[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/19/18
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Fri Oct 19 07:37:58 PDT 2018
Texas: “Attorneys accuse AG Paxton of seeking voter fraud charges to suppress minority vote”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101629>
Posted on October 19, 2018 7:34 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101629> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Fort Worth Star Telegram:<https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/election/article220251905.html>
Recent charges alleging that four women are part of an organized voter fraud ring<https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article219920740.html> on the city’s north side — announced just weeks before the Nov. 6 midterm election<https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/election/article218139715.html> — are political moves geared to diminish minority voting in one of the state’s reddest counties, two attorneys allege.
“They are political footballs being kicked back and forth by people who have a vested interested in suppressing minority vote,” said Greg Westfall, who, along with Frank Sellers, is representing one of the women, Leticia Sanchez Tepichin. “They are mothers and grandmothers. They are active in the community.
“They are being used by people who want to justify voter ID,” he said. “At the end of the day, there’s not going to be any fraud in this deal.”
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
“Voting Rights on Life Support in the Age of Trump”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101627>
Posted on October 19, 2018 7:08 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101627> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Read Andrew Cohen<https://washingtonspectator.org/voting-rights-on-life-support-in-the-age-of-trump/> at the Washington Spectator.
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
Pa. Supreme Court Considering Whether Law Barring Fusion Candidacies Violates the State Constitution<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101625>
Posted on October 18, 2018 4:26 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101625> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Missed this Francis Fox Piven/Miles Rapoport piece from last month<https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligencer/2018/09/21/pennsylvanias-potential-gift-to-american-democracy/>:
If the court should rule for the plaintiffs, it would make a stunning gift to American democracy at a time when such is truly needed. It would provide an easy exit from dysfunctional partisan polarization for those prepared to take it. It would both increase voter turnout, and ensure more precise information on real voter preferences. And it would show more respect for minority political views, and do so in a constructive way. It does all of this by returning to a system once legal in Pennsylvania that allows a way out of the Hobson’s choice that our single-member district, winner-take-all electoral system now forces on voters and minor parties they support: to “waste” their votes on candidates with no serious chance of winning, or to “spoil” elections by draining enough votes from their second choice to give victory to their opponents.
Working Families Party & Rabb v. Commonwealth concerns current Pennsylvania law on political party “fusion” or “cross-nomination”—the nomination of a candidate by more than one party, with votes cast on any nominating party’s ballot line combined in that candidate’s total against rivals. Such fusion once thrived in Pennsylvania, and all the rest of the United States. Particularly after the Civil War, it was used by major and minor parties, up and down the ballot, throughout the country. It helped underwrite a lively mass democratic politics that astonished observers, producing voter turnout levels virtually unique in the world, and far greater than today’s.
Back in the 1990s, when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected such an argument under the U.S. Constitution in the Timmons case, I wrote: Entrenching the Duopoly: Why the Supreme Court Should Not Allow the States to Protect the Democrats and Republicans from Political Competition<https://www.jstor.org/stable/3109745?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents>, 1997 SUPREME COURT REVIEW 331.
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Posted in third parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=47>
Nice TPM Profile of Anita Earls, Voting Rights Lawyer Running for NC Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101623>
Posted on October 18, 2018 4:22 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101623> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Worth a read. <https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/the-north-carolina-gop-is-trying-every-trick-to-keep-a-supreme-court-seat>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Three secretaries of state are refereeing the election while running in the field”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101621>
Posted on October 18, 2018 3:41 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101621> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
McClatchy reports.<https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/midterms/article220228190.html>
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
“Fake intern who recorded McCaskill campaign had access to voter info, campaign says”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101619>
Posted on October 18, 2018 3:33 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101619> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
KC Star:<https://www.kansascity.com/latest-news/article220265710.html>
A conservative activist with Project Veritas posed as an intern with U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s campaign and had access to voter information, according to a stack of documents McCaskill’s lawyer delivered to Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office Friday.
Project Veritas, a conservative activist group run by James O’Keefe, released surreptitiously-recorded videos of McCaskil<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article220193095.html>l and her campaign this week as part of series of undercover videos meant to damage Democratic candidates ahead of next month’s mid-term election. McCaskill’s re-election fight with Hawley could decide control of the U.S. Senate.
An employee of Project Veritas approached McCaskill’s campaign in May and expressed an interest in volunteering and interning on the campaign, according to an affidavit from McCaskill’s Columbia field director Luke Tonant.
As an intern, the Project Veritas employee, who Tonant knew as “Adam Thomson,” had access to the campaign’s voter information database for a total of 20 hours between May and July, according to the affidavit.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
“Florida bends voting rules in counties pummeled by Hurricane Michael”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101617>
Posted on October 18, 2018 3:26 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101617> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Good news:<https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-ne-ap-hurricane-michael-florida-voting-1018-story.html>
Florida eased restrictions Thursday on vote-by-mail ballots in eight counties ravaged last week by Hurricane Michael, while also giving elections supervisors more time to conduct early voting.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner, the state’s top election official, said the changes included in an executive order by Gov. Rick Scott were requested by local supervisors and are intended to help displaced voters in Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, Liberty, and Washington counties.
