[EL] ELB News and Commentary 8/8/18

Wed Aug 8 09:25:23 PDT 2018

“No law prevents Kris Kobach from overseeing the likely recount in his own race”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100499>
Posted on August 8, 2018 9:22 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100499> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KC Star:<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article216299955.html>

No law requires Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to recuse himself from a recount in the governor’s race, but legal and political experts say that he should to maintain trust in the election.

Republican legislative leaders said Wednesday morning that a recount is almost certain and could possibly take weeks.

Kobach, the state’s top election official, narrowly led Gov. Jeff Colyer in the Republican primary by a mere 191 votes Wednesday<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article216291520.html> morning after each of the state’s 105 counties had posted election returns after technical difficulties in Johnson County delayed results on election night.<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article216290855.html>…

Kobach’s office did not immediately comment on whether the secretary intended to hand over administration of the recount to a deputy.

He has recused himself from deciding election disputes in the past because of a conflict of interest, including in 2014 when he abstained from a residency objection hearing against U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts because he served on the senator’s campaign committee….

Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, said in an email that “it would be good practice even if not required by state law for an election official to recuse from any recount or legal proceedings surrounding his or her own election efforts. A longstanding English and American tradition is that ‘no man should be a judge of his own case.’ That should apply here.”

Hasen added that the issue “only arises because we have partisan election officials running our elections. In most other advanced democracies, there are nonpartisan professionals.”
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Posted in conflict of interest laws<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=20>

Unaffiliated Member of NC Elections Board Sides with Democrats in Establishing Student Voting Site at NCSU in Wake County<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100497>
Posted on August 8, 2018 9:19 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100497> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Republican members of the board<https://www.newsobserver.com/latest-news/article216143595.html> opposed the student voting site.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Judge hands NC legislators a temporary loss in lawsuit over political labels”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100495>
Posted on August 8, 2018 9:15 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100495> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News & Observer:<https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article216187915.html>

The North Carolina Supreme Court candidate who is suing the state government and legislative leaders won a partial victory in court Monday.

Chris Anglin is a registered Republican, and he is running against a Democrat and another Republican, who is the incumbent seeking re-election. Both of them — Democrat Anita Earls and Republican Barbara Jackson — will have their party affiliations listed on the ballot this November. But a new law passed by the state legislature on Saturday means that the ballot won’t say Anglin is a Republican. Instead, the space next to his name will be blank.

Anglin said Republican legislators made that change so that his campaign would have less of a chance at succeeding and derailing Jackson, who is the party’s preferred candidate. Among several other legal requests filed Monday morning, he asked a judge to throw out the parts of the law that affected him<https://www2.ncleg.net/BillLookUp/2017E1/s3>.

And at just after 4 p.m. Monday, he got some of what he wanted. In a written statement, Anglin said he was happy, and not surprised.

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Posted in ballot access<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>

Pa: “GOP calls foul on Dems’ voter registration giveaway at fair”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100493>
Posted on August 8, 2018 9:12 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100493> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/article216302900.html>

The Pennsylvania Republican Party wants an investigation into a promotion by Fayette County Democrats at the recent county fair to get people to register as Democrats or change party affiliation.

The GOP says the offer of Pittsburgh Steelers memorabilia and a one-night stay at a western Pennsylvania resort violated the state Elections Code.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, vote buying<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=43>

North Carolina: “Cooper, NAACP, environmentalists fail to win quick freeze on constitutional amendments”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100491>
Posted on August 8, 2018 9:09 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100491> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News & Observer:<https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article216223675.html>

Gov. Roy Cooper failed Tuesday afternoon to get a temporary freeze on two proposed constitutional amendments he has called legislative power grabs, with a Superior Court judge declaring that a three-judge panel should have the first chance to decide.

The Democratic governor is seeking to block two amendments that he said were written to mislead voters. The amendments would continue a trend of legislative power shifts that began even before Cooper was sworn in as governor in January 2017.

