[EL] ELB News and Commentary 12/26/18

[Rick Hasen]

“Black Voters, a Force in Democratic Politics, Are Ready to Make Themselves Heard”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102987>
Posted on December 26, 2018 8:28 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102987> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/25/us/politics/blacks-democrats-president-2020-.html>

The first votes of the Democratic presidential primary remain more than a year away, but black voters are keenly aware of the prominent role they will play in choosing the next nominee. In 2016, Mr. Sanders’s “political revolution” flamed out with black voters, and Hillary Clinton fell short of the robust black turnout she needed to defeat Donald J. Trump.

This time around, Democrats are weighing how to reach out to the black community in the primary without losing the ability to appeal to the suburban and working class whites who propelled Mr. Trump to victory. As the party searches for a candidate who can combine those messages — from a field likely to include several racial minorities — many black voters want to be engaged in a manner that reflects their electoral power, and not passed over in favor of a strategy that prioritizes Mr. Trump’s heavily white coalition.

With that in mind, potential Democratic candidates interested in the 2020 nomination have begun reaching out to black leaders and are testing messages for black voter outreach. This courting is particularly critical for white, liberal Democrats like Ms. Warren, Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and lesser-known figures like Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“New NC voter ID law levies restrictions on private colleges’ ID cards”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102985>
Posted on December 26, 2018 8:26 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102985> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Chronicle<https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2018/12/north-carolina-voter-id-law-college-student-voting-identification>:

A new voter ID law will require photo identification to cast a ballot in North Carolina.

Earlier drafts of the bill disallowed students at private colleges in the state—such as Duke—from using their college ID card to vote, but they were brought back into <https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article222183955.html> the bill with specified restraints.
“This [law] is a solution in search of a problem,” said Fritz Mayer, public policy professor and director of the Center for Political Leadership, Innovation and Service. “There is no evidence whatsoever of in-person voter fraud by students. It’s not. It just doesn’t happen.”

The law was passed Dec. 19 by North Carolina’s legislature when the Republican majority overrode Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill. The bill was raised in the aftermath of the November midterm election, when 55 percent of North Carolina voters passed a constitutional amendment<https://ballotpedia.org/North_Carolina_Voter_ID_Amendment_(2018)> that would require voters to present some form of state-approved photo identification prior to voting.
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Posted in voter id<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>


#NC09: “Editorial: Gov. Cooper, Atty. Gen. Stein need to probe 9th District election troubles”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102983>
Posted on December 26, 2018 8:23 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102983> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WRAL editorial. <https://www.wral.com/editorial-gov-cooper-atty-gen-stein-need-to-probe-9th-district-election-troubles/18086417/>
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


EDS Projects Reapportionment Gains and Losses after 2020 Census<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102981>
Posted on December 26, 2018 8:21 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102981> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

See here<https://www.electiondataservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/NR_Appor18wTablesMaps-20181219.pdf>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“North Carolina Asked Feds To Indict Alleged Fraudster Last Year”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102978>
Posted on December 25, 2018 5:36 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102978> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/north-carolina-asked-feds-to-indict-alleged-fraudster-last-year>

North Carolina’s top elections official issued an urgent plea nearly two years ago for the Trump administration to file criminal charges against the man now at the center of ballot fraud allegations that have thrown a 2018 congressional race into turmoil.

N.C. Board of Elections Executive Director Kim Strach warned in a January 2017 letter first obtained by The Associated Press that those involved in illegally harvesting absentee ballots in rural Bladen County would likely do it again if they weren’t prosecuted.

Josh Lawson, the top lawyer for the elections board, said Friday that Strach’s memo was followed less than a month later with the first of several in-person meetings during which state investigators provided FBI agents and federal prosecutors with evidence accusing Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. and others of criminal activity…

A spokesman for Robert J. Higdon, Jr., who took over as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina in September 2017, has declined to comment on why no charges were filed following the state’s criminal referrals against Dowless and other Bladen County political operatives. Justice Department spokeswoman Kelly Laco in Washington also declined to comment on Friday.

