Slams Voting Restriction Efforts”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94723>
Posted on September 9, 2017 12:24 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94723> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
HuffPost:<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alan-king-trump-voter-fraud-probe_us_59b42303e4b0b5e531068520?0n>
A Democratic member of President Donald Trump’s<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/donald-trump> commission to investigate voter fraud issued some of the strongest criticism yet from within the panel on efforts to make it more difficult to vote.
In a lengthy statement<https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/docs/pacei-submission-alan-king_statement-issues-recommendations.pdf> to the commission, Alan King, a Democratic probate judge in Alabama, criticized overzealous efforts to purge people from the voter rolls. In his statement, King wrote that while there may be some people who voted twice, there were thousands more who were removed from the rolls for no reason or had their vote suppressed. King won’t be attending the panel’s Tuesday meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire, because of a scheduling conflict, he told commission organizers.
“The reality is that the less affluent in our society are more prone to move and more prone to have a diminished economic position in life, just to survive. But that does not mean that officials in government should ‘game the system’ to deprive the less affluent from voting, simply because they may have moved from one election to another only to be stricken from the active voter list,” he wrote.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“I Ran Digital For A 2016 Presidential Campaign. Here’s What Russia Might Have Got For $100,000”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94721>
Posted on September 9, 2017 12:19 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94721> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Kevin Bingle:<https://www.buzzfeed.com/kevinbingle/how-far-did-russias-100000-go?utm_term=.wwXbVxEdK#.hgDZOL3YN>
One common response to the news that a Kremlin-linked online operation in Russia bought $100,000 worth of Facebook ads during the 2016 election campaign has been that the money is a drop in the bucket relative to the more than $1 billion spent on ads during the cycle, or the $27 billion in revenue earned by Facebook last year.
But as one of a handful of Americans who managed the digital operations of a 2016 presidential campaign, I think $100,000 smartly spent on Facebook could have a much larger reach than you may realize. And more importantly, nobody — not the political pros, or the advertising gurus — truly knows how far a message spreads when Facebook is paid to promote it. The social network still contains many mysteries, even to those pouring millions into it.
What I do know, from managing the digital operations for Gov. John Kasich’s campaign, is how the game was played in 2016. So how much impact would $100,000 of advertising have on Facebook during the cycle? The short answer is…that completely depends on how large the targeted audience was, and how long the campaigns were running.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“Virginia scraps touch-screen voting machines as election for governor looms”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94719>
Posted on September 9, 2017 9:50 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94719> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-scraps-touch-screen-voting-machines-as-election-for-governor-looms/2017/09/08/e266ead6-94fe-11e7-89fa-bb822a46da5b_story.html?utm_term=.bc0f673422c4>
Concerned about potential hacking two months away from the state’s closely watched gubernatorial election, Virginia’s state Board of Elections voted Friday to replace any touchscreen voting machines before November’s elections.
The three-member board voted unanimously to decertify Direct Recording Electronic voting machines, acting partly out of concern that their security had been compromised at DefCon, an annual hack-a-thon held in July in Las Vegas. The machines do not produce a paper trail, which the department described as an important security feature….
Ahead of the vote, state elections officials laid out concerns about the machines in a report, which noted vulnerability exposed and exacerbated by hackers at DefCon.
“DefCon, an annual conference of hackers, promoted the ‘Voting Machine Hacking Village’ at which multiple voting machines, mostly DREs, were made available,” it said. “Multiple types of DREs, some of which are currently in use in Virginia, were hacked according to public reports from DefCon. Additional troubling reports from DefCon were publicized, including one that expressly stated the password for a DRE that was in use in the Commonwealth, and one that indicated that some DREs in use have a single password shared by all machines from an individual vendor.”
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>



--
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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