Meanwhile, the state NAACP and an environmental group called Clear Air Carolina are suing to keep four amendments from appearing on this fall’s ballots.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway said he would urge the state Supreme Court chief justice to appoint a three-judge panel quickly to decide both cases. The state is facing a ballot-printing deadline, and the Legislature wants the six proposed amendments on it.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Kansas and Ohio Races Remain Too Close to Call”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100489>
Posted on August 8, 2018 9:06 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100489> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/us/politics/ohio-kansas-elections-results.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront>

The Kansas Republican primary for governor and Ohio’s high-stakes special election for Congress both remained too close to call on Wednesday morning, with razor-thin margins separating the candidates in each race.

With all precincts reporting in Kansas shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday, Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach was ahead of Gov. Jeff Colyer by just 191 votes out of more than 311,000 Republican ballots cast statewide. The results were likely to remain in flux for at least several days with an unknown number of mail-in ballots not yet counted, a full canvass of all votes still to come and the possibility of a recount looming.

As the state’s top election official, Mr. Kobach would be in charge of overseeing the canvass if he does not recuse himself.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Election experts say Kris Kobach’s voter fraud claims are misleading”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100487>
Posted on August 8, 2018 9:05 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100487> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN:<https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/08/politics/kris-kobach-trump-commission-voter-fraud/index.html>

Kris Kobach, the former vice-chair of President Donald Trump’s now-disbanded commission on election integrity, and Maine’s Democratic Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap have engaged in a public back and forth over the issue of voter fraud, with Kobach accusing<https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/03/politics/trump-voter-fraud-commission-evidence-documents/index.html> Dunlap, a former member of the commission, of being “willfully blind to the voter fraud in front of his nose,” and Dunlap claiming that the commission failed to find evidence of widespread fraud.
But election experts say that Kobach’s claims are misleading and obscure the reality that voter fraud is rare in the context of the more than 1 billion votes cast since 2000.
In a statement sent to CNN on Saturday claiming that Dunlap is “willfully blind,” Kobach, who serves as Kansas’ Republican secretary of state, said that the commission “was presented with more than 1,000 convictions for voter fraud since the year 2000.” Kobach further claimed that this finding was only a fraction of the total and said that the “commission was also presented approximately 8,400 instances of double voting in the 2016 election looking only at 20 states.”
The statement did not cite sources for the numbers and Kobach’s office did not respond to a CNN request asking what evidence the information was based on.
Three election experts interviewed by CNN, however, cast doubt on the claims made by Kobach, a noted proponent of voter fraud theories and related policies. For example, in 2016, Kobach supported<http://www.kwch.com/content/news/Kobach-supports-Trumps-unsubstantiated-voting-fraud-claims-403836736.html> Trump’s false claim that “millions of people” voted illegally for Hillary Clinton in that year’s presidential election.

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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

“Georgia groups call on GOP gubernatorial nominee Brian Kemp to step down as the state’s elections chief”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100485>
Posted on August 8, 2018 9:03 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100485> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/08/08/georgia-groups-call-on-gop-gubernatorial-nominee-brian-kemp-to-step-down-as-the-states-elections-chief/?utm_term=.3e2c8f95ffec>

Activist groups in Georgia are calling on Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp to step down as secretary of state, a post that includes responsibility for overseeing the state’s elections.

Kemp, through his campaign spokesman, has said he will not give up the job that he has held since 2010, noting that other elected officials have not quit their elected posts while running for higher offices. He is running against Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams, a former state lawmaker who has clashed with Kemp in the past over her efforts to register voters.

The race will be one of the most closely watched of the midterms, a test of Trump’s political popularity and a chance for Abrams to make history as the nation’s first black female governor.

Two groups — the Georgia Alliance for Social Justice and Resist Trump Tuesdays — have planned a rally for Wednesday afternoon to call for Kemp to resign. Common Cause Georgia issued a statement this week urging him to leave his position. “It is ethically wrong for a politician to oversee the campaign he is a candidate in,” reads an online petition launched by the group.

