[EL] more news 8/22/18

Wed Aug 22 14:02:19 PDT 2018

“Georgia County Can’t Back Up Its Excuse For Plan To Disenfranchise Black Voters”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100772>
Posted on August 22, 2018 2:00 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100772> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Sam Levine:<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/georgia-county-close-polling-places-access_us_5b7c7484e4b07295150dbaf3?la>

Officials in a majority-black Georgia county accused of trying to close almost all polling places to make it harder for black people to vote<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/randolph-county-polling-places_us_5b77115ce4b0a5b1febb04fc> claimed last week that the locations couldn’t be used because of accessibility problems for people with disabilities.

But Randolph County doesn’t have a single recent report, analysis or document supporting the idea that it needs to close seven of its nine polling places due to accessibility issues, a lawyer for the county told HuffPost on Tuesday in response to a public records request.

HuffPost requested records from the county dating back to March 1, 2018. The county hired Michael Malone, an outside elections consultant now pushing for the closures, on April 2. But according to the county, it has no written record of evidence to back his recommendations.

“There is no document, report or analysis studying the handicap accessibility of polling places in Randolph County and the cost of fixing them within the time frame specified in your open records request,” Hayden Hooks, an attorney with the firm Perry & Walters, which represents Randolph County, wrote in an email. The county has no record of such a document in the past year, Hooks added.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Trump Tells FOX News Interviewer That He Learned of Later of Hush Money Payments, That Paying Out of the Campaign Would Be “a Little Dicey”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100770>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:38 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100770> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
<https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/1032319321920430080>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1032319015333638144/img/Rs9x9awBYoIxPo4U?format=jpg&name=medium]<https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/1032319321920430080>
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FOX & friends<https://twitter.com/foxandfriends>
✔@foxandfriends<https://twitter.com/foxandfriends>

<https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/1032319321920430080>

EXCLUSIVE: President @realDonaldTrump<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump> on if he knew about the Cohen payments. See more from his interview with @ainsleyearhardt<https://twitter.com/ainsleyearhardt> tomorrow 6-9amET.
10:31 AM - Aug 22, 2018<https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/1032319321920430080>

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(via Jonathan Chiat<http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/trump-tries-to-deny-crime-with-cohen-confesses-by-mistake.html>)

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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“DNC calls FBI after appearing to thwart hack of its voter database”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100768>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:32 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100768> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN:<https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/22/politics/democratic-national-committee-voter-database/index.html>

The Democratic National Committee contacted the FBI on Tuesday after it detected what it believes was the beginning of a sophisticated attempt to hack into its voter database, a Democratic source tells CNN.
The DNC was alerted in the early hours of Tuesday morning by a cloud service provider and a security research firm that a fake login page had been created in an attempt to gather usernames and passwords that would allow access to the party’s database, the source said.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

But of Course Dep’t: “Kobach once said voter fraud in primary was unclear. In victory, he dismisses it”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100766>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:29 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100766> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KC Star:<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article217151355.html#storylink=latest_side>

As uncertainty loomed about the outcome of the GOP primary for governor in the days after the Aug. 7 primary, Kris Kobach said it was unclear how many non-citizens voted in the election.

Back then, the race was too close to call.

But now, a week after securing a 350-vote victory over Gov. Jeff Colyer, Kobach is dismissing concerns that voter fraud could have changed the election’s outcome.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

Virginia: “Hopewell electoral board stands by new registrar’s decision to approve ballots with some names in capital “<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100763>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:18 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100763> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

This<https://www.richmond.com/news/local/central-virginia/tri-cities/hopewell/updated-hopewell-electoral-board-stands-by-new-registrar-s-decision/article_6668f521-eb3d-5e10-b14a-37f489026455.html> is a new one to me.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Trump administration is using federal disability law to disenfranchise minority voters”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100761>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:16 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100761> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Kira Lerner<https://thinkprogress.org/ada-voter-suppression-cd7031080bfd/> with a must-read:

A majority-black county in rural Georgia announced a plan last week to close seven of its nine polling places<https://thinkprogress.org/georgia-election-board-plots-jim-crow-like-assault-on-black-voting-cf7c30ac7809/> ahead of the November election, claiming the polls cannot continue to operate because they are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The move sparked instant opposition<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/08/18/georgia-voting-rights-activists-move-to-block-a-plan-to-close-two-thirds-of-polling-places-in-one-county/?utm_term=.2361e9bbe9c6> from voting rights advocates, who have threatened legal action if Randolph County follows though with the plan. Activists are also scrambling to collect enough signatures to stop the effort before Friday, when the election board will make a final determination.