Higdon’s office issued a media release in August of this year touting charges against 19 foreign nationals it said voted in North Carolina in the 2016 presidential election, during which more than 6.9 million ballots were cast in the state. The cases were filed in the wake of Trump’s false claim that he lost the 2016 popular vote to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton because millions of illegal immigrants had cast ballots across the country.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“International Workshop on ‘Rearranging the Arrangements Law: Comparative, Multidisciplinary, Empirical and Normative Perspectives on Omnibus Legislation'”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102976>
Posted on December 25, 2018 5:33 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102976> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

This looks<https://www1.biu.ac.il/File/2018/RearrangingtheArrangements.pdf> like a great conference at Bar Ilan University on Jan 1-3.
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Posted in legislation and legislatures<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=27>


Maine: “Poliquin drops challenge to ranked-choice voting, clearing way for Golden to take seat in Congress”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102974>
Posted on December 25, 2018 5:31 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102974> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Portland Press Herald:<https://www.pressherald.com/2018/12/24/poliquin-drops-legal-challenge-to-ranked-choice-voting/>

With two courts ruling against him, the Republican will no longer dispute Jared Golden’s election, but maintains that Maine’s voter-approved system is unconstitutional and illegal.

Rep. Bruce Poliquin on Monday dropped his legal challenge to the ranked-choice election in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District in which he lost his seat in the U.S. House.

In a statement he released on Twitter on Christmas Eve, the two-term Republican said he continues to believe ranked-choice voting is unconstitutional, but “it’s in the best interests of my constituents and all Maine citizens to close this confusing and unfair chapter of voting history.”
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Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>


Maine: “Court denies Poliquin’s appeal to stop Golden’s certification as winner”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102970>
Posted on December 22, 2018 7:15 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102970> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Portland Press Herald:<https://www.pressherald.com/2018/12/21/federal-appeals-court-rejects-poliquin-request-to-stop-election-certification/>

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling is the latest blow to Rep. Bruce Poliquin’s battle against ranked-choice voting.

A panel of federal judges Friday rejected Rep. Bruce Poliquin’s request for an emergency injunction<https://www.pressherald.com/2018/12/18/in-appeal-poliquin-asks-court-to-block-goldens-certification-as-winner/?rel=related> to block Maine from certifying Jared Golden as the winner of the state’s 2nd District race.

In a one-sentence order, three judges on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the request doesn’t show Poliquin “to have a strong likelihood of success on the merits.”
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Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>


On February 19 Supreme Court Will Hear Oral Argument in Dispute over Testimony of Wilbur Ross and John Gore in Census Case<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102968>
Posted on December 21, 2018 12:57 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102968> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Amy Howe reports<http://www.scotusblog.com/2018/12/justices-release-february-argument-calendar/>.
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Doug Jones ‘Outraged’ by Russian-Style Tactics Used in His Senate Race”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102966>
Posted on December 21, 2018 9:33 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102966> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/us/politics/doug-jones-social-media.html>

Senator Doug Jones of Alabama on Thursday said he was “outraged” to learn of deceptive online operations used by fellow Democrats to assist his election last year, and called for a federal investigation into the matter.

He was responding to a report in The New York Times<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/alabama-senate-roy-jones-russia.html?module=inline> on Wednesday about a small group of social media experts who modeled their tactics in part on Russia’s misinformation campaign in the 2016 election.

“We have focused so much on Russia that we haven’t focused on the fact that people in this country could take the same playbook and do the same damn thing,” Mr. Jones said.

He called on the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department to examine whether the episode violated any laws and, if it did, to prosecute those responsible. Officials need “to let people know that this is not acceptable in the United States of America,” he said in a statement….

Part of the appeal of online machinations is that they cost so little, said Wendy R. Weiser, the director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.

“I am certainly very worried that the tactics that were used by the Russians are going to be repeated and used by others in 2020 and beyond,” she said. “I think that we’re going to see an escalation.”

Miles Rapoport, a senior fellow in American democracy at Harvard Kennedy School, said he feared that online deception could degrade the political process. To defend against it, he said, greater skepticism will be required.

