[EL] ELB News and Commentary 12/17/18

Mon Dec 17 08:36:25 PST 2018

“The mostly unanswerable question: Which close races were won by dirty tricks?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102875>
Posted on December 17, 2018 8:32 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102875> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Philip Bump<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/17/mostly-unanswerable-question-which-close-races-were-won-by-dirty-tricks/?utm_term=.80dd5231de84> for WaPo:

When Georgia’s secretary of state, Brian Kemp, announced on the weekend before this year’s midterm elections that Democrats in the state had tried to illegally access the state’s voter database, the announcement was treated with a heavy dose of skepticism. In the days that followed, that skepticism seemed increasingly warranted, as reports suggested that the claim by Kemp’s office was at best misinformed and, at worse, willfully disingenuous.

Over the weekend, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported<https://www.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/ajc-investigation-how-brian-kemp-turned-warning-election-system-vulnerability-against-democrats/iLOkpHK3ea39t8Eh4PCGxM/> that, as suspected, there was no attempted hack by the Democratic Party — or, for that matter, by anyone. There was a security flaw that had been reported to the state, and the office of the secretary of state appears to have responded by blaming Democrats.

During the midterm elections, the Republican candidate for governor narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams by 1.4 percentage points, or about 55,000 votes. That Republican candidate, of course, was Brian Kemp.

We’ve seen this pattern before: Last-minute allegations in close races that, only after the fact or only quietly, are shown to be unfounded. The same thing happened this year in Florida<https://www.washingtonpost.com/election-results/florida/?tid=a_inl_auto>, where Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum was tied to an FBI probe that, it turns out, may not involve him<https://twitter.com/MarcACaputo/status/1072877989401190400> at all. Gillum lost by 0.4 percentage points, or 32,000 votes.

The most obvious example is the election of President Trump in 2016. He is president thanks to thin margins in three states — 11,000 votes in Michigan<https://www.washingtonpost.com/election-results/michigan/?tid=a_inl_auto>, 44,000 votes in Wisconsin and 23,000 in Pennsylvania — and thanks, to some extent, to a last-minute announcement by FBI Director James B. Comey about an investigation into Trump’s opponent. Or, perhaps, he’s president because of a coordinated effort on the part of the Russian government to dissuade Democrats and energize Republicans before Election Day, as a new Senate report suggests.

But did these things actually shift the results in these close races? It’s almost impossible to tell — or, more accurately, it’s hard to say conclusively that, had these things not happened, the results would have been different.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“‘A reason to stand up’: Wisconsin activists fight threat to African American vote”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102873>
Posted on December 17, 2018 8:28 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102873> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Guardian reports. <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/17/wisconsin-voting-rights-african-americans-republicans>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Today’s Must-Read: “Russian Effort to Influence 2016 Election Targeted African-Americans”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102871>
Posted on December 17, 2018 8:26 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102871> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/us/politics/russia-2016-influence-campaign.html>

The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of posts on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its Facebook operations, according to a report produced for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The report adds new details to the portrait that has emerged over the last two years of the energy and imagination of the Russian effort to sway American opinion and divide the country, which the authors said continues to this day.

“Active and ongoing interference operations remain on several platforms,” says the report, produced by New Knowledge<https://www.newknowledge.com/>, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas, along with researchers at Columbia University<https://towcenter.org/> and Canfield Research LLC<http://www.canfield.com/>. One continuing Russian campaign, for instance, seeks to influence opinion on Syria by promoting Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president and a Russian ally in the brutal conflict there.

The New Knowledge report, which was obtained by The New York Times in advance of its scheduled release on Monday, is one of two commissioned by the Senate committee on a bipartisan basis. They are based largely on data about the Russian operations provided to the Senate by Facebook, Twitter and the other companies whose platforms were used…..

The Internet Research Agency also created a dozen websites disguised as African-American in origin, with names like blackmattersus.com, blacktivist.info, blacktolive.org and blacksoul.us. On YouTube, the largest share of Russian material covered the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality, with channels called “Don’t Shoot” and “BlackToLive.”

The report does not seek to explain the heavy focus on African Americans. But the Internet Research Agency’s tactics echo Soviet propaganda efforts from decades ago that often highlighted racism and racial conflict in the United States, as well as recent Russian influence operations in other countries that sought to stir ethnic strife.

