[EL] ELB News and Commentary 9/1/18

[Rick Hasen]

“Once Bipartisan, an Election Security Bill Collapses in Rancor”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100952>
Posted on August 31, 2018 6:41 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100952> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/us/politics/election-security-bill.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront>

The purpose of the bill seemed unassailable: to ensure that state officials could protect their elections against the kind of hacking or interference that has clouded the 2016 campaign.

Although it started out backed by election integrity advocates and powerful senators from both parties, the Secure Elections Act has now all but collapsed.

Lawmakers modified one of the bill’s key provisions after hearing relentless complaints from state officials, prompting many of its advocates to pull their support. Then last week delivered what one of the bill’s co-sponsors called “the gut punch” — the formal meeting to draft the bill before sending it to the floor was abruptly postponed, and the White House offered a statement critical of the legislation later that same day.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


NC: “Judges say Cooper — not lawmakers — can control certain boards”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100950>
Posted on August 31, 2018 6:34 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100950> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News and Observer:<https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article217667050.html>

A three-judge panel has expanded Gov. Roy Cooper’s authority to make certain appointments, the latest step in a separation-of-powers struggle that began when then-Gov. Pat McCrory sued the General Assembly in 2016.

Cooper sued in May 2017 challenging the constitutionality of the legislature appointing the majority of members to certain boards and commissions. In some cases the legislature gave itself that authority. In other cases, Cooper argued, the legislature should have changed the membership of some existing boards to reflect rulings by the state Supreme Court.

The three state Superior Court judges in a ruling filed Friday noted that the Supreme Court in the lawsuit brought by McCrory said the General Assembly had overstepped its authority.


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


“Michigan College Students Sue Over Laws They Say Make It Harder For Them To Vote”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100948>
Posted on August 31, 2018 6:26 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100948> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

HuffPo reports. <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/michigan-students-voting-lawsuit_us_5b89b67ae4b0162f47235e31?1fg>
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Posted in voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>


“Lobbyist Illegally Helped Russian Buy Trump Inauguration Tickets”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100945>
Posted on August 31, 2018 2:19 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100945> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/us/politics/patten-fara-manafort.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage>

An American lobbyist who worked with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs pleaded guilty on Friday to failing to register as an agent of a foreign power and disclosed to prosecutors that he helped a Russian political operative and a Ukranian businessman illegally purchase four tickets to President Trump’s inauguration.

Prosecutors disclosed that the inauguration tickets were worth $50,000 and were purchased with funds that flowed through a Cypriot bank account. Prosecutors did not name the foreigners involved. However, the tickets were purchased for Konstantin V. Kilimnik, a Russian political operative believed to have ties to a Russian intelligence agency, and a Ukranian oligarch.

The lobbyist, Sam Patten, also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of his plea agreement<https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/215-samuel-patten-plea-agreement/745c9fa628c4274fdc11/optimized/full.pdf#page=1>. He could provide prosecutors insight into a range of activity and individuals relevant to the special counsel investigation, as well as connections between Mr. Trump, his associates and Russia.

Prosecutors said they would not bring additional charges against Mr. Patten for giving false statements to and obstructing the Senate Intelligence Committee. The committee, which questioned Mr. Patten on Jan. 18, is among the congressional panels that are conducting investigations into Russia’s election interference.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“When It Comes to the Laws of Democracy, the Supreme Court’s Conservative Majority Often Abandons Its Own Core Principles. Will Brett Kavanaugh Do the Same?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100943>
Posted on August 31, 2018 2:13 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100943> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Daniel I. Weiner and Joanna Zdanys blog.<http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/when-it-comes-laws-democracy-supreme-court%E2%80%99s-conservative-majority-often-abandons-its-own-core>
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Father of Alison Lundergan Grimes indicted in campaign finance conspiracy”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100941>
Posted on August 31, 2018 2:09 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100941> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Kentucky.com:<https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article217583675.html>

Longtime Kentucky Democratic operatives Jerry Lundergan and Dale Emmons were indicted by a federal grand jury in Lexington Friday for allegedly making illegal contributions to the 2014 U.S. Senate campaign of Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes and then conspiring to cover them up.