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Posted in conflict of interest laws<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=20>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

Interview with Me on NPR: Trump Says His Son’s Meeting With Russians Was ‘Totally Legal.’ But Was It?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100483>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:55 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100483> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Listen at NPR’s Here & Now<http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/08/06/trump-jr-meeting-russians-legal>.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Judge’s ruling invalidates FEC regulation allowing anonymous donations to ‘dark money’ groups”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100481>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:54 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100481> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Big ruling<https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2016cv0259-43> while I was gone flagged here by Politico:<https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/04/campaigns-dark-money-groups-donors-anonymous-ruling-762440>

A U.S. District Court judge on Friday issued a ruling invalidating a Federal Election Commission regulation that has allowed donors to so-called dark-money groups to remain anonymous, the latest development in a years-long legal battle that could have major implications for campaign finance.

Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled the FEC’s current regulation of such groups, including 501(c) 4 non-profits, fails to uphold the standard Congress intended when it required the disclosure of politically related spending.

“The challenged regulation facilitates such financial ‘routing,’ blatantly undercuts the congressional goal of fully disclosing the sources of money flowing into federal political campaigns, and thereby suppresses the benefits intended to accrue from disclosure … ,” wrote Howell, an Obama appointee to the D.C district court. The decision is likely to be appealed….

The FEC now has 45 days to issue interim regulations that uphold the broader disclosure standards and 30 days to reconsider its original decision to dismiss a complaint about the Crossroads GPS’ spending in the Ohio race.

The FEC could appeal the decision, but an appeal would require a unanimous vote from all of the remaining commissioners, since two seats remain vacant. Crossroads could also file an appeal.

Even if the FEC does not appeal, I believe Crossroads GPS could bring an appeal here.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“New voting machines a challenge for Michigan’s blind voters”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100479>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:47 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100479> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Detroit Free Press reports. <https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/08/06/voting-machines-blind-voters-michigan/887574002/>
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voters with disabilities<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=71>

“Why Russian Money Ends Up in U.S. Elections; America needs a new model of campaign finance not to supplant the political marketplace but to correct for its inadequacies.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100477>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:46 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100477> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bob Bauer NYT oped. <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/opinion/russian-interference-campaign-finance-elections.html>
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“AP Explains: Why the 2016 Trump Tower meeting matters”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100475>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:45 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100475> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP reports.<https://apnews.com/9f77cba77f4642ea8b1a1186b7b7fddb/AP-Explains:-Why-the-2016-Trump-Tower-meeting-matters>

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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Sitting Rep’s Campaign Collected Dead Man’s Signature On Challenger’s Behalf”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100473>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100473> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

TPM:<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sitting-reps-campaign-collected-dead-mans-signature-on-challengers-behalf>

A Virginia judge appointed a special prosecutor<https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/special-prosecutor-to-investigate-petitions-rep-scott-taylor-s-staff/article_0c5b9365-3255-5feb-9546-57b5c2774996.html> Tuesday to look into a case of potential forgery and other election law violations after multiple suspicious signatures were found on a petition to get an independent congressional candidate on the ballot, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported<https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/special-prosecutor-to-investigate-petitions-rep-scott-taylor-s-staff/article_0c5b9365-3255-5feb-9546-57b5c2774996.html>.

But there’s a big twist: The signatures for that independent candidate, Shaun Brown, were collected by paid campaign staffers<https://pilotonline.com/news/government/politics/local/article_0baa7eee-95a3-11e8-b515-7f7462b59418.html> for the incumbent Republican candidate in the race, Rep. Scott Taylor (R-VA).

Taylor beat Brown, who was then running as a Democrat, in the 2016 congressional election. Brown was subsequently indicted for fraud, a totally separate story<https://www.wavy.com/news/crime/former-congressional-candidate-charged-with-fraud/1078308925>, late last year<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/failed-va-congressional-candidate-accused-of-fraud/2017/12/20/ef5d695a-e5cf-11e7-833f-155031558ff4_story.html?utm_term=.681c0d6039b2>. She announced her independent candidacy in March<http://www.dailypress.com/news/politics/dp-nws-brown-20180327-story.html> of this year.

