[EL] ELB News and Commentary 8/11/18

Sat Aug 11 15:05:35 PDT 2018

“Judge to decide legality of Arizona law prohibiting collection of mail-in ballots”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100586>
Posted on August 11, 2018 3:02 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100586> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Tuscon.com reports.<https://tucson.com/news/arizona_news/judge-to-decide-legality-of-arizona-law-prohibiting-collection-of/article_2cee598d-2594-5e6d-9403-9d97185cae17.html>
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Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>

“Representative Chris Collins Suspends Bid for Re-election After Insider Trading Charges”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100584>
Posted on August 11, 2018 3:01 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100584> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/11/nyregion/chris-collins-new-york.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news>

Days after federal prosecutors charged him with insider trading<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/nyregion/chris-collins-insider-trading.html>, Representative Chris Collins announced on Saturday that he was abandoning his re-election bid amid worries that his legal troubles could make vulnerable his otherwise solidly Republican district in western New York.

How exactly the suspension of Mr. Collins’s campaign would play out was not immediately clear, as the process to get off the ballot can be onerous in New York, and Mr. Collins did not say how he would remove himself….

One Republican official familiar with the discussions said the party would probably try to nominate Mr. Collins for a county clerkship somewhere else in New York, in an effort to meet the legal requirements to remove him from the congressional ballot.

Time to call in<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1028296549590167552> the Democracy Canon?
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Kansas governor accuses Kobach of not counting all votes in governor race”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100581>
Posted on August 11, 2018 2:56 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100581> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Hill:<http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/401377-kansas-governor-accuses-kobach-of-not-counting-all-votes-in-governor-race>

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) accused Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) on Friday of intentionally pushing a miscount of the number of ballots cast in the gubernatorial primary race.

“Secretary Kobach’s office was instructing counties not to count ballots that are in the mail, and those clearly have to be counted under Kansas law,” Colyer said in a Fox News interview<http://video.foxnews.com/v/5820541215001/?#sp=show-clips>.

The governor also expressed concern over the counting of provisional ballots for voters who are registered independents but are allowed to vote in the primary.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“The Trump White House’s new hush-money problem”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100579>
Posted on August 11, 2018 2:46 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100579> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Aaron Blake<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/08/10/trump-white-houses-new-hush-money-problem/?utm_term=.1c5d0c649c33> for WaPo:

In this case, about the only campaign finance question would be whether this would be considered a legitimate campaign expense, said election-law expert Rick Hasen of the University of California, Irvine.

“I’m not sure I’ve seen a campaign try to claim hush money as a legitimate expense, but of course the whole point of the Stormy Daniels payments controversy is that they were not made from the campaign account and reported when they were campaign related,” Hasen said.

Larry Noble, a campaign-finance lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center, said the fact that Manigault Newman ostensibly would have had a job with the campaign might make it less problematic.

“If, however, the offer of the campaign job was just a cover to pay her for the NDA, it raises a more difficult issue,” Noble said. “There is a difference between using campaign funds to deal with personal matters that may be embarrassing (e.g. the legal defense of a drunk-driving charge), which is not allowed, and matters more directly connected to your campaign or your job as an officeholder.”
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“It’s Not Just Kobach: Three Vote-Suppressing Secretaries of State Are Overseeing Their Own Elections”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100577>
Posted on August 11, 2018 2:43 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100577> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Pema Levy<https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/its-not-just-kobach-three-vote-suppressing-secretaries-of-state-are-overseeing-their-own-elections/> for Mother Jones.
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Posted in conflict of interest laws<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=20>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Hacking the US mid-terms? It’s child’s play”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100575>
Posted on August 11, 2018 2:41 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100575> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

BBC News reports.<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45154903>
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>

Kobach Hands Kansas Governor Recall Responsibilities to His Deputy, Who Has Donated to His Campaign, and Not to Election Professional<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100573>
Posted on August 10, 2018 5:39 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100573> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KC Star:<https://www.kansascity.com/latest-news/article216487350.html>

Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rucker will take over Kobach’s duties and will serve on the State Board of Canvassers, which will certify the final election results. Rucker donated $1,000 to Kobach’s campaign last fall, according to campaign finance records….

Rucker was a top aide to former Kansas attorney general Phill Kline.

Rucker found himself under scrutiny by an attorney disciplinary panel in 2010 that had looked into how Kline’s office conducted itself as it investigated the late Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller and Planned Parenthood in Overland Park.

Kline’s office faced a far-reaching investigation into complaints that he misled judges and a grand jury during the probe into abortion providers.

While Kline would later have his law license suspended for what the Kansas supreme court found to be “clear and convincing evidence” of professional misconduct, Rucker in 2010 received an informal admonition for not correcting misleading information he provided to the state’s highest court.

Rucker’s attorney in that disciplinary case was Caleb Stegall, who would later go on to serve as former Gov. Sam Brownback’s general counsel before becoming a justice on the Kansas supreme court.

