[EL] ELB News and Commentary 8/13/18

[Rick Hasen]

North Carolina: “Republican legislators violated a candidate’s constitutional rights, judge rules”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100611>
Posted on August 13, 2018 10:20 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100611> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News and Observer:<https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article216594950.html>

A judge threw out a new state law Monday, ruling that it violated the constitutional rights of at least two politicians whose 2018 campaigns the law had targeted.

Chris Anglin, a Republican candidate for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, had sued the legislature along with Rebecca Edwards, a Democrat who is running to become a district court judge in Wake County. Earlier this summer, the legislature passed a new law that would have prevented Anglin or Edwards from being able to have their party affiliations on the ballot.

They argued that the law unfairly targeted them because their competitors in this November’s elections would still have their own parties listed on the ballot.

Anglin, who is believed to have been the main target of the new law, is one of two Republicans running for the Supreme Court seat against a single Democratic candidate….

Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore can appeal the ruling but it wasn’t immediately clear Monday if or when they would.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100611&title=North%20Carolina%3A%20%E2%80%9CRepublican%20legislators%20violated%20a%20candidate%E2%80%99s%20constitutional%20rights%2C%20judge%20rules%E2%80%9D>
Posted in ballot access<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


Kansas: “Johnson County accepts nearly 1,500 new ballots, including from unaffiliated voters”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100609>
Posted on August 13, 2018 10:18 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100609> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Wichita Eagle:<https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article216489915.html>

Johnson County will accept nearly 1,500 provisional ballots either in full or in part, including dozens cast by unaffiliated voters who were incorrectly told by poll workers to cast provisional ballots<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article216310205.html>.

The ballots could tip the balance in the GOP primary<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article216446680.html> for governor. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Gov. Jeff Colyer were separated by a mere 110 votes going into Monday.

The Johnson County Board of Canvassers voted unanimously Monday to fully accept 1,176 ballots based on the recommendation of the county’s election commissioner, Ronnie Metsker.

This included 57 ballots from unaffiliated voters who were incorrectly told on Election Day to cast provisional ballots. Kansas law restricts voters from switching parties on Election Day, but unaffiliated voters are allowed to declare a party at the polls….

correctly instructed to vote provisionally instead of declaring a party and casting a normal ballot.

Metsker said this happened in Johnson County.

“We had one (polling) location where that happened,” Metsker said. “These are citizens. We train them. We train them hard. There were a number of problems at that location.”

The unaffiliated voters were part of a larger group of 264 voters in Johnson County who were incorrectly told by poll workers to cast provisional ballots. All of those votes will count, Metsker said.

The county’s decision to count the unaffiliated voters would seem to put the county at odds with a news release from Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rucker, the deputy whom Kobach has tapped to oversee the counting process in the closest primary race for governor in the state’s history.

Rucker said in an email late Sunday that “there has been considerable public discussion regarding whether unaffiliated voters can participate in Kansas party primary elections.”

He then attached a series of legal instructions including that “if an unaffiliated voter does not complete a party affiliation document, that voter is not entitled to vote at a party primary election.”

This is an issue that could easily end up in court if it makes a difference in the outcome.


[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100609&title=Kansas%3A%20%E2%80%9CJohnson%20County%20accepts%20nearly%201%2C500%20new%20ballots%2C%20including%20from%20unaffiliated%20voters%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Trump’s Supreme Court pick calls Antonin Scalia a ‘role model’ and a ‘judicial hero'”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100607>
Posted on August 13, 2018 9:58 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100607> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Manu Raju and Joan Biskupic report for CNN.<https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/13/politics/brett-kavanaugh-antonin-scalia-role-model-supreme-court/index.html>

A few of my earlier Slate pieces:

The Only Thing That Might Stop Trump From Replacing Kennedy With a Scalia Clone<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/trump-will-replace-kennedy-with-a-scalia-clone-only-one-thing-might-stop-him.html>

