[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/26/18

[Rick Hasen]

“4 ways NC lawmakers can make a voter ID bill less than awful”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102481>
Posted on November 26, 2018 7:36 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102481> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News & Observer editorial.<https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article221901575.html>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102481&title=%E2%80%9C4%20ways%20NC%20lawmakers%20can%20make%20a%20voter%20ID%20bill%20less%20than%20awful%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>, voter id<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>


New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, One of the Rare Democrats on Trump’s Voter “Fraud” Commission, May Soon Be Out of Office<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102479>
Posted on November 26, 2018 7:22 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102479> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico:<https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/25/bill-gardner-new-hampshire-trump-voter-fraud-1010999?nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=0000014e-f109-dd93-ad7f-f90d0def0000&nlid=630318>

Secretary of State Bill Gardner has had a decades-long run as the legendary, hard-nosed guardian of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary. But he may not make it through the Trump era.

Gardner, a fixture in presidential politics after more than 40 years in office, is on the verge of a bitter ouster from his job after supporting stricter voter eligibility requirements and participating in President Donald Trump’s ill-fated voter fraud commission.
Though he has traditionally garnered support from both Republicans and Democrats - the Legislature selects the state’s secretary of state every two years - New Hampshire House Democrats overwhelmingly threw their support to a rival Democrat, Colin Van Ostern, in a preliminary caucus vote recently.

Now, Gardner is fighting for his survival. Lawmakers are expected to vote Dec. 5 on Gardner’s fate, a month after Democrats won control of both houses of the state Legislature.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102479&title=New%20Hampshire%20Secretary%20of%20State%20Bill%20Gardner%2C%20One%20of%20the%20Rare%20Democrats%20on%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20Voter%20%E2%80%9CFraud%E2%80%9D%20Commission%2C%20May%20Soon%20Be%20Out%2>
Posted in election law biz<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>



NY May Ban Fusion Candidacies<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102477>
Posted on November 26, 2018 7:16 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102477> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Newday reports.<https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/new-york-fusion-voting-1.23626129>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102477&title=NY%20May%20Ban%20Fusion%20Candidacies>
Posted in third parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=47>


“Georgia Lawsuit May Allow Rare Glimpse Into Its Elections”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102474>
Posted on November 26, 2018 7:13 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102474> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Who What Why:<https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/11/24/georgia-lawsuit-may-allow-rare-glimpse-into-its-elections/>

The big-ticket races in Georgia, which drew national attention, have been decided - but the battle over the controversial way the state runs its elections rages on. A lawsuit contesting<https://myemail.constantcontact.com/We-are-Contesting-Georgia-s-Lt--Governor-Election.html?soid=1109272168263&aid=tvSc-nps-7A> the outcome of the lieutenant governor’s race could provide a rare glimpse into the Peach State’s elections infrastructure and an opportunity to audit its non-transparent voting machines.

The lawsuit, filed by an election integrity group and three Georgia citizens Friday night, will attempt to prove that there were enough irregularities “as to place doubt in the result,” as state law requires for an election contest. At issue are unusual election results that the lawsuit says can only be explained by voting machine malfunctions. To prove that something is wrong, the plaintiffs will need to conduct detailed reviews of the internal memory and programming of DRE voting machines, a level of access that has never been allowed in Georgia.

At the heart of the suit is the reliability of the state’s electronic voting machines and an opportunity to peek under the hood of how former secretary of state and current governor-elect, Brian Kemp (R), ran the elections….

According to the lawsuit, “This is an unprecedented pattern of election results [that] lacks any reasonably plausible innocent explanation.”

The data analyzed by Michael C. Herron, a professor of government at Dartmouth College, shows that the anomalous undervote is limited to ballots cast on DRE machines. On mail-in paper ballots, votes for lieutenant governor failed to be recorded - because the vote was invalid, or there was an error in counting the vote, or a vote wasn’t cast for that race - less than one percent of the time. On DREs used on Election Day, that rate jumped to almost 7.5 percent, a larger jump than for any other race.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102474&title=%E2%80%9CGeorgia%20Lawsuit%20May%20Allow%20Rare%20Glimpse%20Into%20Its%20Elections%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>


“Why Are So Many Election Ballots Confusing?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102472>
Posted on November 26, 2018 7:10 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102472> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NPR’s All Things Considered reports.<https://www.npr.org/2018/11/24/670107455/why-are-so-many-election-ballots-confusing>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102472&title=%E2%80%9CWhy%20Are%20So%20Many%20Election%20Ballots%20Confusing%3F%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


Justice Stevens Tags Citizens United, Bush v. Gore as Two of Three “Grave Errors” of Supreme Court During His Time There<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102470>
Posted on November 26, 2018 7:07 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102470> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

In interview with Adam Liptak:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/us/politics/john-paul-stevens-memoir.html>

The court’s “second-biggest error,” Justice Stevens said, was the Citizens United campaign finance decision<https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html?module=inline>. “Money in politics - it’s hard to believe the extent of it,” he said.