What has emerged, potentially, is an effort to use fraudulent signatures to add an independent candidate to the ballot, in order to divert votes away from a legitimate Democratic challenger.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Top Recent Downloads in Election Law on SSRN<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100471>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:42 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100471> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/topten/topTenResults.cfm?groupingId=991929&netorjrnl=jrnl>:
Rank

Paper

Downloads

1.

Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3213954>
Robert Chesney<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=119080> and Danielle Keats Citron<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=463718>
University of Texas School of Law and University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

Date Posted: 21 Jul 2018
Last Revised: 31 Jul 2018

1,213

2.

Campaigns, Inc.<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3209466>
Robert Yablon<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2277973>
University of Wisconsin Law School

Date Posted: 19 Jul 2018
Last Revised: 20 Jul 2018

90

3.

Presidential Elections: National Popular Vote, Elector Unit Rule Voting and Related Issues<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3195747>
William Josephson<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1409348>
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP

Date Posted: 02 Jul 2018
Last Revised: 02 Jul 2018

77

4.

The Democracy Ratchet<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3201247>
Derek T. Muller<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=464341>
Pepperdine University – School of Law

Date Posted: 29 Jun 2018
Last Revised: 06 Jul 2018

60

5.

Dark Parties: Citizens United, Independent-Expenditure Networks and the Evolution of Political Parties<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3189918>
Stan Oklobdzija<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2882100>
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) – Department of Political Science

Date Posted: 13 Jul 2018
Last Revised: 20 Jul 2018

55

6.

Two Problems of Fiduciary Governance<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3194810>
D. Theodore Rave<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=681563>
University of Houston Law Center

Date Posted: 27 Jun 2018
Last Revised: 27 Jun 2018

48

7.

Is Groton the Next Evenwel?<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3194755>
Paul H. Edelman<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=68648>
Vanderbilt University – Law School

Date Posted: 21 Jun 2018
Last Revised: 26 Jun 2018

27

8.

Prophylactic Redistricting? Congress’s Section 5 Power and the New Equal Protection Right to Vote<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3216936>
Michael Morley<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2159971>
Florida State University – College of Law

Date Posted: 01 Aug 2018
Last Revised: 01 Aug 2018

27

9.

Who Votes Without Identification? Using Affidavits from Michigan to Learn About the Potential Impact of Strict Photo Voter Identification Laws<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3205769>
Phoebe Henninger<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=3045388>, Marc Meredith<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1522337> and Michael Morse<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2233361>
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University – Department of Government

Date Posted: 01 Jul 2018
Last Revised: 23 Jul 2018

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Posted in pedagogy<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=23>

“Donald Trump Jr.’s Potential Legal Troubles, Explained”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100469>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:40 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100469> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Charlie Savage reports<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/us/politics/donald-trump-jr-russia-investigation.html> for the NYT.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

Federal Court Orders Briefing Focused on “Public Interest” in Lawsuit Aimed at Blocking Use of Electronic Voting in Georgia Elections in November<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100466>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:36 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100466> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

See this orde<https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/curling-kemp-order.pdf>r in Curling v. Kemp.

(Background with link<https://coaltionforgoodgovernance.sharefile.com/share/view/s2248f69dcec45ea9> to motion for a preliminary injunction.)
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Why I Oppose the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100464>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:33 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100464> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ed Zelinsky blogs. <https://blog.oup.com/2018/08/why-i-oppose-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/>
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Posted in electoral college<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>

“Brennan Center Sues Justice Department for Refusing to Disclose Documents Related to Controversial Voting Letter”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100462>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:31 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100462> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Release via email:

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is suing<https://brennancenter.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=86950646d6302177bc47ef9c5&id=75a3ef40a1&e=edecb37d31> the Justice Department today for refusing to turn over documents related to a controversial letter DOJ sent last year, which sought detailed information about how states maintain their voter rolls. Voting rights groups are concerned that it could be a prelude to pressuring states to engage in aggressive voter purges — the often-flawed process of deleting names from voter registration lists.