Renee DiResta, one of the report’s authors and director of research at New Knowledge, said the Internet Research Agency “leveraged pre-existing, legitimate grievances wherever they could.” As the election effort geared up, the Black Lives Matter movement was at the center of national attention in the United States, so the Russian operation took advantage of it, she said — and added “Blue Lives Matter” material when a pro-police pushback emerged.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Liberals Can Hold Corporations Accountable; Corporate America prefers Republican voters and Democratic consumers.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102869>
Posted on December 17, 2018 8:22 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102869> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Frank Wilkinson<https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-12-17/democratic-voters-can-punish-fox-news-party> for Bloomberg View:

It’s amazing that corporations have gotten away with it for so long.

Cheerios had a social moment back in 2013 with an ad featuring a mixed-race family. Racists didn’t much like the idea of little rings of oats dunked in milk being swallowed by race-mixers, and they used the lowest common denominator of social protest — the Internet — to vent. YouTube comments linked to the ad, Adweek reported<https://www.adweek.com/adfreak/its-2013-and-people-are-still-getting-worked-about-interracial-couples-ads-149889/>, included references to “racial genocide.”

Cheerios seemed unfazed. “At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families and we celebrate them all,” a Cheerios spokesperson said<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/cheerios-commercial-racist-backlash_n_3363507.html.>. That’s nice, isn’t it?

Then, in 2016, when the Republican Party chose a presidential nominee who demonized<https://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/37230916/drug-dealers-criminals-rapists-what-trump-thinks-of-mexicans> Mexicans, repeatedly linked<https://www.bloombergquint.com/opinion/trump-attack-on-john-lewis-fits-ugly-pattern#gs.bjemrdE> blacks with violent crime and earned enthusiastic support<https://newrepublic.com/article/144312/donald-trump-neo-nazi-recruiter-in-chief> from Nazis, Cheerios maker General Mills gave<https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00062646&cycle=2018>more than twice as much money to Republicans as the company gave to Democrats.

Like a lot of companies, General Mills seems to like Democratic consumers and Republican voters. It’s a familiar dichotomy.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

Just as Many of Us Suspected: Brian Kemp Had Zero Evidence When He Publicly Accused Democrats of Hacking the Vulnerable Georgia Election System and Used Accusation to Hide His Own Incompetence<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102867>
Posted on December 16, 2018 6:18 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102867> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AJC investigation<https://www.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/ajc-investigation-how-brian-kemp-turned-warning-election-system-vulnerability-against-democrats/iLOkpHK3ea39t8Eh4PCGxM/>:

Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for governor, had a problem. As did Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state.
It was Nov. 3, a Saturday, 72 hours to Election Day. Virtually tied in the polls with Democrat Stacey Abrams, Kemp was in danger of becoming the first Georgia Republican to lose a statewide election since 2006. And, now, a new threat. The secretary of state’s office had left its voter-registration system exposed online, opening Kemp to criticism that he couldn’t secure an election that featured him in the dual roles of candidate and overseer.

But by the next day, Kemp and his aides had devised one solution for both problems, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows.

They publicly accused the Democratic Party of Georgia of trying to hack into the voter database<https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/kemp-office-investigates-georgia-democrats-after-alleged-hacking-attempt/VyyeNgNH4NN6xaXUOfl8HL/> in a failed attempt to steal the election. The announcement added last-minute drama to an already contentious campaign. More important, it also pre-empted scrutiny of the secretary of state’s own missteps while initiating a highly unusual criminal investigation into his political rivals.

But no evidence supported the allegations against the Democrats at the time, and none has emerged in the six weeks since, the Journal-Constitution found. It appears unlikely that any crime occurred.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Jersey Democrats cancel vote on controversial redistricting plan”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102865>
Posted on December 16, 2018 6:13 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102865> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NJ.com:<https://www.nj.com/politics/2018/12/jersey-democrats-cancel-vote-on-controversial-redistricting-plan.html>

Inundated with fierce opposition from across the political spectrum, Democrats who lead the New Jersey Legislature have abruptly shelved a controversial redistricting plan<https://www.nj.com/expo/news/erry-2018/12/4f35afe9274434/all-you-need-to-know-about-tha.html> that critics say could bolster their power for decades.

Democratic leaders had scheduled a vote for Monday, the final legislative session of the year, at the Statehouse in Trenton.

