[EL] ELB News and Commentary 3/13/18

[Rick Hasen]

"'Incredible and offensive': Retired attorney feels sorry for Kobach team in voter fraud trial"<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98123>
Posted on March 13, 2018 8:36 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98123> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Topeka Capital Journal reports.<http://www.cjonline.com/news/20180312/incredible-and-offensive-retired-attorney-feels-sorry-for-kobach-team-in-voter-fraud-trial>
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


"Is one of the Pennsylvania voting cases doomed?"<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98121>
Posted on March 12, 2018 7:53 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98121> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Lyle Denniston<https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/is-one-of-the-pennsylvania-voting-cases-doomed> for Constitution Daily.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


"Gerrymandering Justice: Reaction to the Pa. Supreme Court's Rulings"<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98119>
Posted on March 12, 2018 1:05 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98119> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Howard Bashman<https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligencer/2018/03/12/gerrymandering-justice-reaction-to-the-pa-supreme-courts-rulings/> in the Legal Intelligencer:

In my view, it would be a huge mistake for Republican state legislators to actually initiate impeachment proceedings against Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices for having issued rulings with which the legislators disagree as a matter of political or even legal merit. The majority on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not simply exercise their power as a matter of political will; rather, they issued opinions explaining the legal reasoning for why, in their view, the Pennsylvania state Constitution required the result that the court has decided to reach.

Disagreement with the merits of a decision, no matter how strongly held or meritorious those disagreements may be, simply should not and cannot be a basis for impeaching appellate judges. Just as our republic somehow survived without impeachment hearings after five Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices in Bush v. Gore managed to conclude the 2000 presidential election in favor of Republican candidate George W. Bush, Pennsylvania will survive the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's recent congressional gerrymandering decisions.

It is simply a fact of life that judges appointed to federal appellate courts by Republican presidents are more likely to reach conservative outcomes in politically tinged cases, and judges elected to state supreme courts as members of one political party or another are likewise more likely to reach a result that favors the side that once supported them. This does not mean that judges, when they are deciding politically tinged cases, are failing to act like judges in deciding the case. Rather, it is simply a function of the fact that the reason why Republicans favor one judicial approach and Democrats another is that those approaches most often result in the outcomes those political parties prefer.
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Posted in judicial elections<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=19>, redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>


"Bill to shorten Atlanta voting hours advances in Ga. House"<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98117>
Posted on March 12, 2018 1:01 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98117> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Atlanta-Journal Constitution:<https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/bill-shorten-atlanta-voting-hours-advances-house/goraM0zz8ft43NldUsjekL/>

Voters in Atlanta would have one less hour to cast their ballots under a bill that cleared a subcommittee Thursday.

The legislation, Senate Bill 363<https://legislativenavigator.myajc.com/#bills/SB/363>, would force the city of Atlanta to close its polls at 7 p.m. like the rest of the state. Currently, Atlanta is allowed to keep precincts open until 8 p.m. under a state law passed in the 1970s.

The bill was filed by Republican Sen. Matt Brass<https://legislativenavigator.myajc.com/#members/4907> after Democratic Sen. Jen Jordan<https://legislativenavigator.myajc.com/#members/4918>won<https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/georgia-general-assembly-gets-first-vietnamese-american-member/8BLw9qzeMEaUSDs7zddDnL/> a special election in December to represent a district that covers<http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/72213/Web02-state/#/cid/40600> parts of Atlanta and Cobb County. Voting in Cobb County ended at 7 p.m.

"All the people in the city of Atlanta have a one-hour advantage on the rest of the state," said Brass, R-Newnan. "We're trying to get a little more uniformity."

Opponents of the bill said it would limit voting options for residents fighting through Atlanta traffic after long work days.

I have thought about equality issues like this in When is Uniformity of People, Not Counties, Appropriate in Election Administration? The Cases of Early and Sunday Voting"<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2497192>, 2015 University of Chicago Legal Forum 193 (2015).
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


--
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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