How Justice Kennedy’s Successor Will Wreak Havoc on Voting Rights and American Democracy<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/justice-kennedys-successor-will-wreak-havoc-on-voting-rights-and-democracy.html>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100607&title=%E2%80%9CTrump%E2%80%99s%20Supreme%20Court%20pick%20calls%20Antonin%20Scalia%20a%20%E2%80%98role%20model%E2%80%99%20and%20a%20%E2%80%98judicial%20hero%27%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Scalia<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=123>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“New coalition plans seven-figure campaign aimed at Puerto Rican voters”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100605>
Posted on August 13, 2018 9:53 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100605> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CBS News:<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-coalition-plans-7-figure-campaign-aimed-at-puerto-rican-voters/>

Critics of the Trump administration’s response to the hurricanes that ravaged Puerto Rico<https://www.cbsnews.com/feature/puerto-rico-recovery-hurricane-maria-aftermath/3/> last year are launching a seven-figure campaign to mobilize displaced Puerto Rican voters ahead of the midterm elections – and planning big demonstrations in New York and Florida to mark the anniversary of Hurricane Maria.

In recognition of the anniversary, a major protest is to take place at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Sept. 22, two days after a memorial service and march on Trump Tower in New York, according to organizers.

The events are part of a new project launched by the Latino Victory Project (LVP), a liberal group that supports Latino Democratic political candidates and works to register and mobilize Latinos to vote, and Power 4 Puerto Rico (P4P), an upstart organization that has spent the last year working to draw more attention to the stunted recovery on the island.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100605&title=%E2%80%9CNew%20coalition%20plans%20seven-figure%20campaign%20aimed%20at%20Puerto%20Rican%20voters%E2%80%9D>
Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


I Spoke with Leah Litman and Ian Samuel for the “First Mondays” Podcast About My Book on Justice Scalia’s Legacy<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100602>
Posted on August 13, 2018 9:48 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100602> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Listen here.<http://www.firstmondays.fm/episodes/2018/8/13/in-recess-8-would-you-rather>

(Link to buy the book,  The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption<https://www.amazon.com/Justice-Contradictions-Antonin-Politics-Disruption/dp/0300228643/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534126910&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=rick%20hasan>.)
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100602&title=I%20Spoke%20with%20Leah%20Litman%20and%20Ian%20Samuel%20for%20the%20%E2%80%9CFirst%20Mondays%E2%80%9D%20Podcast%20About%20My%20Book%20on%20Justice%20Scalia%E2%80%99s%20Legacy>
Posted in Scalia<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=123>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Voting Rights Advocates Used to Have an Ally in the Government. That’s Changing.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100600>
Posted on August 13, 2018 9:41 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100600> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Michael Wines<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/12/us/voting-rights-voter-id-suppression.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage> for the NYT:

In the national battle over voting rights, the fighting is done in court, state by state, over rules that can seem arcane but have the potential to sway the outcome of elections. The Justice Department’s recent actions point to a decided shift in policy at the federal level: toward an agenda embraced by conservatives who say they want to prevent voter fraud….

Critics see in the Justice Department’s moves the ascendance of a longtime Republican political agenda that will increase barriers to the ballot.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100600&title=%E2%80%9CVoting%20Rights%20Advocates%20Used%20to%20Have%20an%20Ally%20in%20the%20Government.%20That%E2%80%99s%20Changing.%E2%80%9D>
Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>, Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


“Nate McMurray doesn’t like ‘giant super PACs.’ But will they be his unlikely salvation?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100598>
Posted on August 12, 2018 2:48 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100598> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CPI:<https://www.publicintegrity.org/2018/08/11/22043/nate-mcmurray-doesn-t-giant-super-pacs-will-they-be-his-unlikely-salvation>

Then, on Wednesday, everything changed.