The racial implications of the closures have generated<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-turns-to-toilets-to-suppress-more-black-voters/2018/08/21/0ed1f296-a57f-11e8-a656-943eefab5daf_story.html?utm_term=.540db48c31a9> significant<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-georgia/georgia-candidates-decry-plan-to-close-voting-sites-in-mostly-black-county-idUSKCN1L51ZP> attention<https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/20/opinions/randolph-county-georgia-voting-rights-errol-louis/index.html>. The county is over 61 percent black<https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/randolphcountygeorgia/PST045217>, and one of the polling locations that would be shuttered serves a precinct where more than 95 percent of voters are African American. Had the U.S. Supreme Court not gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, the closures would most likely have been blocked by the Department of Justice.

But the method the county is using to justify the closures has generated less attention. Republican lawmakers and election administrators in Randolph County are not the first to use the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), intended to protect the nation’s disabled communities, as a pretext to disenfranchise minority voters.
Under President Trump, the federal government has been employing the same strategy. Jim Tucker, an attorney and member of the Native American Voting Rights Coalition, said he learned earlier this year that the Department of Justice’s Disability Rights Section is targeting at least three largely Native American counties, where facilities used as polling locations often lack paved parking lots, designated handicapped parking spots, entrance ramps, wide doorways, and other ADA-required features. In several counties, the Justice Department has threatened enforcement actions if local governments do not either spend large sums of money to modernize polling locations or shutter them altogether.
See also Dana Milbank, The GOP turns to toilets to suppress more black voters<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-turns-to-toilets-to-suppress-more-black-voters/2018/08/21/0ed1f296-a57f-11e8-a656-943eefab5daf_story.html?utm_term=.7dc1e3adca71>.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, voters with disabilities<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=71>, Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

Trump Tweeted About John Edwards Case, Suggesting He Knew His Own Later Campaign Finance Conduct Was Illegal<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100759>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:12 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100759> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/676438492273098752/ej3BhAV9_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/BDGesq>
<https://twitter.com/BDGesq>
Brian Galle at BDGesq<https://twitter.com/BDGesq>

<https://twitter.com/BDGesq/status/1032051904296181761>

Let's remember that campaign finance violations are only crimes if the violator knows they are unlawful. With that mind, I thought it would be interesting to see if #individual1<https://twitter.com/hashtag/individual1?src=hash> had heard about the John Edwards trial...
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/197002017258999808>
Donald J. Trump<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/197002017258999808>
✔@realDonaldTrump<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/197002017258999808>

He @johnedwards is bad, but @andrewyoung is worse--not only is he a "rat" but it turns out he stole much of the money for himself.<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/197002017258999808>

4:48 PM - Aug 21, 2018<https://twitter.com/BDGesq/status/1032051904296181761>

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Brian Galle at BDGesq<https://twitter.com/BDGesq>

<https://twitter.com/BDGesq/status/1032051970683678721>

Prescient, really.
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/195584554290003969>
Donald J. Trump<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/195584554290003969>
✔@realDonaldTrump<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/195584554290003969>

I have never been a fan of John Edwards but it is time for the gov't to focus on more important things. @johnedwards<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/195584554290003969>

4:48 PM - Aug 21, 2018<https://twitter.com/BDGesq/status/1032051970683678721>

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See Brian Galle's other Tweets<https://twitter.com/BDGesq>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

North Carolina: North Carolina Constitution Party Wins Ballot Access Lawsuit<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100757>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:11 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100757> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

BAN:<http://ballot-access.org/2018/08/22/north-carolina-constitution-party-wins-ballot-access-lawsuit/>

On August 22, U.S. District Court Judge Louise Flanagan, a Bush Jr. appointee, issued a 17-page order<http://ballot-access.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/gov.uscourts.nced_.165453.22.0.pdf> in Poindexter v Strach, e.d., 5:18cv-366. The order puts three Constitution Party nominees on the ballot, for legislature and county office. The State Board of Elections had kept them off the ballot because earlier in the year, they had run in Republican or Democratic primaries and lost those primaries. But at the time the Constitution Party nominated them, there was no law preventing a party like the Constitution Party from nominating such “sore losers.”
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Posted in ballot access<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>