“With the general election less than three weeks away, this unprecedented storm has impacted the normal operations of administering an election in counties that were hit hardest,” Detzner’s office said in a news release.
The changes do not include allowing voters to cast ballots by fax or email.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
“Kavanaugh, Court Could Bury Partisan Gerrymandering Challenges”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101615>
Posted on October 18, 2018 3:20 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101615> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Kimberly Robinson<https://biglawbusiness.com/kavanaugh-court-could-bury-partisan-gerrymandering-challenges/> for Bloomberg Law.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“The Elections Performance Index: Past, Present, and Future”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101613>
Posted on October 18, 2018 2:42 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101613> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Charles Stewart has posted this draft<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3249830> on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This paper presents an intellectual history of the Elections Performance Index (EPI), originally produced by the Pew Charitable Trusts, now produced by the MIT Election Data and Science Lab. The intellectual foundation of the EPI is rooted in two major sources, Heather Gerken’s “Democracy Index” and the work of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project. This paper discusses and six data principles that helped to guide decisions about including particular indicators. It examines changes in EPI index values from 2008 to 2016 to interpret ways in which elections have evolved over the past decade. It concludes by discussing the necessity to revisit some of the EPI’s indicators, in light of changes to voting models and the need to better reflect issues of security and integrity.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
Federal Court Appoints UCI Prof. Bernie Grofman to Redraw Virginia House Districts<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101611>
Posted on October 18, 2018 2:29 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101611> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
View image on Twitter<https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1053031293544476672/photo/1>
[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1053031293544476672/photo/1>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/757344014/mail_bigger.jpeg]<https://twitter.com/mcpli>
<https://twitter.com/mcpli>
Michael Li<https://twitter.com/mcpli>
✔@mcpli<https://twitter.com/mcpli>
<https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1053031293544476672>
Federal court appoints UC Irvine Prof Bernie Grofman as special master to assist court in redrawing Virginia house of delegates map. Order here: https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legal-work/2018-10-18-276-Order%20Appointing%20Special%20Master.pdf …<https://t.co/UChOmzvJlf> #fairmaps<https://twitter.com/hashtag/fairmaps?src=hash> 1/
2:13 PM - Oct 18, 2018<https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1053031293544476672>
· <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1053031293544476672>
9<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1053031293544476672>
· <https://twitter.com/mcpli>
See Michael Li's other Tweets<https://twitter.com/mcpli>
Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>
Video on Early Voting from Ga. SOS Kemp’s Office Shows Black Female Denied Regular Ballot Because of Voter ID But White Male Allowed Regular Ballot<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101608>
Posted on October 18, 2018 9:57 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101608> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Newsweek<https://www.newsweek.com/georgia-secretary-state-black-girl-denied-vote-1176673>:
A video aimed at promoting early voting released by Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office two years ago features children showing how to vote early and what documents are required. The video, produced in six different languages and still linked<http://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/voter_registration_videos> on the secretary of state’s website, shows a white boy arriving at his voting location, presenting his photo I.D. and successfully voting. The black girl who shows up to vote does not have the proper form of I.D. and is turned away from the poll.
The context of what occurs in the video, a white male being able to vote while a black female is turned away, would perhaps be insignificant if it weren’t for the state placing more than 50,000 voters’ registrations, most of whom are black, on hold.
(Via Kira Lerner<https://twitter.com/kira_lerner/status/1052965536706043910>)
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Democracy is on the Ballot”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101606>
Posted on October 18, 2018 9:49 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101606> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Eliza Newlin Carney<http://prospect.org/article/democracy-on-ballot> for TAP.
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Posted in direct democracy<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=62>
“Kris Kobach Is Desperate To Block The Release Of His Damaging Depo Video”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101604>
Posted on October 18, 2018 9:23 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101604> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
TPM reports. <https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/kobach-is-fighting-hard-to-block-the-release-of-his-damaging-depo-video>
[Corrected link.]
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>
“Cost of 2018 election to surpass $5 billion, CRP projects”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101602>
Posted on October 18, 2018 9:21 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101602> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Open Secrets:<https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/10/cost-of-2018-election/>
This year’s midterm election cycle is slated to become the first and only member of the $5 billion club.
The Center for Responsive Politics projects that more than $5 billion will be spent during the 2018 election, making it by far the costliest congressional election cycle in U.S. history.
“We expected to see the numbers climb, as they typically do, but the astonishing spike in campaign donations is a solid indicator of the intensity driving this year’s campaigns,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics.
The 2016 election was the most expensive<https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/cost.php?display=T&infl=N> congressional election, with just over $4 billion spent for House and Senate candidates in total. Only two congressional election cycles have surpassed the $4 billion mark — 2016 and 2010 — when adjusted for inflation.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
Local South Carolina Candidate Seeks Injunction to Bar Allegedly False Statements on Facebook by Fake Democratic Group Supposedly Supporting Him<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101599>
Posted on October 18, 2018 8:40 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101599> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
This is very interesting<https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/SCLawsuit.pdf>, though I don’t give it much chance (for example, it doesn’t cite to a single law that the allegedly false speech violates).
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
--
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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