The third-biggest mistake, he said, was Bush v. Gore<https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/20/us/bush-v-gore-a-special-report-election-case-a-test-and-a-trauma-for-justices.html?module=inline>, the 2000 decision that handed the presidency to George W. Bush. “It was really a disgrace,” he said.

(The other case Justice Stevens flagged was the Heller gun case).
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102470&title=Justice%20Stevens%20Tags%20Citizens%20United%2C%20Bush%20v.%20Gore%20as%20Two%20of%20Three%20%E2%80%9CGrave%20Errors%E2%80%9D%20of%20Supreme%20Court%20During%20His%20Time%20There>
Posted in Bush v. Gore reflections<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=5>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“N.Y. Democrats Vowed to Get Big Money Out of Politics. Will Big Money Interfere?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102468>
Posted on November 23, 2018 12:27 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102468> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/22/nyregion/campaign-finance-reform-new-york.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fnyregion&action=click&contentCollection=nyregion&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront>:

In the months before the Nov. 6 elections, New York’s Senate Democrats received $25,000 from a mysterious group of five donors, with names like 2332 7 Ave L.L.C., 207 Silver Lane L.L.C. and 228 W 132 L.L.C.

The donors shared one address, at 223 West 138th Street in Manhattan - home to a real estate management firm with properties across Harlem and the rest of the city. Two more donors from the same address gave $20,000 to another Democrat: Letitia James, who was just elected New York attorney general.

The donations were made possible by a loophole in New York’s campaign finance law that, for more than 20 years<https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/nyregion/bipartisan-group-sues-to-close-new-yorks-corporate-donation-loophole.html?module=inline>, has allowed corporations to create limited liability companies for the sole purpose of giving virtually unlimited amounts of money to candidates.

The law treats limited liability companies as people, allowing each to donate up to $65,100 to every statewide candidate per election cycle - far more than the $5,000 aggregate contribution limit for corporations. Firms can create multiple L.L.C.s, effectively erasing any maximum.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102468&title=%E2%80%9CN.Y.%20Democrats%20Vowed%20to%20Get%20Big%20Money%20Out%20of%20Politics.%20Will%20Big%20Money%20Interfere%3F%E2%80%9D>
Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


“Judicial Elections, Public Opinion, and Decisions on Lower‐Salience Issues”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102466>
Posted on November 23, 2018 9:11 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102466> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Brandice Canes-Wrone, Tom Clark and Amy Semet have written this article<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3279642> for the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. Here is the abstract:

Scholarship finds that in states with judicial elections, public opinion affects judges’ decisions on hot‐button campaign issues such as the death penalty or marijuana legalization. Yet the literature leaves open the question of how public opinion affects judicial decisions on less salient issues, which not only dominate the dockets of state supreme courts but also encompass areas of major legal and policy significance. We consider one such issue that infrequently emerges in judicial campaigns, environmental law. Specifically, we collect an original dataset of over 5,000 judicial votes on nearly 1,000 cases heard in 40 state supreme courts from 1990-2014. We find that for the dataset as a whole, there is not a significant effect of public opinion on judicial decisions in any of the major judicial selection systems. However, in the few states in which environmental issues have been the subject of campaign attack ads, we find evidence of such a relationship during the years following the ads. These results contribute to a growing literature that suggests elections can reduce judicial independence from public opinion.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102466&title=%E2%80%9CJudicial%20Elections%2C%20Public%20Opinion%2C%20and%20Decisions%20on%20Lower%E2%80%90Salience%20Issues%E2%80%9D>
Posted in judicial elections<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=19>


“Rob Richie Discusses Ranked Choice Voting & Election Reform”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102464>
Posted on November 23, 2018 9:06 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102464> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Watch<https://www.c-span.org/video/?454734-3/washington-journal-rob-richie-discusses-ranked-choice-voting-election-reform> at C-SPAN.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D102464&title=%E2%80%9CRob%20Richie%20Discusses%20Ranked%20Choice%20Voting%20%26%20Election%20Reform%E2%80%9D>
Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>


--
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/>
[signature_1918380728]


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20181126/4849c592/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2021 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20181126/4849c592/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 6809 bytes
Desc: image002.png
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20181126/4849c592/attachment-0001.png>