[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/28/18

Tue Nov 27 20:56:09 PST 2018

“‘Large-Scale Reforms’ of Georgia Elections Sought in Federal Lawsuit”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102507>
Posted on November 27, 2018 5:28 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102507> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Richard Fausset reports<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/us/georgia-elections-federal-lawsuit.html> for the NYT.

My take on the lawsuit is over at Slate.<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/stacey-abrams-georgia-voting-rights-lawsuit.html>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

In Connection with Controversy Over Tom Farr Nomination to District Court, WaPo Obtains 1991 DOJ Memo on Jesse Helms “Ballot Security” Programs Aimed at Discouraging Minority Turnout<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102504>
Posted on November 27, 2018 4:33 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102504> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gillum-abrams-speak-out-against-controversial-judicial-nominee-from-north-carolina/2018/11/27/574e56fe-f250-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html?utm_term=.baa1b94b0a92>

Farr worked on the 1990 campaign of Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), which came under scrutiny for distributing postcards that the Justice Department later said were sent to intimidate black voters from heading to the polls.

The postcard issue has become one factor in the unusually bitter nomination fight. In response to questions from Democrats, Farr has denied any role in drafting the postcards and said he did not know about it until after the mailers were sent, saying he was “appalled” when he found out about them.

A 1991 Justice Department document newly obtained by The Washington Post sheds some light on Helms’s campaign and the state Republican Party’s broader “ballot security” program, of which the postcards were one component. Farr served as a lead lawyer for Helms.

The DOJ document, called a justification memo, elaborates on a meeting disclosed by Farr in a letter to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) this year. In that five-page letter, Farr said he participated in a “ballot security” meeting of the Helms campaign in October 1990 in which he said there was no need to do a card mailing because returned cards could no longer be used to challenge voter legitimacy.

The DOJ document obtained by The Post outlined the basis for the DOJ complaint against the Helms campaign and the North Carolina Republican Party for the more than 120,000 postcards sent primarily to black voters that officials said were an attempt to dissuade them from voting.

At the meeting, Farr told others that there was a limited number of ballot security initiatives that the groups could undertake at that point in the race, according to the memo. He also said because the current Republican governor could tap a majority of county election officials statewide, the need for a ballot security program that year was lessened because “they would ensure a fair election process for Republican candidates.”

During the meeting, participants also reviewed the Helms campaign’s 1984 ballot security effort Farr had coordinated “with an eye toward the activities that should be undertaken in 1990,” the DOJ wrote in the memo. The document did not say directly whether the controversial postcards were discussed as part of that effort, and Farr has repeatedly denied any prior knowledge of those mailers.
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Posted in Department of Justice<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>

With Suggestion of Chicanery, Something Strange Happening in Delay of Certification of North Carolina Congressional Race [Corrected Title]<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102502>
Posted on November 27, 2018 4:26 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102502> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
View image on Twitter<https://twitter.com/BowTiePolitics/status/1067568991575687168/photo/1>
[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/BowTiePolitics/status/1067568991575687168/photo/1>
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Michael Bitzer at BowTiePolitics<https://twitter.com/BowTiePolitics>

<https://twitter.com/BowTiePolitics/status/1067568991575687168>

This is some major news breaking in #ncpol<https://twitter.com/hashtag/ncpol?src=hash> tonight:

Via @jimmorrill<https://twitter.com/jimmorrill>: NC elections board refuses to certify 9th Congressional District race, leaving one of the closest elections in limbo https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article222263905.html …<https://t.co/1yhYHJMeeN>
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4:00 PM - Nov 27, 2018<https://twitter.com/BowTiePolitics/status/1067568991575687168>
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119 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/BowTiePolitics/status/1067568991575687168>

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

“Stacey Abrams’ New Lawsuit Against Georgia’s Broken Voting System Is Incredibly Smart”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102500>
Posted on November 27, 2018 3:16 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102500> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I have written this piece<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/stacey-abrams-georgia-voting-rights-lawsuit.html> for Slate. It begins:

Defeated Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and her allies are taking on Georgia’s shoddy election system in the right way: through a big and bold lawsuit<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cz1etDP8yKDyo05r1SeQPT9UD_-B6Mmt/view>. At the very least, the lawsuit will shine the light of day on how Georgia makes it much harder than many other states to register and successfully cast a ballot. If the lawsuit achieves its more ambitious aims, a court could put Georgia’s voting system back under federal supervision for up to 10 years.

Rather than how a typical voting lawsuit works with a singular focus on a problematic aspect of Georgia’s electoral process—like overexuberant voter purges or its shoddy voting machinery<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102189>—the lawsuit makes an argument that the cumulative effect of Georgia’s system is to deny voters, especially voters of color, the opportunity to easily cast a ballot which will be fairly and accurately counted.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

Read the Fair Fight Action Complaint Challenging Georgia’s Election Process<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102498>
Posted on November 27, 2018 11:18 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102498> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here.<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cz1etDP8yKDyo05r1SeQPT9UD_-B6Mmt/view>

More from me later on this.
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

Ninth Circuit, on 2-1 Vote, Rejects Limits on Non-Resident Contributions to Alaska Elections, Upholds Other Alaska Campaign Finance Limits<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102496>
Posted on November 27, 2018 11:17 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102496> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can find the opinion in Thompson v. Hebdon at this link<http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/11/27/17-35019.pdf>.

The court majority (Callahan, Bea) held that the part of the Alaska law limiting out-of-state residents from contributing more than $3,000 per year to Alaska elections violated the First Amendment. I expected such a holding under Supreme Court precedent, though the Court has never addressed the issue. Chief Judge Thomas dissented on this question, analogizing the ban to the foreign spending ban upheld in Bluman v. FEC. I wonder if the Chief will seek to take this case en banc to the Supreme Court.

Speaking of en banc, there is another notable aspect of this case. The court unanimously upholds Alaska’s $500 individual contribution limit and two other contribution limits relying upon existing Ninth Circuit authority. There was a huge fight at the Ninth Circuit a few months ago over whether that Ninth Circuit authority should be overturned (so as to make it easier to strike down campaign finance laws) in light of recent Supreme Court developments. The Ninth Circuit refused to take the case en banc, and both Judge Callahan and Judge Bea dissented from the denial of en banc rehearing.<http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/05/02/16-35424.pdf>

We are currently waiting to see if the Supreme Court takes<https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/18-149.html> that earlier Ninth Circuit case.

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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

--
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>
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http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>
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