[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/14/18

Mon May 14 07:52:46 PDT 2018

“Florida to monitor Broward election chief after judge finds ‘unlawful’ ballot destruction in Wasserman Schultz race”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99050>
Posted on May 14, 2018 7:49 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99050> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Mark Caputo for Politico:<https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/05/14/florida-to-monitor-broward-election-chief-after-judge-finds-unlawful-ballot-destruction-in-wasserman-schultz-race-415832>

The elections supervisor in Florida’s second-most populous county broke state and federal law by unlawfully destroying ballots cast in Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz<https://cd.politicopro.com/member/51663>’s 2016 Democratic primary, a judge ruled Friday in a case brought by the congresswoman’s challenger who wanted to check for voting irregularities.

In light of the ruling<https://www.politico.com/states/f/?id=00000163-5b4e-dbc0-a56b-ffce12fa0000>, Gov. Rick Scott’s administration — which has expressed concerns<https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/01/25/scotts-office-raps-browards-unacceptable-ballot-destruction-in-wasserman-schultz-race-213988> with how Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes has handled the case — told POLITICO that he’s reviewing the judge’s order and will have her office monitored.

“During the upcoming election, the Department of State will send a Florida elections expert from the Division of Elections to Supervisor Snipes’ office to ensure that all laws are followed so the citizens of Broward County can have the efficient, properly run election they deserve,” Scott’s office said in a written statement.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

Supreme Court, Without Noted Dissent, Denies Cert. in Holmes v. FEC Campaign Contributions Case<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99048>
Posted on May 14, 2018 7:43 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99048> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Order list. <https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/051418zor_j4el.pdf>

Here’s the unanimous DC Circuit opinion<http://www.ifs.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Holmes_Opinion.pdf> by Judge Srinivasian.

The theory of this case always struck me as weak and odd.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Va. election officials assigned 26 voters to the wrong district. It might’ve cost Democrats a pivotal race.”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99046>
Posted on May 14, 2018 7:33 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99046> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/voters-assigned-to-wrong-districts-may-have-cost-democrats-in-pivotal-virginia-race/2018/05/13/09a9dd8a-5465-11e8-a551-5b648abe29ef_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.19e7bf511b28>

Last year’s race for state delegate in Newport News went down in Virginia history for its razor-thin margin. Republican David E. Yancey won on Election Day by 10 votes; Democrat Shelly Simonds beat him by a single vote in a recount. Then, a judicial panel declared a tie, so officials picked a name out of a bowl to determine a winner, and it was Yancey.

Now, a review of voter registration records and district maps by The Washington Post has found more than two dozen voters — enough to swing the outcome of that race — cast ballots in the wrong district, because of errors by local elections officials.

The misassigned voters lived in a predominantly African American precinct that heavily favored Democrats in the fall, raising the possibility that they would have delivered the district to Simonds had they voted in the proper race.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Russ Feingold and Ro Khanna: A new approach to big money in politics”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99044>
Posted on May 14, 2018 7:29 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99044> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Concord Monitor oped:<http://www.concordmonitor.com/Getting-big-money-out-of-politics-17448454>

If McCain-Feingold was the campaign finance gold standard of its time, the Democracy Dollars Act is the boldest campaign finance proposal today. The act provides every registered voter 50 “Democracy Dollars” – $25 for presidential elections, $15 for Senate and $10 for House campaigns.

This may seem like pocket change, but multiply it by the hundreds of thousands of people who vote and suddenly those Democracy Dollars could help counter the super PACs and dark money.

The plan is to reduce the influence of big money in politics, but without violating Citizens United, which while incorrect is still legal precedent for the time being. Even in this legal climate, the Democracy Dollars Act would bring balance to special interest contributions with the financial power of voters.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

2016 Russian Facebook Election Ads Overwhelmingly About Race<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99041>
Posted on May 13, 2018 9:21 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99041> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

USA Today:<https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/05/11/what-we-found-facebook-ads-russians-accused-election-meddling/602319002/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sendto_newslettertest&stream=top-stories>

The Russian company charged with orchestrating a wide-ranging effort to meddle in the 2016 presidential election overwhelmingly focused its barrage of social media advertising on what is arguably America’s rawest political division: race.

The roughly 3,500 Facebook ads were created by the Russian-based Internet Research Agency, which is at the center of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s February indictment of 13 Russians and three companies seeking to influence the election.

While some ads focused on topics as banal as business promotion or Pokémon, the company consistently promoted ads designed to inflame race-related tensions. Some dealt with race directly; others dealt with issues fraught with racial and religious baggage such as ads focused on protests over policing, the debate over a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and relationships with the Muslim community.

The company continued to hammer racial themes even after the election.

USA TODAY NETWORK reporters reviewed each of the 3,517 ads, which were released to the public this week for the first time by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The analysis included not just the content of the ads, but also information that revealed the specific audience targeted, when the ad was posted, roughly how many views it received and how much the ad cost to post.
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Sheldon Silver Is Convicted in 2nd Corruption Trial”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99039>
Posted on May 13, 2018 9:15 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99039> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/nyregion/sheldon-silver-retrial-guilty.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fnyregion&action=click&contentCollection=nyregion%C2%AEion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront>

Sheldon Silver, the former powerful Democratic speaker of the New York State Assembly, was found guilty of federal corruption charges on Friday, less than a year after his first conviction on the same charges was thrown out<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/nyregion/sheldon-silvers-conviction-is-overturned.html>….

Mr. Silver’s retrial was widely watched as a test of the government’s ability to prosecute official corruption under the narrower definition. But from the outset, prosecutors this time seemed to hold an upper hand: The original verdict was only thrown out because the judge’s jury instructions were too broad, as defined by the Supreme Court decision.

The retrial in Federal District Court in Manhattan seemed to move at double speed: Instead of stretching over one month, as the first trial had, the second trial was completed in two weeks, as prosecutors quickly made their case that Mr. Silver, 74, had obtained the illicit payments. In return, prosecutors said, Mr. Silver took a series of official actions that benefited a cancer researcher at Columbia University and two real estate developers in New York.
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Posted in bribery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=54>

“The FPPC Chair Should Be Part-Time, Not Full-Time”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99037>
Posted on May 13, 2018 9:13 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99037> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bob Stern:<http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2018/05/fppc-chair-part-time-not-full-time/>

I made a mistake when drafting the Political Reform Act of 1974, Proposition 9 passed by 70% of California’s voters in June of 1974.

When Dan Lowenstein, the chief drafter of the Act, and I worked together on the measure, he insisted that the chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission be full-time while the other four commissioners be part-time members.  I resisted saying that no other commission had such a structure and that the chair would be given too much power.  He acknowledged the uniqueness of the structure but said the chair, not an executive director hired by the entire commission, should run the staff.  Dan’s arguments prevailed.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“They Served Their Time. Now They’re Fighting for Other Ex-Felons to Vote.”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99035>
Posted on May 11, 2018 2:29 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99035> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports.<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/us/voting-rights-felons.html>
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Posted in felon voting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>

--
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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