That was the day the feds arrested Collins<https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-chris-collins-arrested-insider-trading-charges/story?id=57108196> and charged him with securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements to the FBI. McMurray’s phone blew up — with new friends, congressmen, aides to previously down-on-McMurray New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo<http://www.lockportjournal.com/news/local_news/cuomo-hochul-stronger-candidate-than-mcmurray/article_e73be372-5714-5657-9b6d-7b42711d19d8.html>.

Within 24 hours, “tens of thousands of dollars” poured in from the country’s four corners, including $1,000 from Trump nemesis Rosie O’Donnell, McMurray told the Center for Public Integrity<http://www.publicintegrity.org/politics>. Even the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which McMurray said Saturday had little for him previously, declared New York’s 27th District race “firmly in play for Democrats.”

“It’s been a life saver for us,” McMurray said by phone Saturday. “It’s become more of a national campaign overnight.”

Consider that McMurray’s campaign had only collected less than $134,000 for the entire election cycle through June 30, according to federal records<https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00666453/?tab=summary> — roughly a dime for every dollar Collins had raised<https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00520379/?cycle=2018>.

More money could be on its way. A lot more — regardless of whether McMurray wants the kind of cash that may be arriving.


[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100598&title=%E2%80%9CNate%20McMurray%20doesn%E2%80%99t%20like%20%E2%80%98giant%20super%20PACs.%E2%80%99%20But%20will%20they%20be%20his%20unlikely%20salvation%3F%E2%80%9D>
Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


Today’s Must Read: Kansas Ballot Counting Issues Echo Florida 2000<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100596>
Posted on August 12, 2018 2:45 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100596> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KC Star:<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article216446680.html>

Local officials spread across Kansas’ 105 counties will exercise an incredible amount of power this week when they determine whether thousands of ballots should count in the closest primary race for governor in Kansas history.

The roughly 9,000 provisional ballots<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article216310205.html>, awaiting rulings from county officials across the state, will likely decide whether Gov. Jeff Colyer or Secretary of State Kris Kobach emerges as the GOP’s standard-bearer in the fall.<https://www.kansascity.com/latest-news/article216397410.html>…

County election offices spent the days after the election separating provisional ballots into categories. Canvassing boards will then vote <https://www.kansascity.com/article216446405.html> on whether to accept the ballots in each category.

Caskey said that a voter may be told to cast a provisional ballot for a variety of reasons, including the lack of a government-issued ID, but the most common reason is that voters changed their address and forgot to update their voter registration.

“That’s the No. 1 reason every election,” he said. A change of name could also force a voter to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day, he said.

Colyer’s campaign has identified specific categories of concern, including unaffiliated voters who were told to cast a provisional ballot.

Kansas voters must belong to a party to cast a primary ballot, but Kansas law allows a voter to declare a party at a polling place on Election Day.

Kendall Marr, Colyer’s spokesman, said he was first given a provisional ballot when he tried voting in Shawnee County.

Marr was listed as an unaffiliated voter and was told he could cast a provisional ballot. He then asked for a full ballot and registered as a Republican to vote in the primary.

“We’ve heard of quite a few people who had these issues,” Marr said. “We just want to make sure that all the votes are counted appropriately, that everyone had the chance to vote in the Republican primary that wished to.”

Hundreds of mail-in ballots<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article216438950.html> also may be in legal limbo because of a dispute between Kobach’s office and Colyer’s campaign about whether they require a postmark to prove they were sent by the Election Day deadline.

“Our hope is that he gets a fair shake,” Marr said of Colyer. “I think there’s a few things we can do to ensure that, several of which we’ve included in our letter to the secretary of state.”

Robert Scherer, a 78-year-old unaffiliated voter, said he showed up to his Lawrence polling place to cast a ballot for Colyer.

“Mainly, it was a vote against Kobach,” he said.

Rather than register him as a Republican, the poll worker instructed him to cast a provisional ballot, Scherer said. He was confused by the instructions but went ahead with a poll worker’s guidance because there was a line of people behind him….