“The public has a right to know why the Justice Department sent this letter, and what information it received from states in response,” said Jonathan Brater, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “The Justice Department should be fighting to protect the voting rights of all Americans. We are concerned, though, that this letter may be part of a broader effort to undermine those rights, and we are going to court to find out.”

Non-partisan ethics watchdog American Oversight is representing the Brennan Center in the lawsuit.

DOJ sent the letter<https://brennancenter.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=86950646d6302177bc47ef9c5&id=ef7bd5f3b1&e=edecb37d31> in July 2017, requesting that election officials in 44 states share details about how they are complying with federal laws that govern voter list maintenance. In it, DOJ claimed the inquiry was related to “nationwide enforcement efforts.” The Brennan Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request shortly afterward, requesting communication and documents related to both the creation of the letter and any responses DOJ received from states. Earlier this year, the DOJ largely denied the request, producing some partially-redacted pages while at the same time acknowledging that additional responsive documents exist.

“On its own, this letter would be troubling, but taken in the context of President Trump’s discredited ‘voter fraud’ commission and the move to include a citizenship question in the census, it looks like one piece of a broader attack on voting rights,” said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight. “With just months until Americans head to the polls again for the November midterms, we need to get to the bottom of how this letter was written and why it was sent.”

DOJ’s inadequate response comes as a new Brennan Center report<https://brennancenter.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=86950646d6302177bc47ef9c5&id=751cbfc5db&e=edecb37d31> finds that voter purges are on the rise. Between the federal elections of 2014 and 2016, almost 4 million more names were purged from the rolls than between 2006 and 2008.

The uptick is particularly noticeable in jurisdictions that previously had to “pre-clear” changes to their election procedures with federal officials because of a history of racial discrimination. The Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder ended that federal oversight. Had purge rates continued in these jurisdictions at the same pace as rates in jurisdictions not subject to preclearance at that time, 2 million fewer voters would have been deleted from voter rolls between the elections of 2012 and 2016.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

A “New Gig” and an Old One for the Indispensable Doug Chapin<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100460>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:29 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100460> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Doug announces<http://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2018/08/08/some-personal-news-a-new-gig-but-the-old-one-will-continue/>:

Seven years ago, I joined the University of Minnesota to help build and launch the Humphrey School’s election work – and over that time, we’ve built a master’s- and undergraduate-level Certificate in Election Administration<https://www.hhh.umn.edu/certificate-programs/certificate-election-administration> program that’s reaching students, election officials and other professionals nationwide. Throughout that time, I’ve written approximately eleventy billion words on this blog and on Twitter<https://twitter.com/hhhelections> highlighting election administration issues and doing my part to promote the work of #electiongeeks across America.

The good news is that little of that is going to change; however, in a couple of weeks I’ll be starting a new chapter of my career.

On August 20, I will be joining Fors Marsh Group<https://www.forsmarshgroup.com/> in Northern Virginia as their Director of Election Research. FMG is home to some of the smartest people I’ve ever met, and they’re already doing incredible work in the election space<https://www.forsmarshgroup.com/markets/policy/> with clients like the Federal Voting Assistance Program, the Election Assistance Commission and the Council on State Governments. Now more than ever, quality research and data on election administration is crucial not only to improving the voter experience but also to hardening our democracy against outside threats – and FMG and its team of professionals is knee-deep in the work. My role will be to manage that portfolio as well as to look for opportunities for new projects in the election space. It’s an incredible opportunity and I can’t wait to get started.

As I said, though, the educational work at Minnesota will continue; I’ll still be teaching as an adjunct faculty member – and this blog will live on as one way for me to stay on top of (and share) ideas and issues in the elections field. I also expect to stay active on Twitter!

