[EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/27/18
John Shockley
shockley1894 at gmail.com
Sun Oct 28 19:39:21 PDT 2018
Dear RuthAlice:
I don't know you, but this is a wonderful response. Thanks! I really agree
with your points! I was horrified to see that Lou Dobbs of FOX News had on
a man who stated that the Guatemalan government had confirmed that George
Soros was paying people in the caravan to come into the USA! Wow! I wish
the synagogue could sue FOX News (and any others who have said the same
thing) for driving the man to mass murder. Millions probably believe that.
The lies are just overwhelming.
Yours
John Shockley
Department of Political Science, Retired
Augsburg College
Minneapolis, MN
On Sun, Oct 28, 2018 at 1:49 PM RuthAlice Anderson <
ruthalice.anderson at icloud.com> wrote:
> Thank you, Rick.
>
> There are no perfect candidates and we all treat them sort of like a
> cafeteria offering. I’ll take the health care reform and environmental
> protection, and ignore the religiosity of this candidate and support the
> fiscal responsibility and support for civil rights of that candidate even
> though he sucks on taxation. We pick what we like, ignore what we don’t,
> but if the candidate is a hate-monger, there is no pretending that is not
> being served up along with the policy. If you buy the judges and the tax
> cuts, you take the hate and incitement of violence. Those aren’t policy
> proposals you can regret, they are fundamental elements of character that
> you can’t leave on the serving table.
>
> The man who murdered 11 people at Tree of Life was likely a danger for a
> long time, but the match that set him off was the caravan conspiracy
> promoted all over FOX News and among the right, even by elected political
> leaders. It used to be that extreme fringe conspiracies stayed on the
> fringe, but when a party decides its road to victory is fear and stoking
> racism, then politicians who should know better bring the fringe into the
> center, so we have Rep. Matt Gaetz spreading a lie, Trump repeating the
> lie, and even after the mass murder, Fox continuing to broadcast the lie.
> When Republicans run ads listing three Jewish donors to Democrats and
> accusing them of any and all evils, they own the anti-Semitic attacks even
> when the killer complains that Trump is not anti-Semitic enough.
>
> Sen. McConnell has defined civility as acquiescence. Republicans have
> declared nonviolent civil disobedience and protest as “mobs” so yes, the
> time for civility is over - when they define civility as only their voices
> get heard. Anyone who equate that comment with Trump praising a reporter
> being body slammed and telling people to punch someone, offering to pay
> their legal bills, and congratulating the people who beat a homeless man on
> their enthusiasm is dishonest.
>
>
> RuthAlice Anderson
>
> To schedule a house party for JoAnn Hardesty, call me at 503-475-8865
>
> To like her campaign on Facebook, click here:
> https://www.facebook.com/joannforportland
>
> To volunteer or donate, visit her site at
> https://joannforportland.com/
>
>
>
>
> On Oct 27, 2018, at 2:04 PM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:
>
> Domestic Terrorism, President Trump, and the 2018 U.S. Midterm Elections
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101782>
> Posted on October 27, 2018 1:54 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101782>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> I am heartbroken for the victims of today’s domestic terrorist attack at
> the Tree of Life synagogue
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/us/active-shooter-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting.html> in
> Pittsburgh which has left 11 people dead. These people were praying and
> celebrating a recent birth with a bris. The killer apparently yelled “All
> Jews must die”
> <https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/10/27/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-suspect-identified/> as
> he opened fire.
> This comes just a few days after two African-American patrons of a Kroger
> store were senselessly killed in Louisville Kentucky in another racist
> domestic terrorist
> <https://www.wave3.com/2018/10/25/kroger-shooting-accused-killer-held-m-bond/> incident
> after the shooter could not get into a predominantly African-American
> Baptist church. The killer at one point explained that “whites don’t kill
> whites.”
> And of course these incidents come the same week as a man apparently
> obsessed with President Trump sent pipe bombs
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/technology/cesar-sayoc-facebook-twitter.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage> to
> those who have been frequent targets of the President’s inflammatory
> rhetoric, including former Presidents Obama and Clinton, Secretary Hillary
> Clinton, Sen. Kamala Harris, Rep. Maxine Waters, CNN, George Soros, and
> others. Fortunately, at least so far the bombs that have turned up in the
> mail have not exploded.
