[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/26/18

[Rick Hasen]

“Ga. Election Officials Ask Judge To Suspend Absentee Ballot Order Over Signature Mismatches”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101758>
Posted on October 26, 2018 8:04 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101758> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WABE:<https://www.wabe.org/ga-election-officials-ask-judge-to-suspend-absentee-ballot-order-over-signature-mismatches/>

The Secretary of State’s office filed an emergency motion<https://coschedule.s3.amazonaws.com/88545/c160a202-9704-459c-a523-084cc4c5895f/Kemp%20Emergency%20Motion_102518.pdf> Thursday evening saying it wants U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May to suspend the order while it appeals to a higher court, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

May initially ordered absentee ballots with signatures that don’t match what’s on file to be accepted as provisional ballots and to give voters a chance to resolve signature issues.

On Friday morning, May ordered that plaintiffs must file a response to the emergency motion by noon Monday.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“A Black Senate Candidate Stumps in Mississippi, but His Party Holds Him Back”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101756>
Posted on October 26, 2018 8:01 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101756> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/us/politics/mike-espy-mississippi-black-senator.html>

“There are very few who would not consider me because I am black,” Mr. Espy, 64, said as he strolled through Indianola after lunch. “I believe we in many ways have crossed that hurdle. Many of them, if they don’t vote for me, it will be because of their idea of what I represent as a party person.”

That would be the Democratic Party, and yes, it is a problem. Mr. Espy would be Mississippi’s first black senator since Reconstruction, but the bigger obstacle may be a more modern one: convincing voters in an overwhelmingly Republican state to break partisan ranks and support a party that has gone all but extinct in major offices in this part of the South.

Overshadowed so far by Senate races sopping up money and scrutiny across the country, Mr. Espy’s quest is about to get a lot more of both. Under the unusual circumstances of the special election to fill the seat of the retired Senator Thad Cochran, two Republicans are likely to split the bulk of the state’s votes on Nov. 6. That potentially leaves Mr. Espy the lead vote-getter heading into a runoff on Nov. 27 that could tip the balance of the Senate — and will almost certainly consume the attention of the political world.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Black Voter Group Wins In Voter Registration Case In Memphis”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101754>
Posted on October 26, 2018 7:58 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101754> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

TPM:<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/black-voter-group-wins-in-voter-registration-case-in-memphis>

A state court judge in Tennessee ruled<https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2018/10/25/shelby-county-voter-registration-fixes-ordered-chancellor/1765176002/> Thursday that Shelby County, which contains Memphis, must let voters whose registrations were stalled due to incomplete information to vote with regular ballots on Election Day, once the deficiencies are corrected.

The ruling came in a case brought by<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/black-voter-group-goes-to-court-over-voter-registration-issue-in-memphis> the Tennessee Black Voter Project, which saw thousands of registrations forms it turned in deemed incomplete by the Shelby County Elections Commission.

The legal fight over the registration forms comes as Tennessee is the site of a close U.S. Senate race between former Gov.  Phil Bredesen (D) and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R). Memphis is home to a concentration of Tennessee’s African American vote.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“How the Georgia governor’s race could reshape the voting rights debate”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101752>
Posted on October 26, 2018 7:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101752> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Fix reports. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/22/how-georgia-governors-race-could-reshape-voting-rights-debate/?utm_term=.1c6d17adbfa7>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Ken Doyle: “Shadow Parties’ Dominate Campaign Spending in Midterms”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101750>
Posted on October 26, 2018 7:53 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101750> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ken Doyle<https://about.bgov.com/blog/shadow-parties-dominate/> for Bloomberg (I miss his daily Money & Politics report in my inbox):
“Shadow parties,” outside groups allied with Democratic and Republican leaders, are eclipsing traditional political parties, according to two new studies of campaign spending in the 2018 midterm elections.
The reason is simple: groups not formally tied to candidates can raise more money under current campaign finance rules.
The shadow parties rely almost exclusively on megadonors giving at least $100,000 each or on undisclosed donors, researchers found.
“Presumably, the party leaders raising the money know where it comes from,” said Ian Vandewalker, the author of one of the studies, which was released by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.
Super political action committees and other groups aligned with top Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate have become the predominant campaign money source in the current midterms, outraising the traditional party committees they’re assisting in three of four instances, the Brennan Center found<https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/rise-shadow-parties.>.

