[EL] ELB News and Commentary 7/14-15/18

[Daniel Tokaji]

 “Should Democrats Have Saved Their Filibuster for the New Court Fight?”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100100>
Posted on July 15, 2018 8:38 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100100> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

NYT, CouldWouldaShoulda Dept
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/us/politics/supreme-court-filibuster.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront>:
“Now, as the Senate faces another court vacancy — one that could tilt the
court’s ideological balance and cement a conservative majority — the
Democrats have few tools to fight the nomination. A different outcome last
year could have had a huge effect on the more consequential battle now
taking shape.”
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Posted in legislation and legislatures <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=27>,
 Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Let’s Not Paper Over Election Security”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100097>
Posted on July 15, 2018 7:38 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100097> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

At RCP, Phil Stupak writes
<https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/07/14/lets_not_paper_over_election_security_137522.html>
:

As our nation focuses on election security, an errant notion has emerged
that paper-only balloting is some kind of panacea against potential
threats. While it is vital to election security that we mandate the use of
verifiable paper audit trails, the same cannot be said of paper-only
ballots, where the voters do not interact with a voting machine of any kind.
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Posted in voting technology
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>
Mueller Indictment Reveals Election Security Vulnerabilities
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100095>
Posted on July 15, 2018 7:36 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100095> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Politico:
<https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/13/robert-mueller-probe-state-election-systems-686522>
“Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Friday that hackers within
Russia’s GRU military intelligence service targeted state and local
election boards, infiltrated a Florida-based company that supplies software
for voting machines across the country, and broke into a state election
website to steal sensitive information on about 500,000 American voters.”
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Posted in chicanery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, voter registration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>
“Massachusetts Senate unanimously passes automatic voter registration bill”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100088>
Posted on July 15, 2018 7:27 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100088> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

The Hill reports
<http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/397014-massachusetts-senate-unanimously-passes-automatic-voter-registration>
that
a different version was passed by the state house last month, and that
legislators hope to hammer out a version that would take effect by 2020, if
signed by the state’s Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican.  State House
News Service
<http://www.telegram.com/news/20180713/baker-confident-registry-could-handle-automatic-voter-registration>
 reports that Governor Baker is confident that the state could operate an
AVR system “with a fairly high degree of integrity.”
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Posted in voter registration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>
“Gerrymandering as a Campaign Issue” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100086>
Posted on July 15, 2018 7:17 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100086> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

NPR
<https://www.npr.org/2018/07/15/629212931/gerrymandering-as-a-campaign-issue>:
“After the Supreme Court declined to make a decision about whether partisan
gerrymandering is unconstitutional, the issue is becoming a campaign issue
for Democrats around the country.”
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Posted in redistricting
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>
“Big bills for Virginia’s redistricting battle”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100084>
Posted on July 15, 2018 7:14 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100084> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Daily Press
<http://www.dailypress.com/news/politics/dp-nws-shad-plank-0714-story.html>:
“Now on its way, for the second time to the U.S. Supreme Court, the cost to
taxpayers of the House’s intervention in the case  has reached
$4,067,098.03, according to Speaker Kirk Cox’s office. (In addition, the
attorney general spent $877,000 defending the state Board of Elections,
which was the entity that voters actually sued….)”
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Posted in redistricting
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>
“Reversing course, Sununu signs voter residency bill into law”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100077>
Posted on July 14, 2018 10:11 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100077> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

AP
<https://www.concordmonitor.com/Sununu-signs-voting-rights-bill-he-previously-opposed-18820259>:
“Republican Gov. Chris Sununu reversed course Friday and signed a bill
imposing residency requirements on out-of-state college students who vote
in New Hampshire.  Current law allows students and others who consider the
state their domicile to vote without being subject to residency
requirements, such as getting a New Hampshire driver’s license or
registering their cars.”
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Posted in voter registration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>, voting
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>
“Justice Kavanaugh can help fix gerrymandering”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100075>
Posted on July 14, 2018 10:04 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100075> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Jason Harrow in The Hill
<http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/judicial/396845-justice-kavanaugh-can-help-fix-gerrymandering>.
I wouldn’t count on it, much as I like
<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3045444> the First
Amendment associational rights theory that he suggests.
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Posted in redistricting
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>
Mississippi Relaxing Voter Registration Deadline for Runoffs to Comply with
NVRA <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100071>
Posted on July 14, 2018 9:57 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100071> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