But staring down the possibility the plan might not pass in the face of broad backlash, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney<https://topics.nj.com/tag/stephen-sweeney> and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin<https://topics.nj.com/tag/craig-coughlin> announced Saturday night they canceled the vote.

That makes it unlikely the proposed constitutional amendment will be placed before voters next year — at least in its current form.

Earlier:

Governing: New Jersey Democrats Seek to Enshrine Their Power in the State Constitution<http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-new-jersey-democrats-power-grab.html>

Vox: New Jersey Democrats are threatening to undermine their state’s democracy<https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/14/18140773/new-jersey-democrats-gerrymandering-2018>

And a dissenting tweet thread<https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1073823152717869056> from Mike McDonald:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/764533167416016897/LsXkTx5I_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/ElectProject>
<https://twitter.com/ElectProject>
Michael McDonald at ElectProject<https://twitter.com/ElectProject>

 · Dec 14, 2018<https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1073822375093907456>
<https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1073822375093907456>

This outrage is directed at something called "normalized vote" and is a cornerstone of just about every partisan fairness metric. The court-appointed 11th member of New Jersey's state legislative commission has used it in the past 4 redistricting cycles https://twitter.com/voxdotcom/status/1073816171068223488 …<https://t.co/FA1nieR986>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/764533167416016897/LsXkTx5I_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/ElectProject>
<https://twitter.com/ElectProject>
Michael McDonald at ElectProject<https://twitter.com/ElectProject>

In the 1970s Rutgers political scientist Donald Stokes was appointed by the NJ Supreme Court as the 11th or tie-breaking member of the newly created NJ state legislative apportionment board
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

Michigan: “You won’t find ‘good government’ in GOP’s campaign finance changes”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102863>
Posted on December 16, 2018 5:51 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102863> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Daniel Wiener oped<https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/12/15/dark-money-campaign-finance/2313304002/> in the Detroit Free Press.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Liberal groups move to sue after Walker signs lame-duck bills in Wisconsin”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102861>
Posted on December 14, 2018 5:52 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102861> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico<https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/14/scott-walker-legislation-suit-1066001>:

Two liberal groups announced that they will take legal action in response to Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s decision to sign legislation limiting the powers of Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers.

The One Wisconsin Institute, supported by the National Redistricting Foundation, said Friday afternoon that lawsuits would be coming after Walker signed the bills<https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/14/scott-walker-lame-duck-bills-friday-1064752>.
“This is a shameful attack on our democracy by politicians who will do anything to hold onto power,” former Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement from the National Redistricting Foundation. “After losing an election, Republicans in the state legislature are using their gerrymandered majorities and their defeated governor to ignore the will of the people. Their actions are grossly partisan, deeply undemocratic, and an attack on voting rights. They must not stand.”
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

California Secretary of State Calls on Governor to Fire Head of State DMV After Additional Voter Registration Errors<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102859>
Posted on December 14, 2018 4:31 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102859> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

LAT<https://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-may-2018-california-s-dmv-failed-to-finish-1544828614-htmlstory.html>:

Officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Friday that the agency failed to send information for 329 new voters to state elections officers in time for the November election, the latest revelation in a string of mishaps regarding voter registration.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla responded with a blistering letter, calling on Gov. Jerry Brown or Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom to replace Jean Shiomoto, the DMV director.

“The Director of DMV has lost my confidence and trust,” Padilla wrote….

The errors were not related to previous DMV mistakes about registering voters, problems associated with the rollout of the state’s new “motor voter” law. In those cases, multiple registration forms were sent to local elections offices<http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-motor-voter-registrations-errors-20180524-story.html>, some voters were assigned the wrong political party preference<https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-dmv-voter-registration-error-20180905-story.html> and others who are non-citizens were incorrectly placed on the list of registered voters<https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-dmv-more-voter-registration-errors-20181008-story.html>. DMV officials have yet to respond to questions posed by The Times over the past several weeks about who knew of those mistakes and when.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

North Carolina Elections Board Sets January 11 Hearing on #NC09 Absentee Ballot Controversy, Meaning Mark Harris Won’t Be Seated as Congress Begins January 3<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102857>
Posted on December 14, 2018 1:46 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102857> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1014504444476739585/UN7_0-Jq_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9>
<https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9>
Joe Bruno<https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9>
✔@JoeBrunoWSOC9<https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9>

 · Dec 14, 2018<https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9/status/1073694677579239424>
<https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9/status/1073694677579239424>