Rucker was also the subject of a lawsuit last year from a former employee in the secretary of state’s office.

The former employee alleged in the federal lawsuit that her situation was a case of “reverse religious discrimination,” and described Rucker as telling her grandmother that she had been fired because the staffer was a diversion, mean and didn’t go to church, with Rucker placing a particular emphasis on church as a factor.

The jury rejected the employee’s claim, though the trial provoked further scrutiny of Rucker’s work within the office.

Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, said he had assumed that Kobach would turn over his responsibilities to an election professional within the secretary of state’s office.

“However, it appears that the secretary is not sensitive to the appearance of impropriety and by appointing his longtime right hand Erick Rucker he is not eliminating the appearance of impropriety but only transferring the responsibility to another one of his political cronies,” Carmichael said.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Bernard Bell on “Citizenship and the Census: State of New York v. U.S. Department of Commerce (Round One)”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100571>
Posted on August 10, 2018 5:01 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100571> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Part I<http://yalejreg.com/nc/citizenship-and-the-census-state-of-new-york-v-u-s-department-of-commerce-round-onepart-i/>

Part II<http://yalejreg.com/nc/citizenship-and-the-census-state-of-new-york-v-u-s-department-of-commerce-round-onepart-ii/>

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

“Santa Monica is on trial over voting rights lawsuit”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100567>
Posted on August 10, 2018 3:44 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100567> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KPCC’s Airtalk explores.<https://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2018/08/10/63500/santa-monica-is-on-trial-over-voting-rights-lawsui/>
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Posted in Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

“Billionaire gives up campaign to split California into three states”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100561>
Posted on August 10, 2018 12:19 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100561> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bob Egelko<https://m.sfgate.com/news/article/Billionaire-gives-up-campaign-to-split-California-13145572.php?t=4472df104b> for the SF Chronicle:

The author of the thwarted initiative to split California into three states said Thursday he’s dropping his proposal, while denouncing the state Supreme Court’s decision<https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Splitting-up-Calif-State-Supreme-Court-takes-13085880.php> to remove it from the November ballot.

In a letter to the court, Timothy Draper, a Bay Area venture capitalist, declined the justices’ invitation to present arguments about why his measure meets constitutional standards and should be placed on a future ballot.

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Posted in direct democracy<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=62>

“Group Files Lawsuit to Challenge Electoral College”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100557>
Posted on August 10, 2018 9:49 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100557> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Roll Call:<https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/group-files-lawsuit-to-challenge-electoral-college>

A group is suing two red states and two blue states<https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/08/09/william-weld-challenges-electoral-college-winner-take-all-system-massachusetts/3MpDZk90evXOcsDxC1WNAP/story.html?s_campaign=breakingnews:newsletter> to change the Electoral College system.

Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig and David Boies, who served as former Vice President Al Gore<https://www.rollcall.com/members?1028&utm_source=memberLink?utm_source=memberLink>’s lawyer in Bush v. Gore, make up the group according to the Boston Globe.

The group is suing two predominantly Democratic states (California and Massachusetts) and two predominantly Republican states (Texas and South Carolina.)
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Posted in electoral college<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>

“Election management in the U.S. is improving: An updated Elections Performance Index from the MIT Election Data & Science Lab evaluates the 2016 election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100555>
Posted on August 10, 2018 9:43 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100555> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Electionline Weekly:<http://www.electionline.org/index.php/electionline-weekly>

States’ administration of elections overall improved by 6 percentage points between 2012 and 2016, according to the Elections Performance Index<https://elections.mit.edu/#intro> (EPI) released today by the MIT Election Data & Science Lab<https://electionlab.mit.edu/>.

As many readers will know, the index, which was developed and managed by The Pew Charitable Trusts before being transferred to MEDSL in 2017, provides a nonpartisan, objective measure of how well each state is faring in managing national elections. When it launched in 2013, it provided the first comprehensive assessment of election administration in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.; it now includes data from every federal U.S. election since 2008. It’s calculated using 17 indicators that cover the broad scope of issues involved in managing elections, providing specific metrics for election officials, voters, and policymakers to compare their state with its own past performance, as well as the performance of other states.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

Unanimous Unpublished 6th Circuit Decision, Written by Judge Larsen and Joined by Boggs and Clay, Rejects 1st Amendment Challenge to Ohio Rule Imposing Time Limits on Judicial Campaign Fundraising<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100553>
Posted on August 10, 2018 9:40 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100553> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The court held<http://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/18a0402n-06.pdf> the argument was foreclosed by a recent published 6th Circuit decision.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Software incompatibilities cited in review of missing L.A. County voter names”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100551>
Posted on August 10, 2018 9:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100551> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

LAT:<http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-outside-review-ballots-20180801-story.html>

Los Angeles County’s election software was unable to process a formatting change in state voter data, contributing to 118,500 names being omitted from eligible-voter rosters on election day in June, according to an executive summary of an independent review released Wednesday.

There was no evidence of a security breach, the summary said.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

--
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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