On Friday afternoon, two election workers in Wyandotte County were sitting at computers with stacks of provisional ballots to review as Election Commissioner Bruce Newby watched.

An appointed board also was sorting 207 valid mail-in ballots that were postmarked before 7 p.m. on Election Day but not received at the election office until later.

Newby, a Kobach appointee, noted that three mail-in ballots arrived Wednesday but did not have postmarks.

“We can’t count those,” Newby said. “The thing that really ticks us off is that for all intents and purposes, it’s the Postal Service that’s disenfranchised that voter. And shame on them.”


[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100596&title=Today%E2%80%99s%20Must%20Read%3A%20Kansas%20Ballot%20Counting%20Issues%20Echo%20Florida%202000>
Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“For Voters Sick of Money in Politics, a New Pitch: No PAC Money Accepted”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100594>
Posted on August 12, 2018 2:37 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100594> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/12/us/money-politics-dean-phillips.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur>

Campaign finance was once famously dismissed by Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, as being of no greater concern to American voters than “static cling.” But since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 opened the floodgates for unrestricted political spending, polls have shown that voters are growing increasingly bitter about the role of money in politics.

The issue is now emerging in midterm races around the country, with dozens of Democrats rejecting donations from political action committees, or PACs, that are sponsored by corporations or industry groups. A handful of candidates, including Mr. Phillips, are going a step further and refusing to take any PAC money at all, even if it comes from labor unions or fellow Democrats.

Rather than dooming the campaigns, these pledges to reject PAC money have become central selling points for voters. And for some of the candidates, the small-donor donations are adding up.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100594&title=%E2%80%9CFor%20Voters%20Sick%20of%20Money%20in%20Politics%2C%20a%20New%20Pitch%3A%20No%20PAC%20Money%20Accepted%E2%80%9D>
Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“‘I was duped’: Signers claim Blankenship campaign lied on petition drive”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100592>
Posted on August 12, 2018 2:34 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100592> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Charleston Gazette-Mail:<https://www.wvgazettemail.com/election_2018/congress_2018/i-was-duped-signers-claim-blankenship-campaign-lied-on-petition/article_52c9a64d-15d3-5b74-a263-8d86fb40bc0c.html>

Terry Shaffer was told he signed a petition to keep Don Blankenship off the ballot for U.S. Senate. In truth, his signature was used for the opposite, and he’s not the only one.

Of the roughly 3,000 Kanawha County residents who signed on to a petition to enable Blankenship to file to run for Senate with the Constitution Party<https://www.wvgazettemail.com/election_2018/congress_2018/blankenship-files-for-senate-run-with-constitution-party/article_92985474-f10c-563d-aef9-2e263e15672c.html>, 28 of them have said in interviews with the Charleston Gazette-Mail that they were lied to about what they were signing.

“Oh, I know I was duped, there’s no doubt about it,” Shaffer, who voted for the winning candidate in the Republican primary, said. “I guarantee you if there was a way you could check that, there’s a lot of Republicans that signed that petition that did not vote for Don Blankenship that were told [it was] to keep Don Blankenship off the November ballot.”


[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100592&title=%E2%80%9C%E2%80%98I%20was%20duped%E2%80%99%3A%20Signers%20claim%20Blankenship%20campaign%20lied%20on%20petition%20drive%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Secret Spending on Both Sides of Michigan Governor’s Race<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100590>
Posted on August 12, 2018 2:31 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100590> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New Yorker:<https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-dark-money-disrupted-michigans-gubernatorial-primaries>

One day this summer, in the midst of this escalation, while he was scrolling through political sites on his phone, a Democratic operative in Lansing named Bob McCann came across a fifteen-second video advertisement attacking Whitmer. McCann spent several years working as Whitmer’s chief of staff when she was the minority leader of the state senate, and he considers her a close friend. When he encountered the ad again, he unmuted it. “Who is Gretchen Whitmer?” a female narrator asked, over a screen split between an image of Whitmer speaking and stacks of cash. “She funds her campaign with big money from big drug and big insurance-company executives. No wonder Gretchen Whitmer opposes single-payer health care.” To McCann, it seemed likely that allies of El-Sayed or Thanedar had paid for the ad, because it so exactly echoed the lines of their campaign.