> Ordinarily, the acts of a deranged individual who commits political
> violence should not be attributed to the elected official they support or
> who inspires them. Think, for example, of the shooter of Rep Steve Scalise
> <https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/14/homepage2/james-hodgkinson-profile/index.html> at
> the congressional baseball game who was a Bernie Sanders supporter.
> But things with President Trump are different. He has refused to condemn
> anti-semitism and racism; he has encouraged chants of “lock her up” against
> his political opponent Hillary Clinton and against others; he has appeared
> with, and promoted the views of, those who blame George Soros and the Jews
> for immigration problems; he calls his political adversaries by demeaning
> names, especially African-American women opponents such as Rep. Waters. He
> has done these things even as this violence grows. He praised the body
> slamming of a journalist by Rep. Gianforte. He has shown no interest in
> bringing the nation together, suggesting that rather than “toning it down”
> he could “really tone it up.”
> <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/i-could-really-tone-it-up-trump-shows-little-interest-in-uniting-the-nation-during-crises/2018/10/26/6a859c38-d891-11e8-a10f-b51546b10756_story.html?utm_term=.e506260dc49c>
> He has pursued a political strategy that is aimed at inflaming his base to
> try to win the election. He has even complained
> <https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/media-covering-bombs-halt-gop-momentum-midterms-trump-says> about
> how the pipe bombs could hurt Republican election momentum.
> And he has brought many Republicans along with him, such as Kevin
> McCarthy, soon to be leader of Republicans in the House of Representatives.
> McCarthy, in a now-deleted tweet,
> <https://twitter.com/JJohnsonLaw/status/1056243096369987584> accused
> “Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg” of “trying to BUY this election.” Such
> anti-Semitic tropes have moved from the fringe right wing to the center of
> the Republican party.
>
> At the beginning of the Trump presidency, I had hopes that people like
> Speaker of the House Paul Ryan would have courage to speak out about these
> things, and actually take action to punish Trump for not strongly
> condemning the racism and violence Trump has encouraged. It hasn’t
> happened. There is the barest of hand-wringing by people like Senator Sasse
> and Senator Flake, and no consequences for Trump. Republicans in the Senate
> are fine to put up with the racism and inflammation toward violence if they
> get to pack the federal judiciary with conservative appointees.
>
> There is reason to believe that if Republicans lose the House, Trump will
> only turn up the rhetoric, perhaps attacking the legitimacy of the election
> results, and trying to rile up his base more in an effort to preserve his
> presidency and maximize his chances for reelection. As ugly as things have
> gotten, they stand to get uglier.
>
> It is time for people across the aisle to stand up to racism. So far
> people like Paul Ryan have been cowards. Maybe they will have more
> “courage” if it seems that Trump’s appeal to racism will cost the party its
> lock on power. But I would not have count on it. And in the meantime,
> increased political violence and domestic terrorism seems not only
> possible, but unfortunately likely.
>
> May the memory of this weeks’ victims be a blessing, and may their deaths
> not be in vain.
>
>
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101782&title=Domestic%20Terrorism%2C%20President%20Trump%2C%20and%20the%202018%20U.S.%20Midterm%20Elections>
> Posted in social media and social protests
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>
>
>
> Revelations from John Gore Deposition: “Jeff Sessions Told DOJ Not To
> Discuss Citizenship Question Alternatives”
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101780>
> Posted on October 27, 2018 1:13 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101780>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> Hansi Lo Wang
> <https://www.npr.org/2018/10/27/661270003/jeff-sessions-told-doj-not-to-discuss-citizenship-question-alternatives> for
> NPR:
> *In a newly-released court filing
> <https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5022451-2018-10-26-Pretrial-Dckt-410-0>in
> preparation for the first trial
> <https://www.npr.org/2018/09/14/648016277/census-citizenship-question-trial-could-start-day-before-midterm-elections> of
> the citizenship question lawsuits, the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote that
> John Gore testified
> <https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5022451-2018-10-26-Pretrial-Dckt-410-0#document/p12/a463373> out
> of court Friday that Sessions “personally made the decision to direct DOJ
> not to even meet with the Census Bureau to discuss alternative approaches.”*
>
> *The attorneys cite Gore’s testimony to back up their claims that the
> decision to add the citizenship question was a misuse of the commerce
> secretary’s authority over the census and intended to discriminate against
> immigrant communities of color….*
>
> *For decades, the federal government has relied on citizenship information
