[EL] ELB News and Commentary 8/31/18

Fri Aug 31 07:05:30 PDT 2018

Virginia: “Latest: Court denies request to stay redistricting deadline”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100936>
Posted on August 31, 2018 6:59 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100936> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://pilotonline.com/news/nation-world/virginia/article_1276fc40-1e98-53f0-8f3b-51fa72312018.html>

A federal court has rejected a request from Virginia Republicans that an October deadline to complete a state-level redistricting process be put off until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on the case.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

“Data collected by Trump’s Kobach-led voter fraud commission is ‘entirely deleted’”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100934>
Posted on August 31, 2018 6:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100934> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KC Star:<https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article217593970.html>

Nearly eight months after President Donald Trump disbanded his election integrity commission because it was tangled up in lawsuits<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article192864959.html> over its request for voters’ personal data, the information has been destroyed and the cases have been dismissed.

Trump’s administration notified plaintiffs in one lawsuit against the commission Wednesday that personal voter data requested by the commission once led by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach had been destroyed. The case, brought by Democracy Forward Foundation, was then dismissed
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“High Court Affirms Decision Kicking Candidate Off Ballot for Not Specifying Her Gender”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100932>
Posted on August 31, 2018 6:52 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100932> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New York Law Journal:<https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2018/08/30/high-court-affirms-decision-kicking-candidate-off-ballot-for-not-specifying-her-gender/>

The New York Court of Appeals has kicked a candidate for member of the New York State Democratic Committee off the September primary ballot for failing to explicitly state she is a woman.

Penny Mintz, who was running to be the female member of the committee in the 66th State Assembly District, will officially not appear on the ballot next month. The decision, which was split 5-2, affirmed an opinion by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead and the Appellate Division, First Department….

There are two positions for member of the State Democratic Committee in the district. One is reserved for a woman and the other is reserved for a man. Mintz, who identifies as a woman, was running for the female position.Only, Mintz did not say so on her petitions, according to the decision. She did not specify whether she was seeking the male or female slot.A section of election law allows state committees to create a rule requiring an equal representation of sexes on that committee. The court said in its one-paragraph opinion that the rule also requires candidates for members of that committee to specify which position they are seeking, whether female or male.

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

Should the Three Judge Court Order Ranked Choice Voting for 2018 in North Carolina Partisan Gerrymandering Case?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100929>
Posted on August 30, 2018 5:05 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100929> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

David Daley:<https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article217568145.html>

It’s a necessary step if North Carolina wants a congressional delegation that reflects the state’s closely divided nature. Without this action, it would be easy for Republicans to exploit the slow-moving legal process, appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and likely maintain a 10-3 advantage in the U.S. House through 2020.

This bold move would also create challenges. Both parties have selected candidates. Nominees have spent months competing for votes. Would a new map require entirely new nominees from entirely new districts? Would the same candidates run in the new districts with the same numbers? The court suggested the general election could be turned into a “do-over” primary using new maps, with another election after that.

There is a better solution that would not require new primaries, or force a low-turnout, high-stakes special election amidst holiday distractions. North Carolina should adopt ranked choice voting for this November’s congressional elections.
Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article217568145.html#storylink=cpy
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Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>, redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

Sixth Circuit, in Rare Review of Three-Judge Court Order, Says Michigan GOP Members of Congress Have Right to Intervene in Partisan Gerrymandering Case<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100927>
Posted on August 30, 2018 12:45 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100927> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can find  the opinion here<http://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/18a0194p-06.pdf>.

Usually review of three-judge courts goes right to the Supreme Court. This case fits into a rare exception.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Three-Judge Redistricting Court Orders Texas Redistricting in One District After Supreme Court Remand, Orders Further Briefing on Bailing Texas Back into Coverage Under the VRA<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100925>
Posted on August 30, 2018 12:40 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100925> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here is the orde<https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/a816117e7c006cfd6aebd695688d88dd/cb857c61-6ae8-44e8-8e26-d1a411b426b0.pdf>r (via Alexa Ura<https://twitter.com/alexazura/status/1035248885994807296>). The district ordered redrawn is the sole district the three-judge court found illegal and that was affirmed by the Supreme Court in Abbott v. Perez.

I’m skeptical about the potential for bail-in of Texas, for reasons I gave in this Slate piece<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/the-abbott-v-perez-case-echoes-shelby-county-v-holder-as-a-further-death-blow-for-the-voting-rights-act.html>.
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Posted in Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

“Michigan ‘Ballot Selfie’ Case to Proceed with Voting Rights Claim”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100922>
Posted on August 30, 2018 9:28 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100922> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Release:<https://pillaroflaw.org/2018/08/30/michigan-ballot-selfie-case-to-proceed-with-voting-rights-claim/>

U.S. District Court Judge Janet Neff denied a motion by Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson<https://pillaroflaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Crookston_votingrights.pdf> to dismiss a voting rights claim against the state’s ballot exposure laws today. The lawsuit, brought by the Pillar of Law Institute on behalf of Michigan resident Joel Crookston, argues he has a constitutional right to take a photograph of his own marked ballot and share it on social media—known as a “ballot selfie.”
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

Arizona: “County recorder defends office amid election snafus”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100920>
Posted on August 30, 2018 9:24 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100920> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Arizona Republic:<https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/08/28/maricopa-county-recorder-adrian-fontes-defends-his-office-arizona-election-2018-polls-close/1127981002/>

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes rode into office in 2016 in the wake of a “presidential preference” election that went terribly wrong<https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/08/28/arizona-voting-problems-primary-election-day-glitches-voting-ballots-turnout-2018/1043613002/>, with people standing in line for too long at too few polling places.

So when 62 of the County’s 503 polling places failed to open on time Tuesday morning, it begged comparison.

Fontes, a Democrat, claims it is not the same at all.
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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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