[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/4/18

Sun Nov 4 12:51:57 PST 2018

“Brian Kemp Just Engaged in a Last-Minute Act of Banana-Republic Level Voter Manipulation in Georgia”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101951>
Posted on November 4, 2018 12:50 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101951> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I have written this piece<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/georgia-governor-candidate-brian-kemp-attempts-last-minute-banana-republic-style-voter-manipulation.html> for Slate. It begins:

In perhaps the most outrageous example of election administration partisanship in the modern era, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is running for governor while simultaneously in charge of the state’s elections, has accused the Democratic Party without evidence<https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/kemp-office-investigates-georgia-democrats-after-alleged-hacking-attempt/VyyeNgNH4NN6xaXUOfl8HL/> of hacking into the state’s voter database. He plastered a headline<http://sos.ga.gov/index.php/general/after_failed_hacking_attempt_sos_launches_investigation_into_georgia_democratic_party_> about it on the Secretary of State’s website<http://sos.ga.gov/>, which thousands of voters use to get information about voting on election day.

It’s just the latest in a series of partisan moves by Kemp, who has held up<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101906> more than 50,000 voter registrations for inconsistencies as small as a missing hyphen, fought rules<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101919> to give voters a chance to prove their identity when their absentee ballot applications are rejected for a lack of a signature match<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/brian-kemp-voter-mismatch-georgia-stolen-election.html>, and  been aggressive<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/opinion/election-voting-rights-fraud-prosecutions.html> in prosecuting those who have done nothing more than try to help those in need of assistance in casting ballots.

But the latest appalling move by Kemp to publicly accuse the Democrats of hacking without evidence is even worse than that: Kemp has been one of the few state election officials to refuse help from the federal Department of Homeland Security<https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-election-hacking-and-the-georgia-governors-race> to deter foreign and domestic hacking of voter registration databases. After computer scientists demonstrated the insecurity of the state’s voting system<https://www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/georgias-elections-system-desperately-needs-an-update-but-how/>, he was sued for having perhaps the most vulnerable<https://www.axios.com/2018-midterm-electioons-georgias-election-headaches-28ff8d81-8658-4e0e-929f-57c630447669.html>election system in the country. His office has been plausibly accused of destroying evidence<https://slate.com/technology/2017/10/georgia-destroyed-election-data-right-after-a-lawsuit-alleged-the-system-was-vulnerable.html>, which would have helped to prove the vulnerabilities of the state election system….

WhoWhatWhy issued a report<https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/11/04/exclusive-georgias-voter-registration-system-like-open-bank-safe-door/> early on Sunday morning that seemed to explain what was going on.

Just before noon on Saturday, a third party provided WhoWhatWhy with an email and document, sent from the Democratic Party of Georgia to election security experts, that highlights ‘massive’ vulnerabilities within the state’s My Voter Page and its online voter registration system. According to the document, it would not be difficult for almost anyone with minimal computer expertise to access millions of people’s private information and potentially make changes to their voter registration — including canceling it.
If this is true, it doesn’t show Democrats “hacking<https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1059101451878830080>” to manipulate election results. It shows Democrats, like many others, pointing out the glaring security flaws in Georgia’s voting system. To turn this around<https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1059101451878830080> and blame Democrats is an act of political chutzpah by an election official on par with nothing else I’ve seen.

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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

Democratic Super PAC Mailer Quotes Breitbart in Mississippi Senate Race<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101949>
Posted on November 4, 2018 12:43 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101949> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Y’all Politics. <http://yallpolitics.com/2018/11/01/pro-espy-forces-not-risingabove-in-the-special-election/>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101949&title=Democratic%20Super%20PAC%20Mailer%20Quotes%20Breitbart%20in%20Mississippi%20Senate%20Race>
Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Doonesbury on Voter Suppression<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101947>
Posted on November 4, 2018 12:38 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101947> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Mincing no words, with a nod to John Roberts. <https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2018/11/04>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101947&title=Doonesbury%20on%20Voter%20Suppression>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“How The 2020 Census Citizenship Question Ended Up In Court”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101945>
Posted on November 4, 2018 12:37 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101945> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Hansi Lo Wang for NPR.<https://www.npr.org/2018/11/04/661932989/how-the-2020-census-citizenship-question-ended-up-in-court>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101945&title=%E2%80%9CHow%20The%202020%20Census%20Citizenship%20Question%20Ended%20Up%20In%20Court%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

--
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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