> to make sure the voting power of racial and language minorities is not
> diluted. Since the Voting Rights Act was enacted in 1965, the Justice
> Department has enforced the law’s protections against discrimination by
> using estimates of U.S. citizens from a Census Bureau survey now known as
> the American Community Survey. About one in 38 households in the U.S. are
> required by law to complete that survey every year.*
> *In its December 2017 letter to the Census Bureau
> <https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=4500011-1-18-Cv-02921-Administrative-Record#document/p675/a440934>,
> however, the Justice Department said that collecting citizenship data from
> every household through the once-a-decade census would be “more
> appropriate” to use for enforcing Voting Rights Act and redistricting.*
>
> *Still, Gore does not seem sure if the data collected from the new
> citizenship question would be more accurate.*
> *According to the plaintiffs’ filing
> <https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5022451-2018-10-26-Pretrial-Dckt-410-0#document/p37/a463374>,
> Gore testified Friday that “he does not even know if citizenship data based
> on responses to a citizenship question on the census will have smaller or
> larger margins of error, or will be any more precise, than the existing
> citizenship data on which DOJ currently relies.”*
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101780&title=Revelations%20from%20John%20Gore%20Deposition%3A%20%E2%80%9CJeff%20Sessions%20Told%20DOJ%20Not%20To%20Discuss%20Citizenship%20Question%20Alternatives%E2%80%9D>
> Posted in Department of Justice <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>
>
>
> I Talked with Dahlia Lithwick for Slate’s Amicus Podcast About the State
> of Voting Rights in the US <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101778>
> Posted on October 27, 2018 1:10 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101778>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> Listen:
> <https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/whats-coming-down-the-docket-at-scotus-and-why-the-midterms-may-be-neither-free-nor-fair.html>
> *Dahlia Lithwick talks with Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern about what to
> look out for this term, and with Rick Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/>,
> professor of law and political science at the University of California,
> Irvine, about how free and fair the midterm elections will be in light of
> recent Supreme Court rulings on voting rights.*
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101778&title=I%20Talked%20with%20Dahlia%20Lithwick%20for%20Slate%E2%80%99s%20Amicus%20Podcast%20About%20the%20State%20of%20Voting%20Rights%20in%20the%20US>
> Posted in The Voting Wars <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
>
>
> Orange County, California: “They Want To Register Voters In Jail. The
> Sheriff Won’t Let Them Inside To Do It.”
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101776>
> Posted on October 27, 2018 1:08 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101776>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> HuffPo:
> <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/register-to-vote-southern-california-orange-county_us_5bd22882e4b0a8f17ef5c9e2>
> *In California, people with a felony conviction can vote
> <https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting-resources/voting-california/who-can-vote-california/voting-rights-californians/> as
> long as they aren’t currently incarcerated in state or federal prison, on
> parole, or in county jail for a parole violation. Otherwise-eligible jail
> inmates are permitted to vote by mail.*
> *Torres is one of the roughly 6,000 likely eligible voters who are
> detained in the Orange County jail at any given time that the ACLU of
> Southern California is trying to reach through a program it calls Unlock
> The Vote <https://www.aclusocal.org/en/unlockthevote>. They face a big
> obstacle: The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, currently led by Sandra
> Hutchens, won’t let them set foot inside the jail to talk about voting.
> Instead they must wait outside, across the street, where they approach
> inmates as they’re released and ask them to register.*
>
> *It’s a mission that, at times, can seem quixotic. Around 30 inmates were
> released that Friday; the ACLU registered only four. But even if a fraction
> of those 6,000 current or since-released inmates vote in November, it could
> make a big difference….*
> *It doesn’t have to be this hard to register people in jail. Just north of
> Orange County, the ACLU has been allowed inside the Los Angeles County jail
> to register inmates. They estimate they’ve registered about 4,000 people
> there. Efforts in jails in Chicago
> <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cook-county-jail-voter-registration_us_5b6203ece4b0fd5c73d5c099> and New
> York
> <http://gothamist.com/2018/08/31/rikers_voter_registration_drive_wor.php>,
> among other places, have also added new voters to the rolls.*
>
> *Those numbers add up. There are 700,000 people detained in jails across
> the country who are likely eligible to vote, but don’t know they can.