[https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iIyChnKQ1lHc/ifaeV4XZqhYk/v0/620x-1.png]
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


Teacher’s Manuals for Laycock & Hasen, Modern American Remedies (5th ed 2019) Now Available<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101748>
Posted on October 26, 2018 7:45 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101748> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Look for the manuals under “Professor Resources” on the following pages (password protected):

Laycock & Hasen, Modern American Remedies (5th edition 2019)<http://www.wklegaledu.com/Laycock-Remedies5>

Laycock & Hasen, Modern American Remedies (Concise 5th edition 2019)<http://www.wklegaledu.com/Laycock-RemediesConcise5>

You can find other supplemental materials there as well.
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Posted in Remedies<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=57>


“Texts to voters purportedly from Trump roil Kansas election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101746>
Posted on October 26, 2018 7:41 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101746> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://apnews.com/a0663a7c46ae4fd48eae2a7400766044?utm_medium=APCentralRegion&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter>

Kansas election officials are reviewing text messages claiming to be from President Donald Trump and telling residents that their early votes hadn’t been recorded, as Democratic leaders were quick Thursday to worry that they were part of efforts to “steal” a close governor’s race.

State Elections Director Bryan Caskey said the Kansas secretary of state’s office received 50 or 60 calls about the texts Wednesday, mostly from the northeastern part of the state. Caskey said the office is trying to determine whether the texts broke a law before determining what to do next.
One text says “Your absentee ballot is ready. Remember to vote for Pres. Trump’s allies.” A follow-up text says, “This is President Trump. Your early vote has NOT been RECORDED on Kansas’s roster.” It urges the voter to confirm his or her polling place.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“NC candidate and campaign manager accused of trying to intimidate voters”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101744>
Posted on October 26, 2018 7:38 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101744> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News & Observer:<https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article220605605.html?fbclid=IwAR0q8x-qhHCh3tWibVQDhzjoGY1lb8AZXty5ekCtGf5W-ylrVZdhbnh-MHM>

A voter said Rep. Chris Malone asked her whether she was preparing to vote twice while she waited at an early-voting site this week, in an attempt to intimidate her.

Another woman said she overheard a man connected to the Malone campaign ask much the same question of a voter on the first day of early voting last week. She did not know the man’s name but forwarded to the investigative news organization ProPublica a picture of Dennis Berwyn, Malone’s campaign manager, taken at the early-voting location that day.

The News & Observer learned about the accusations through the Electionland project, a collaboration of newsrooms around the country tracking voting problems.

Berwyn adamantly denied that he asked anyone if they were voting twice.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“Pritzker Breaks Campaign Finance Record, Annoys Illinois With $80 Million Of Ads”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101742>
Posted on October 25, 2018 3:53 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101742> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NPR reports.<https://www.npr.org/2018/10/25/660403482/pritzker-breaks-campaign-finance-record-annoys-illinois-with-80-million-of-ads>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


Read Secretary Kemp’s Request for an Emergency Stay in Georgia Signature Match Litigation; What Happens Next?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101739>
Posted on October 25, 2018 3:26 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101739> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

It is here.<https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/kemp-motion.pdf>

I expect the district court, which just issued its order, will deny the request for a stay. This is more of a formality before seeking relief in the 11th Circuit.

This could end up before the Supreme Court in a matter of days.

As to what the courts will do, this depends upon how courts balance the equities (and liberal and conservative judges may do so differently). On the one hand, people are potentially disenfranchised without a chance to challenge disenfranchisement based upon an election official comparing two signatures (maybe from decades apart) to see if they match.  On the other hand, this litigation is being brought late in the process, and the courts, under the Purcell Principle<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2545676>, have looked down upon late changes in voting rules by courts before the election.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“If I Win My District, I’ll Get Rid of It”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101736>
Posted on October 25, 2018 1:29 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101736> by Richard Pildes<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>

I’m often asked why it makes any difference whether election districts keep towns and counties together, or are reasonably compact.  This amusing op-ed<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/opinion/if-i-win-my-district-ill-get-rid-of-it.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=21&pgtype=sectionfront>, from the Democratic candidate running for a New York Assembly district that contains pieces of seven counties and three congressional districts, while running  200 miles from upstate New York to the Hudson Valley, provides some concrete answers:

How can anyone properly represent a district so incoherently drawn? It simply makes no sense geographically, economically or culturally; the people in the northern part scarcely speak the same dialect of English as those in the south, let alone face the same policy issues.

Take just one concern: water. The suburban areas of New Hartford, near Utica, have complex issues regarding storm water drainage and flooding, while decades of underinvestment in infrastructure has left the residents of the village of Ilion, in nearby Herkimer County, with brown municipal water flowing from their faucets. The town of Delhi and the surrounding areas in Delaware County, in the middle of the district, fret about the stifling economic effects of being ringed by New York City-owned watershed land, while in my town, one hour north, every household has its own well water and septic tank, and no municipal water services are available at all.