“Michael Cohen Plea Agreement: Possible Meanings of the Campaign Finance Counts”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100754>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:09 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100754> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bob Bauer<https://www.lawfareblog.com/michael-cohen-plea-agreement-possible-meanings-campaign-finance-counts> at Lawfare:

Of course, in a case involving massive alleged financial and tax fraud, there is still the question of why prosecutors troubled themselves with campaign finance violations. The amounts spent represent a sliver of the total spent on the campaign. According to court documents, Trump or those close to him eventually reimbursed Cohen for the payments; the candidate did not call on donors to put up the money. Prosecutors by and large would not consider violations of this nature—involving hush money to hide affairs—to be “heartland” offenses of a law designed to redress the evils of big money in politics.

What distinguishes this case and the decision to pursue the plea is that the candidate behind the subterfuge is the sitting president of the United States. Michael Cohen pleaded Tuesday to a charge that is compelling only because of the story he has to tell, along with other evidence, about the way that Donald Trump operates. And this is not so much about Trump’s clumsy steps, in violation of campaign finance law, to prevent exposure of philandering. This episode, assuming in the instance the form of campaign finance law violations, is about the most powerful man in the country—whom prosecutors have observed displaying contempt for legal considerations and constraints, and consistently lying about his actions.

While the Daniels matter is fairly straightforward—hush money to conceal an affair—the McDougal case is a still-more-elaborate subterfuge entailing a “catch and kill” arrangement by a friendly media company to buy McDougal’s public silence with cash and a disingenuous promise of space for her own writing. As the plea agreement<https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-michael-cohen-plea-agreement> makes clear, this is a count involving third-party corporate contributions, not just the candidate’s personal resources. Cohen may have much to say about how this scheme was hatched, but he stated that it took place at the president’s direction. The criminal information<https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-michael-cohen-plea-agreement> filed Tuesday in the Cohen matters lays out the steps the Trump Organization and Cohen took to falsify documentation to cover the reimbursements he received for his hush-money expenses. The degree to which Donald Trump also directed these activities, or took other actions behind the scenes to encourage Cohen and other witnesses in a course of dishonesty and fraudulent conduct, remains to be seen.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Campaign Finance Transparency Affects Legislators’ Election Outcomes and Behavior”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100752>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:06 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100752> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Abby Wood and Christian Grose have posted this draft<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3236939> on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Do audits by executive agencies impact the behavior of those audited? Does revealing negative information about candidates affect electoral results and behavior? Institutions that encourage transparency, such as campaign finance disclosure, influence mass and elite behavior. We theorize that greater transparency provides information to voters during legislative campaigns about the character of candidates, and that information affects voter and legislator behavior. The U.S. Federal Election Commission conducted random audits of 10 percent of U.S. House members in the 1970s. This FEC program is the only randomized experiment an agency has conducted on federal legislators and their electorates. We find that legislators with audits yielding campaign finance violations did poorly in the general election relative to the control group. Audited incumbents seeking reelection whose audits revealed violations took more trips home to their districts. Increased transparency and candidate audits are effective policy tools that can increase elected officials’ efforts.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“10 Most-Cited Election Law Scholars in the U.S. for the period 2013-2017”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100750>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:04 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100750> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I ran my own study<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100714> last week, but here’s Brian Leiter’s today<http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2018/08/10-most-cited-election-law-scholars-in-the-us-for-the-period-2013-2017.html>, reaching essentially the same results.
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Posted in election law biz<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>

“The State Con-Con Papers”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100748>
Posted on August 22, 2018 1:02 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100748> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

J.H. Snider has posted this draft<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3230184> on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

The State Con-Con Papers is a collection of J.H. Snider’s essays on the history, democratic function, and politics of the periodic state constitutional convention referendum, which is mandated by 14 U.S. state constitutions. The essays, organized chronologically, cover four of the most recent referendums: Hawaii (2018), New York (2017), Rhode Island (2014), and Maryland (2010). In each of these four states, the convention referendum is the only constitutional mechanism that allows the people — the sovereign — to bypass the state legislature’s gatekeeping power over constitutional amendment. The title, The State Con-Con Papers, draws an analogy with The Federalist Papers, a famous collection of newspaper commentaries that discuss the proposals generated by America’s 1787 constitutional convention.

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

--
Rick Hasen
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