Replying to @JoeBrunoWSOC9<https://twitter.com/_/status/1073693945480257536>

A spokesperson for NCSBE says the location and details will be released in the coming days. State investigators are stilling waiting for more documents from the parties subpoenaed #NC09<https://twitter.com/hashtag/NC09?src=hash> #ncpol<https://twitter.com/hashtag/ncpol?src=hash> @wsoctv<https://twitter.com/wsoctv>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1014504444476739585/UN7_0-Jq_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9>
<https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9>
Joe Bruno<https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9>
✔@JoeBrunoWSOC9<https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9>

This means Mark Harris will not be sworn in on January 3. #NC09<https://twitter.com/hashtag/NC09?src=hash> #ncpol<https://twitter.com/hashtag/ncpol?src=hash>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Appeals court temporarily blocks online voter registration for Texas drivers”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102855>
Posted on December 14, 2018 12:11 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102855> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Texas Tribune<https://www.texastribune.org/2018/05/31/5th-circuit-temporarily-blocks-online-voter-registration-texas-drivers/>:

Texas will not be required to meet a 45-day deadline to implement online voter registration for drivers — for now.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that mandated a voter registration system that would allow drivers to register to vote when they renew their driver’s licenses online. The requirement was part of U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia’s ruling that Texas was violating a federal voter registration law <https://www.texastribune.org/2018/04/03/federal-judge-hands-texas-loss-voter-registration-lawsuit/> — also known as the “Motor Voter Act” — that’s meant to ease the voter registration process.

Pointing to registration deadlines for the November election, Garcia ordered the state to create the online system — the first mechanism for online voter registration in the state — in order to comply with the Motor Voter Act, which requires states to allow people to register to vote while getting their driver’s licenses.

Last week, the state appealed to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit, which put Garcia’s ruling on hold during the appeals process. That appeal could drag out for months, leaving uncertain whether the online system will be in place ahead of this fall’s elections.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Despite Trump’s claims, campaign finance violations can be very serious”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102853>
Posted on December 14, 2018 8:58 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102853> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Fredreka Schouten<https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/politics/trump-cohen-legal-risk/index.html> for CNN:

President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress this week have repeatedly sought to dismiss as trivial allegations that Trump directed hush money payments to women in potential violation of the nation’s campaign-finance laws.
“If you hire an attorney to solve a problem, do you expect the attorney do it legally?” House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy asked Thursday, echoing Trump’s contention that the President’s former lawyer Michael Cohen bore full responsibility for any crimes. Earlier this week, McCarthy warned that there are “a lot of members who would have to leave” Congress if campaign-finance violations amounted to impeachable offenses.
But election-law experts say those arguments are getting harder to make, as the crimes outlined by federal prosecutors this week pose fresh legal risks for Trump and his campaign.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“‘A breakdown in trust’: Revelations about hush money and Russian interference renew debate over the legitimacy of Trump’s 2016 win”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102851>
Posted on December 14, 2018 8:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102851> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Marc Fisher for WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-breakdown-in-trust-revelations-about-hush-money-and-russian-interference-renew-debate-over-the-legitimacy-of-trumps-2016-win/2018/12/14/6c873a6a-fe5b-11e8-83c0-b06139e540e5_story.html?utm_term=.1ff8f23692bb>

As if the country didn’t have enough to be divided about, now the forces aligned for and against President Trump are battling over whether his presidency is legitimate.

The evidence emerging in recent days and months that multiple crimes were committed in an effort to help Trump win the presidency is fueling arguments from Democrats and other Trump critics that the man in the Oval Office got the job through nefarious means. Even with no proof that those crimes swayed votes, the critics say, Trump has no moral hold on the office.

In the past week, the legitimacy debate has swelled with each new court filing in cases stemming from the investigations into Trump’s 2016 campaign.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102851&title=%E2%80%9C%E2%80%98A%20breakdown%20in%20trust%E2%80%99%3A%20Revelations%20about%20hush%20money%20and%20Russian%20interference%20renew%20debate%20over%20the%20legitimacy%20of%20Trump%E2%80%99s%202016%20win%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Va. House GOP asks U.S. Supreme Court to stop new electoral map”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102849>
Posted on December 14, 2018 8:52 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102849> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Richmond Times-Dispatch<https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/va-house-gop-asks-u-s-supreme-court-to-stop/article_f02edee7-96f9-5dbb-a3b4-33692144b477.html>:

Republican leaders in the Virginia House of Delegates have formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and block a lower court’s efforts to redraw the House map for the 2019 elections.