“Campaigns and voters and citizens now will need to factor in: Where is this information coming from? Who’s generating it? Can I believe it?” Mr. Rapoport said.

Attempts to regulate the kind of the tactics used in Alabama could run into constitutional barriers, according to Richard L. Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law who specializes in election law.

“We generally don’t have laws — and the First Amendment prevents us from having laws — that prohibit candidates from lying,” he said.

A requirement for more detailed reporting of what is often vaguely recorded as “online services” might help, at least for activities carried out by an official campaign, he said. But he is not holding out hope for 2020.

“It’s not as though this Congress — and this president — is going to pass any kind of campaign-related regulation that would have teeth in it,” Mr. Hasen said.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“N.C. election officials sounded alarm about alleged election fraud to federal prosecutors in January 2017”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102964>
Posted on December 21, 2018 9:30 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102964> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nc-election-officials-sounded-alarm-about-alleged-election-fraud-to-federal-prosecutors-in-january-2017/2018/12/21/240e09a0-0539-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.6b755a1608d7>

North Carolina state election officials told federal prosecutors in January 2017 that they found evidence of efforts to manipulate the absentee ballot vote in rural Bladen County in the 2016 election and warned that such activities “will likely continue for future elections” if not addressed, according to correspondence obtained Friday by The Washington Post.

In a Jan. 30, 2017, letter addressed to then-U. S. Attorney John Bruce of the Eastern District of North Carolina, Kim Strach, the executive director of the State Board of Elections, said the agency had conducted a “lengthy investigation” of alleged absentee ballot fraud in Bladen County.

“Our findings to date suggest that individuals and potentially groups of individuals engaged in efforts to manipulate election results through the absentee ballot process,” Strach wrote. “The evidence we have obtained suggest that these efforts may have taken place in the past and if not addressed will likely continue for future elections.”

The letter raises fresh questions about whether federal investigators took any actions scrutinize the complaints.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


Must Read: “Secret Experiment in Alabama Senate Race Imitated Russian Tactics”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102960>
Posted on December 20, 2018 1:27 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102960> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Somehow missed this NYT story<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/alabama-senate-roy-jones-russia.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage> yesterday:

As Russia’s online election machinations came to light last year, a group of Democratic tech experts decided to try out similarly deceptive tactics in the fiercely contested Alabama Senate race, according to people familiar with the effort and a report on its results.

The secret project, carried out on Facebook and Twitter, was likely too small to have a significant effect on the race, in which the Democratic candidate it was designed to help, Doug Jones, edged out the Republican, Roy S. Moore. But it was a sign that American political operatives of both parties have paid close attention to the Russian methods, which some fear may come to taint elections in the United States.

One participant in the Alabama project, Jonathon Morgan, is the chief executive of New Knowledge, a small cyber security firm that wrote a scathing account of Russia’s social media operations in the 2016 election that was released this week by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

An internal report on the Alabama effort, obtained by The New York Times, says explicitly that it “experimented with many of the tactics now understood to have influenced the 2016 elections.”

The project’s operators created a Facebook page on which they posed as conservative Alabamians, using it to try to divide Republicans and even to endorse a write-in candidate to draw votes from Mr. Moore. It involved a scheme to link the Moore campaign to thousands of Russian accounts that suddenly began following the Republican candidate on Twitter, a development that drew national media attention.

“We orchestrated an elaborate ‘false flag’ operation that planted the idea that the Moore campaign was amplified on social media by a Russian botnet,” the report says.

Mr. Morgan said in an interview that the Russian botnet ruse “does not ring a bell,” adding that others had worked on the effort and had written the report. He said he saw the project as “a small experiment” designed to explore how certain online tactics worked, not to affect the election.

Mr. Morgan said he could not account for the claims in the report that the project sought to “enrage and energize Democrats” and “depress turnout” among Republicans, partly by emphasizing accusations that Mr. Moore had pursued teenage girls when he was a prosecutor in his 30s.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>


--
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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