AP
<http://www.hastingstribune.com/mississippi-updating-voter-registration-deadline-for-runoffs/article_3ed6d6d7-89f8-58fa-8540-17a1c16ce836.html>
on
the state’s action in response to a demand letter from the Lawyers
Committee for Civil Rights on behalf of the NAACP:

Mississippi is updating a voter registration deadline to meet a requirement
of a 1993 federal law, giving people a bit more time to register so they
can vote in runoff elections for federal offices.

The state has required people to be registered at least 30 days before the
first round of voting in an election. Runoffs happen three weeks later.

The civil rights group’s demand letter is here
<https://lawyerscommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/MS-NVRA-notice-letter-FINAL.pdf>
 and state attorney general’s letter is here
<https://lawyerscommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/MS-SOS-letter-re-NVRA-compliance.pdf>
.
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Posted in voter registration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>
“Kavanaugh and Campaign Finance: Republican National Committee v. Federal
Election Commission” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100069>
Posted on July 14, 2018 9:46 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100069> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Charles Davis on SCOTUSBlog
<http://www.scotusblog.com/2018/07/kavanaugh-and-campaign-finance-republican-national-committee-v-federal-election-commission/>
:

Kavanaugh’s opinion showed hostility towards the Supreme Court’s views in
*McConnell*. It questioned the theory that these [soft money] limits could
be justified simply by the close connection between political parties and
candidates or officeholders, and more than once explained that its hands
were tied by the Supreme Court. And its analysis included a call for
Supreme Court reassessment of these restrictions.
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Supreme
Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“The Mystery Firm That Became the NRA’s Top Election Consultant”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100067>
Posted on July 14, 2018 9:41 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100067> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Politico
<https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/13/mystery-firm-nra-consultant-219004>on
the NRA’s payments to the consulting firm Starboard Strategic:

It was not unusual for the NRA to spend large sums of cash in an election
cycle. What was odd was where the money was going. Before 2013, Starboard
Strategic had never appeared in Federal Election Commission reports.
Someone curious about the firm would have found a skeletal website
<https://starboardstrategicinc.com/> that listed no staff, clients,
address, phone number or previous work…. Yet at a moment when the stakes
were high—Republicans needed six seats to claim a majority—the firm had
come out of nowhere to become the NRA’s top election contractor.

Acquiring business of this magnitude would be an incredible feat for a firm
with no reputation. The question is whether it was really accomplished by
Starboard, or another outfit called OnMessage.

Well-established and well-connected, OnMessage is as transparent as
Starboard is opaque. What the Federal Election Commission and the public do
not know is that the two entities appear to be functionally one and the
same.
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Posted in campaign financ
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
Today’s Indictment of Russian Agents Accused of Conspiring to Interfere
with 2016 Election <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100064>
Posted on July 13, 2018 8:52 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=100064> by Dan
Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Available here
<https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4598895/DOJ-Russia-DNC-Hack-Indictment.pdf>.
The indictment alleges a conspiracy to hack the systems of not only the DNC
and Clinton campaign, but also election authorities. PBS
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/5-things-we-learned-from-muellers-new-russia-indictment>
:

The indictment said two named defendants knowingly conspired to hack
computers of U.S. “persons,” state agencies and companies involved in
overseeing the 2016 elections. These included “state boards of elections,
secretaries of state, and US. companies that supplied software and other
technology related to the administration of US. elections,” the indictments
said.

More coverage from NYT
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/us/politics/mueller-indictment-russian-intelligence-hacking.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=span-ab-top-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news>
, WSJ
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-agents-indictment-raises-stakes-ahead-of-trump-putin-summit-1531524420>
, Atlantic
<https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/muellers-blockbuster-indictment/565202/>,
and Reuters
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-indictments/us-accuses-russian-spies-of-2016-election-hacking-summit-looms-idUSKBN1K32DJ>
.
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Posted in chicanery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, voting technology
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>
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