In a court filing released Thursday, House Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, asked the Supreme Court to grant an emergency stay that would halt a lower court’s efforts to enact a new House map to fix 11 districts found to be racially gerrymandered. Republicans are appealing the ruling, and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear new arguments in the case early next year.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102849&title=%E2%80%9CVa.%20House%20GOP%20asks%20U.S.%20Supreme%20Court%20to%20stop%20new%20electoral%20map%E2%80%9D>
Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“Pam S. Karlan on Fair Democracy”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102847>
Posted on December 14, 2018 8:49 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102847> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

EPIC:<https://blog.epic.org/2018/12/11/pam-s-karlan-on-fair-democracy/>

Pam S. Karlan, Stanford Law professor and EPIC Advisor, delivered a speech to the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS), where she is also Board Chair. The mission of ACS is to “promote the vitality of the U.S. Constitution<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution> and the fundamental values it expresses: individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, access to justice, democracy and the rule of law.”

Karlan emphasized the importance of not letting fear rule over us. “Do not be afraid,” Karlan said before comparing points of Judge Learned Hand’s speech during “I am An American Day” to the daily impactful work members of ACS do in order to protect a democratic way of life. “It is our hearts and our minds – when we litigate in courts, and our bodies when we show up in the streets…and contribute to important causes that ensure liberty.” Karlan noted that we share many democratic values regardless of differences in belief.

Listen to Karlan’s full speech below.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

George T. Conway III , Trevor Potter and Neal Katyal: “Trump’s claim that he didn’t violate campaign finance law is weak — and dangerous”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102845>
Posted on December 14, 2018 8:22 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102845> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo column<https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/12/14/trumps-claim-that-he-didnt-violate-campaign-finance-law-is-weak-dangerous/?utm_term=.5bdef3dbeb24>:

But the case is actually harmful for Trump — especially what the judge ruled. Edwards repeatedly argued that the payments were not campaign contributions because they were not made exclusively to further his campaign. The judge rejected this argument as a matter of law, ruling that a payment to a candidate’s extramarital sexual partner is a campaign contribution if “one of” the reasons the payment is made is to influence the election.

As a legal matter, that aspect of the Edwards case is what matters now — and it’s damning for Trump. It provides a precedent that other courts could follow in any prosecution arising out of the hush-money schemes Trump paid: The president could face criminal charges for conspiring with Cohen to make the payments because the evidence shows the payments were made, at least in part, for campaign purposes. As for what the jury concluded in the Edwards case, there’s good reason to believe that the evidence in a criminal case against Trump would be much stronger.
…
The bad arguments being floated in Trump’s defense are emblematic of a deterioration in respect for the rule of law in this country. The three of us have deep political differences, but we are united in the view that our country comes first and our political parties second. And chief among the values of our country is its commitment to the rule of law. No one, whether a senator or a president, should pretend America is something less.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102845&title=George%20T.%20Conway%20III%20%2C%20Trevor%20Potter%20and%20Neal%20Katyal%3A%20%E2%80%9CTrump%E2%80%99s%20claim%20that%20he%20didn%E2%80%99t%20violate%20campaign%20finance%20law%20is%20weak%20%E2%80%94%20and%20dangerous%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Federal lawsuit challenges small Alabama town’s at-large elections”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102843>
Posted on December 14, 2018 8:19 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102843> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AL.com reports.<https://www.al.com/news/2018/12/federal-lawsuit-challenges-small-alabama-towns-at-large-elections.html>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Don’t be shocked by the North Carolina fraud allegations. Absentee ballots are much less secure than polling places.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102841>
Posted on December 14, 2018 8:17 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102841> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
 Mara Suttmann-Lea for the Monkey Cage<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/12/13/dont-be-shocked-by-the-north-carolina-fraud-allegations-absentee-ballots-are-much-less-secure-than-polling-places/?utm_term=.e1340ebd7d47>.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102841&title=%E2%80%9CDon%E2%80%99t%20be%20shocked%20by%20the%20North%20Carolina%20fraud%20allegations.%20Absentee%20ballots%20are%20much%20less%20secure%20than%20polling%20places.%E2%80%9D>
Posted in absentee ballots<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>

--
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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