Doug is a gem in the election law community. Full of knowledge, scrupulously fair, Minnesota nice, and an island of calm rationality when everyone else’s heads are exploding. I learn so much from Doug’s work and his personal example. Good luck with the new endeavor, Doug!
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Posted in election law biz<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>

“Kris Kobach used flawed research to defend Trump’s voter fraud panel, experts say”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100458>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100458> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/08/07/experts-say-kris-kobach-used-flawed-research-to-defend-trumps-voter-fraud-panel/?utm_term=.2611df8f8cda>

One of the foremost proponents of stricter voter identification laws, Kobach, who is running in the primary Tuesday for the Republican nomination for the state’s governorship, has been undeterred since a federal judge struck down a restrictive voting law for which he had advocated in the state.

And in a statement sent to The Washington Post, Kobach accused Dunlap of being “willfully blind to the voter fraud in front of his nose,” pointing to studies from two conservative groups about the supposed voter fraud about which he has been so vocal: a database from the Heritage Foundation that found 983 convictions in state, local and federal elections dating back decades; and a study from the Government Accountability Institute, a nonprofit founded by Stephen K. Bannon and another Breitbart editor, that purported to find 8,400 instances of double voting in the 2016 election…

Kobach’s response was included in the reports of outlets such as CNN<https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/03/politics/trump-voter-fraud-commission-evidence-documents/index.html>, the Associated Press<https://www.apnews.com/f5f6a73b2af546ee97816bb35e82c18d>and HuffPost. But election experts interviewed by The Post said that the two studies made for a flawed portrait of the issue of voter fraud. Examining them provides a window into the ways in which statistics are massaged and studies are selectively deployed in the push to address the supposed mass scourge of voter fraud with stricter voter identification laws. Though a handful of people vote illegally, either intentionally or unintentionally, every year, election experts say that there is no evidence that voter fraud is a widespread issue of any statistical significance.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

“For Better Elections, Give Ranked Choice Voting a Chance”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100456>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:22 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100456> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Boston Globe editorial. <https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2018/08/07/for-better-elections-give-ranked-choice-voting-chance/7mVpKtEBOzLHbWIBsJYHfM/story.html>

See also this analysis<https://www.the-american-interest.com/2018/08/07/ranked-choice-voting-as-maine-goes/> by Sandy Maisel in The American Interest.
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Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>

Obituary: Gregory Harvey, 81, election lawyer and leader of ‘Recall Rizzo’ effort<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100454>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:20 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100454> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Sad news<http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/gregory-harvey-obituary-election-lawyer-recall-frank-rizzo-20180807.html> from Philadelphia.
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Posted in election law biz<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>

Is Kobach’s Controversial CrossCheck Program Dying?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100452>
Posted on August 8, 2018 8:18 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100452> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Steven Rosenfeld:<http://www.nationalmemo.com/gop-attempts-to-purge-voter-rolls-failing-before-midterm/>

That overall tally means that 17 out of the 28 states that were in Crosscheck as of early 2017 have backed away, at least for now. That list of states, that, under a legal memo, agree to share some of their voter data for analytics overseen by the Kansas Secretary of State, comes from a Supreme Court legal brief<https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/supreme_court_preview/briefs-2017-2018/16-980-amicus-pet-former-attorneys-of-the-civil-rights-division-of-the-united-states-department-of-justice.authcheckdam.pdf> filed by ex-Bush administration officials known for overly policing the process. They supported a new purge process in Ohio.

But there’s more going on than a mass exodus or distancing from Crosscheck, as Illinois’ reference to “security issues” alludes. Last fall, Indivisible Chicago, a Democratic activist group, posted documents<https://www.indivisiblechicago.com/crosscheck-documents> online showing Crosscheck security lapses: emails with logins and passwords; statements that it did not change passwords; and observing that it didn’t encrypt voter data. Since then, some of the attorneys defending Crosscheck in court have acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security sees Crosscheck as a cyber-security risk. That development led more states to suspend its interactions with it.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

--
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
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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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