> Forty-eight states strip people of their voting rights after they’re
> convicted of a felony. But people can still vote while they’re awaiting
> trial in jail or if they’re serving time for a misdemeanor.*
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101776&title=Orange%20County%2C%20California%3A%20%E2%80%9CThey%20Want%20To%20Register%20Voters%20In%20Jail.%20The%20Sheriff%20Won%E2%80%99t%20Let%20Them%20Inside%20To%20Do%20It.%E2%80%9D>
> Posted in felon voting <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>
>
>
> “Texas Civil Rights Project asks Secretary of State to take action on
> voting machines” <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101774>
> Posted on October 26, 2018 6:46 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101774>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> Release:
> <https://texascivilrightsproject.org/release-texas-civil-rights-project-asks-secretary-of-state-to-take-action-on-voting-machines/>
> *Tonight, the Texas Civil Rights Project (“TCRP”) sent a letter
> <https://texascivilrightsproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/TCRP-Letter-to-SOS-10.26.18.pdf> to
> the Secretary of State asking that his office take immediate action to
> inform Texans regarding the straight-ticket voting issues on the Hart
> eSlate voting machines. The letter asks the Secretary to:*
> *1. **Devise a system to more proactively inform voters at polling
> places about this potential problem.*
> *2. **Substantially increase outreach efforts across the state to
> communicate more clearly to the public the reason some voters are facing
> this issue; the need for voters to check their ballot choices before
> submitting their ballot; and that voters should immediately ask for help
> from a poll worker if they encounter any issue.*
>
> *TCRP initially heard of this issue after voters contacted the
> non-partisan election protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE. So far, TCRP has
> received reports from voters in six counties (Harris, Montgomery, Fort
> Bend, Travis, Tarrant, and McLennan) who either had this happen to them, or
> were concerned that it may have happened to them.*
>
> *At a minimum, 5.1 million Texas voters in six of the largest counties in
> Texas that use Hart eSlate voting machines may be affected by this issue.*
>
>
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101774&title=%E2%80%9CTexas%20Civil%20Rights%20Project%20asks%20Secretary%20of%20State%20to%20take%20action%20on%20voting%20machines%E2%80%9D>
> Posted in election administration <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting
> technology <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>
>
>
> Postcard Advises Arizona Democrats to Vote on Wrong Election Day
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101772>
> Posted on October 26, 2018 2:52 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101772>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> <image002.jpg> <https://twitter.com/RecorderFontes>
> <https://twitter.com/RecorderFontes>
> *Adrian Fontes at RecorderFontes <https://twitter.com/RecorderFontes>*
>
> · 23h <https://twitter.com/RecorderFontes/status/1055937016049762304>
> <https://twitter.com/RecorderFontes/status/1055937016049762304>
>
> The Elections Department is advising voters to rely solely on official
> sources for information on the 2018 General Election. Some voters have
> notified us of receiving post cards like this one showing an incorrect date
> for the upcoming election:
> <image003.jpg>
> <https://twitter.com/RecorderFontes/status/1055937016049762304/photo/1>
> <image004.jpg> <https://twitter.com/AZs_Politics>
> <https://twitter.com/AZs_Politics>
> *Arizona's Politics at AZs_Politics <https://twitter.com/AZs_Politics>*
>
> cc: @rickhasen <https://twitter.com/rickhasen>
> 2:48 PM - Oct 26, 2018
> <https://twitter.com/AZs_Politics/status/1055939372355215360>
>
> · <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1055939372355215360>
>
> 4 <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1055939372355215360>
>
> · <https://twitter.com/AZs_Politics>
>
> See Arizona's Politics's other Tweets <https://twitter.com/AZs_Politics>
> Twitter Ads info and privacy
> <https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101772&title=Postcard%20Advises%20Arizona%20Democrats%20to%20Vote%20on%20Wrong%20Election%20Day>
> Posted in chicanery <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
>
>
> “Reports of Voter Intimidation at Polling Places in Texas”
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101770>
> Posted on October 26, 2018 2:33 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101770>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> ProPublica reports.