On his phone, McCann took three screenshots of the ad, making sure to capture the final frame, which said, in small type, “Paid for by Priorities for Michigan.” McCann has been involved in Democratic politics in Michigan for almost twenty years, but he had never heard of the group. He texted a few other Democratic operatives. “No one had any clue,” he told me. He searched for Priorities for Michigan on the Michigan secretary of state’s Web site, which lists all campaign committees and pacs registered in the state, but found nothing. McCann tried Googling “Priorities for Michigan,” but that didn’t work. “Every politician in the state gives speeches about their ‘priorities for Michigan,’ and those were all the hits,” he said. Whitmer was being attacked for shadowy corporate ties by a group that itself left no trace.

McCann, searching for the source of the Priorities for Michigan ad, found another in the screenshots: the group had listed a post-office box in Lansing. He Googled it and got hit after hit for another political group, League of Our Own, which seemed to be promoting female candidates. (There was no mention of Priorities for Michigan on the active version of the Web site, but, on Google’s cached version, McCann found “Paid for by Priorities for Michigan,” along with the same post-office-box number.)

Looking at the group’s Web site, he realized that he knew just about all of its officers and supporters. “It was a Who’s Who of Republican politics in Michigan,” he said, including several state representatives, a conservative political consultant named Tony Daunt with close connections to the DeVos family, and Jase Bolger, the former speaker of the Michigan House, who once refused to allow a female Democratic legislator to speak on the chamber floor because she had used the word “vagina” in a debate about reproductive rights. In McCann’s view, these were the same conservatives who had been undermining liberal female politicians for years. Now, it seemed to him, if they were indeed behind Priorities for Michigan, they were using progressive ideas to divide Democrats, in the primary and perhaps in the general election. “If they had not put the post-office-box number on the ad, no one could have connected Priorities for Michigan to anything at all,” McCann said.

McCann took his discovery to the Detroit News, which reported, on July 5th, that “a mysterious group” running online ads attacking Whitmer from the left “appears to have connections to several Michigan Republicans.” But the story remained at the level of supposition: League of Our Own did not respond to an e-mail, and Daunt and Bolger did not return the paper’s calls. (They also did not return mine.) Public records indicate that when Priorities for Michigan bought time on a Detroit radio station—for another ad claiming that Whitmer “sides with big drug and insurance-company executives” and against “our communities”—it listed only one officer, Eric Doster, the general counsel of the Michigan Republican Party from 1992 to 2017, and perhaps the preëminent conservative election lawyer in the state. Doster, too, did not return my requests for comment.

It appeared that Republicans had picked up on the tension El-Sayed had pinpointed: between the Democratic Party as it has been and as it aspires to be. “If I were Abdul El-Sayed, and I could see that the DeVoses were using my talking points, I would wonder about what I was doing,” McCann told me. But, of course, he didn’t know that the DeVoses were involved, any more than El-Sayed’s campaign knew that Blue Cross Blue Shield was behind Build a Better Michigan. During the past decade, Democrats have fixed on activist billionaires and corporate interests—the Kochs and the DeVoses, Exxon and Goldman Sachs—as their true enemies, heightening anger among their partisan base. But, in the 2016 election and, now, in this year’s primaries, that anger is coming to haunt the Democratic establishment.