Emmons was indicted on six counts and Lundergan was indicted on 10 counts after investigators found they “willingly and knowingly” made corporate contributions of more than $25,000 to Grimes’ campaign and then worked to cover up the contributions.

The indictment alleges that Lundergan and an employee of his company approached campaign consultants and vendors and told them to bill S.R. Holding Co. for work they did for his daughter’s campaign. The company paid those bills and then allegedly did not seek reimbursement from Grimes’ campaign. After a grand jury subpoenaed records from Lundergan in 2016, the company still only sought partial reimbursement, according to the indictment.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


Breaking: Common Cause, League of Women Voters, and NC Democratic Party Oppose Redrawing North Carolina Congressional Districts for 2018, All But Assuring It Won’t Happen<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100938>
Posted on August 31, 2018 2:01 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=100938> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Got to give a lot of credit to these groups<https://www.commoncause.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/PLDG-Common-Cause-v.-Rucho-August-31-2018-Brief-re-Remedies.pdf> for making this conclusion, given the national stakes of fixing the partisan gerrymander in North Carolina’s congressional districts:

The Court asked the parties to “file briefs addressing whether [it] should allow the State to conduct any future elections using the 2016 Plan,” including specifically the November 6, 2018 general election for members of the House of Representatives. Mem. Op., Dkt. 142, p. 290. After careful consultation, particularly with the institutional clients Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and the North Carolina Democratic Party, plaintiffs have reluctantly concluded that—on the unique facts presented here—attempting to impose a new districting plan in time for the 2018 election would be too disruptive and potentially counterproductive….

First, plaintiffs have considered the time that the map-drawing process would take and the uncertainty that would persist in the meantime. Whether the new plan is drawn by a special master or the General Assembly, creation of a new plan and its approval by this Court will take some weeks. For instance, if the plan is designed by the General Assembly, this Court has given the General Assembly until September 17, 2018 to draw a new map and has ordered the disclosure “soon after” that date of materials that bear on the fairness of that exercise. Mem. Op., Dkt. 142, pp. 292-93. Assuming the General Assembly meets the Court’s September 17 deadline, it would take a few days thereafter for the General Assembly to make its disclosure and for plaintiffs to consider those materials and file objections. The Court would then need a short time to consider the new plan and any objections, and either approve that plan or select instead one drawn by the special master. With that September 17 deadline, this process could not realistically be completed before October 1, 2018—at which point, there will be just five weeks before Election Day, and even less time before early voting is set to commence. Only then, once the new plan is approved, would candidates be able to declare themselves for the new districts and begin their campaigns. And only then would voters be able to be educated about the different candidates and their positions, which will be a particularly challenging exercise when voters change districts as a result of a new plan. In addition, while all of this is taking place, the Legislative Defendants would no doubt seek a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. They have already informed plaintiffs in writing that they believe that the mere appointment of a special master “would constitute an abuse of the [C]ourt’s discretion,” and that “[i]f the [C]ourt appoints a special master, [they] will immediately appeal and seek a stay of any such order.” While plaintiffs vigorously disagree, they are mindful that, when this Court issued its ruling in January 2018, the Legislative Defendants sought, and obtained, a stay. At that juncture, there was ample time for the new court-ordered plan to be created and implemented in advance of the 2018 primary and general elections. Even so, the Supreme Court order granting the stay generated only two noted dissents, from Justices Ginsberg and Sotomayor. With the 2018 election now so much closer, plaintiffs cannot comfortably predict a different outcome. This could create a situation in which this Court orders a new map to govern on Election Day 2018, candidates and officeholders begin to act in reliance on that order, and the Supreme Court intervenes, changing the rules yet again.

With a Justice Kavanaugh on the Court by the time the Supreme Court reaches the merits, I expect there will never be a remedy for the partisan gerrymandering of these congressional districts.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


--
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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