Drafting a districtwide water policy, or even a coherent articulation of our needs, would be nearly impossible. Similar regional complexities are to be found with any issue one might want to consider as a legislator tasked with representing this district. . . .

Counties are the natural unit of governance in rural upstate New York, and by slicing them up we weaken their ability to provide coherent stewardship. Consider the travails of the Soil and Water Department in Otsego County. In order to stitch together the resources needed for a countywide stream remediation plan, it must appeal to the good graces of four different Assembly members and a state senator.

Or consider the plight of the ironically named town of Neversink, already drowned once to create a water reservoir for New York City and now the only town from Sullivan County to be politically isolated into the 101st. Also problematic is the village of Ellenville with a large bilingual and minority population, whose current representative in Albany lives three and a half hours away by car in the suburbs of an entirely different urban area.

The consequences of districts being drawn like ours are more than theoretical. All across upstate New York, people of all political persuasions are ignored and underserved by a political system that feels dominated by the big city. Anything that adds to the frustration and confusion of voters reduces turnout and increases disillusionment with government in general. Incoherent districts drawn by our incumbents further fracture the political power of rural and small-town New Yorkers.

The contortions in this district were purportedly drawn for partisan reasons.  The Supreme Court has recognized constitutional limits when bizarrely shaped districts are drawn for racial reasons, but has not yet done so when they are drawn for partisan reasons (since the 1990s, I’ve argued<https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/ylj/vol106/iss8/5/> that bizarrely shaped districts drawn for either racial or partisan reasons should be unconstitutional).

Here’s what the district looks like, if I manage to cut and paste successfully:

[https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/2018/11/24/opinion-110th-locator/79d1092d1da1349bbd59d0196933e4e197da57ee/110-web-locator-Artboard_1.png]
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Free from federal oversight, 5 percent of Mississippi polling locations have closed since 2013”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101734>
Posted on October 25, 2018 12:40 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101734> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Mississippi Today reports.<https://mississippitoday.org/2018/10/24/free-from-federal-oversight-5-percent-of-mississippi-polling-locations-have-closed-since-2013/>


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Posted in Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


Florida Governor Rick Scott “restored [felon voting] rights to the lowest percentage of blacks, highest percentage of Republicans in 50 years”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101732>
Posted on October 25, 2018 12:37 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101732> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Palm Beach Post.<https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20181025/florida-felon-voting-rights-who-got-theirs-back-under-scott>
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Posted in felon voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>


Texas Secretary of State’s Office Issues Notice on Apparent Vote Flipping with Electronic Voting Machines<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101730>
Posted on October 25, 2018 12:35 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101730> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Advisory:<https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/laws/advisory2018-35.shtml>

We have heard from a number of people voting on Hart eSlate machines that when they voted straight ticket, it appeared to them that the machine had changed one or more of their selections to a candidate from a different party. This can be caused by the voter taking keyboard actions before a page has fully appeared on the eSlate, thereby de-selecting the pre-filled selection of that party’s candidate….
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“How ActBlue is trying to turn small donations into a blue wave”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101728>
Posted on October 25, 2018 11:53 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101728> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CPI:<https://www.publicintegrity.org/2018/10/25/22367/how-actblue-trying-turn-small-donations-blue-wave>

ActBlue, a nonprofit whose online fundraising tools have been used to varying degrees by nearly every Democrat running for Congress, says it has raised more than $2.9 billion<https://secure.actblue.com/> for Democrats and progressive organizations since its founding in 2004. September was the biggest month<https://blog.actblue.com/2018/10/01/q3-2018-biggest-quarter-ever/> in its history.

An analysis of campaign finance data<https://github.com/PublicI/actblue-analysis> by the Center for Public Integrity<https://www.publicintegrity.org/> and FiveThirtyEight<https://www.fivethirtyeight.com/> shows that ActBlue is handling more political contributions than ever before. Between January 2017 and Sept. 30, 2018 — the most recent date for which Federal Election Commission data is available — nearly $564 million, or about 55 percent of all contributions from individual donors to Democratic congressional candidates, passed through the platform, compared to about 19 percent at this point in the 2014 election.
Democratic congressional candidates have collectively raised more than three times as much in small-dollar contributions (amounting to $200 or less<https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/keeping-records/records-receipts/>) as they had at this point in 2014 — jumping from about $81 million to $276 million. Republicans haven’t matched that increase, and ActBlue is a big reason why.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


Federal Court Issues Order in Georgia Signature Match Case Giving Voters a Chance to Prove Identity if a Clerk Says The Signature Does Not Match the One on File<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101726>
Posted on October 25, 2018 11:46 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101726> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

A good result.<https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.gand.256502/gov.uscourts.gand.256502.32.0_1.pdf>
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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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