On July 23rd, Build a Better Michigan, having filed disclosure forms to the I.R.S., also publicly released its donor information. Its financial might had mostly come from labor unions: the United Autoworkers and the Teamsters each contributed two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; local chapters of the carpenters’ and laborers’ unions each pitched in a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The largest donation, of three hundred thousand dollars, came from a group associated with the Ingham County Democratic Party, which was not required to disclose its donors. This did not rule out the possibility that the health-insurance industry had a major role in funding Build a Better Michigan, but it certainly narrowed the odds. The El-Sayed campaign did not modulate its message. “Blue Cross Blue Shield has written her talking points on health care,” Adam Joseph, an El-Sayed spokesperson, said of Whitmer, on August 3rd. “They bought that with their $144,710 at a closed-door fund-raiser, and however much money they’ve funnelled through her ‘Build a Better Michigan’ dark-money super pac.” It did not much matter. On Tuesday, Whitmer won the primary with more than fifty per cent of the vote; El-Sayed won thirty per cent, and Thanedar eighteen.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100590&title=Secret%20Spending%20on%20Both%20Sides%20of%20Michigan%20Governor%E2%80%99s%20Race>
Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“Appeals court overturns U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah’s bribery convictions, upholds guilty verdict on other counts”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100588>
Posted on August 12, 2018 2:27 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100588> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Philly Inquirer:<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/philadelphia/federal-appeals-court-philadelphia-overturns-u-s-rep-chaka-fattah-bribery-convictions-upholds-others-20180809.html>

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia on Thursday overturned U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160622_Fattah_convicted_of_federal_corruption_charges.html>’s bribery convictions in a decision that offered a small measure of vindication for the former Democratic congressman — but may not dramatically affect the decade-long sentence<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20161213_Former_Philadelphia_Congressman_Chaka_Fattah_to_be_sentenced_today.html> he received for other corruption-related crimes.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that jurors in Fattah’s case had not been properly instructed on the legal definition of “political graft” – one narrowed by a U.S. Supreme Court opinion issued just days after they convicted the congressman in 2016.

Still, wrote Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith: “There is more than sufficient – and distinct – evidence to support Fattah’s conviction on all of the other counts<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20150730_Fattah_indicted.html?arc404=true>,” including allegations that he stole federal grant funds, charitable donations, and campaign cash to pay off his personal and political debts.

You can read the 142 pages of the opinion here<http://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/164397p.pdf> (via How Appealing<https://howappealing.abovethelaw.com/2018/08/12/#80900>).
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100588&title=%E2%80%9CAppeals%20court%20overturns%20U.S.%20Rep.%20Chaka%20Fattah%E2%80%99s%20bribery%20convictions%2C%20upholds%20guilty%20verdict%20on%20other%20counts%E2%80%9D>
Posted in bribery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=54>


“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>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100586&title=%E2%80%9CJudge%20to%20decide%20legality%20of%20Arizona%20law%20prohibiting%20collection%20of%20mail-in%20ballots%E2%80%9D>
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?
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100584&title=%E2%80%9CRepresentative%20Chris%20Collins%20Suspends%20Bid%20for%20Re-election%20After%20Insider%20Trading%20Charges%E2%80%9D>
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.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100581&title=%E2%80%9CKansas%20governor%20accuses%20Kobach%20of%20not%20counting%20all%20votes%20in%20governor%20race%E2%80%9D>
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.”
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100579&title=%E2%80%9CThe%20Trump%20White%20House%E2%80%99s%20new%20hush-money%20problem%E2%80%9D>
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.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100577&title=%E2%80%9CIt%E2%80%99s%20Not%20Just%20Kobach%3A%20Three%20Vote-Suppressing%20Secretaries%20of%20State%20Are%20Overseeing%20Their%20Own%20Elections%E2%80%9D>
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>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D100575&title=%E2%80%9CHacking%20the%20US%20mid-terms%3F%20It%E2%80%99s%20child%E2%80%99s%20play%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<https://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/>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20180813/1d4fc28d/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2021 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20180813/1d4fc28d/attachment.png>