> <https://www.propublica.org/article/reports-of-voter-intimidation-at-polling-places-in-texas>
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101770&title=%E2%80%9CReports%20of%20Voter%20Intimidation%20at%20Polling%20Places%20in%20Texas%E2%80%9D>
> Posted in Uncategorized <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
>
>
> District Court and 2nd Circuit Reject DOJ Argument to Delay Census
> Citizenship Trial; Next Stop #SCOTUS?
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101768>
> Posted on October 26, 2018 2:29 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101768>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> View image on Twitter
> <https://twitter.com/hansilowang/status/1055934058902011904/photo/1>
> <image005.jpg>
> <https://twitter.com/hansilowang/status/1055934058902011904/photo/1>
> <image006.jpg> <https://twitter.com/hansilowang>
> <https://twitter.com/hansilowang>
> *Hansi Lo Wang <https://twitter.com/hansilowang>*
> *✔@hansilowang <https://twitter.com/hansilowang>*
>
> <https://twitter.com/hansilowang/status/1055934058902011904>
>
> BREAKING: Three-judge panel of 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has
> denied Trump administration’s request to delay 1st trial of #2020census
> <https://twitter.com/hashtag/2020census?src=hash> citizenship question
> lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman issued a similar ruling earlier
> today. Watching for #SCOTUS <https://twitter.com/hashtag/SCOTUS?src=hash>
> action now...
> 2:27 PM - Oct 26, 2018
> <https://twitter.com/hansilowang/status/1055934058902011904>
>
> · <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1055934058902011904>
>
> 202 <https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1055934058902011904>
>
> · <https://twitter.com/hansilowang/status/1055934058902011904>
>
> 142 people are talking about this
> <https://twitter.com/hansilowang/status/1055934058902011904>
> Twitter Ads info and privacy
> <https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101768&title=District%20Court%20and%202nd%20Circuit%20Reject%20DOJ%20Argument%20to%20Delay%20Census%20Citizenship%20Trial%3B%20Next%20Stop%20%23SCOTUS%3F>
> Posted in Uncategorized <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
>
>
> More Trouble with Texas Voting Machines Not Accepting Straight Party
> Ticket Choice; State Blames “Operator Error”
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101766>
> Posted on October 26, 2018 1:51 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101766>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> ABC 13 reports. <https://abc13.com/4556377/>
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101766&title=More%20Trouble%20with%20Texas%20Voting%20Machines%20Not%20Accepting%20Straight%20Party%20Ticket%20Choice%3B%20State%20Blames%20%E2%80%9COperator%20Error%E2%80%9D>
> Posted in Uncategorized <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
>
>
> “Combination Among the States: Why the National Popular Vote Interstate
> Compact is an Unconstitutional Attempt to Reform the Electoral College”
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101764>
> Posted on October 26, 2018 1:38 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101764>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> Patrick Valencia has written this article
> <http://harvardjol.com/2018/10/26/combination-among-the-states-npvic-unconstitutional/> for
> the Harvard Journal on Legislation.
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101764&title=%E2%80%9CCombination%20Among%20the%20States%3A%20Why%20the%20National%20Popular%20Vote%20Interstate%20Compact%20is%20an%20Unconstitutional%20Attempt%20to%20Reform%20the%20Electoral%20College%E2%80%9D>
> Posted in electoral college <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>
>
>
> Kansas Voting Official Responds “LOL” to ACLU Request to Publicize Voter
> Help Line for Dodge City Voters <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101762>
> Posted on October 26, 2018 1:29 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101762>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
> Wichita Eagle:
> <https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article220557195.html>
>
> *After the ACLU objected to Dodge City’s single, out-of-town polling
> place, the local official in charge of elections forwarded to the state an
> ACLU letter asking her to publicize a voter help line.*
>
> *“LOL,” she wrote in an email to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s
> office.*
>
> *As Election Day approaches, concerns are being raised in Kansas over
> voting rights and access to the polls. The movement and elimination of some
> polling places is sparking fears that casting a ballot may be more
> difficult for some this year.*
>
> *Nowhere are worries greater than in Dodge City, where residents must
> leave town if they want to vote on Election Day….*
>
> *Cox said she moved the polling location out of a concern for safety. And
> she said she didn’t mean anything when she wrote “LOL.”*
>
> *“This was not done with any racial intention at all,” Cox said during an
> interview in her office on Gunsmoke Street downtown.*
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101762&title=Kansas%20Voting%20Official%20Responds%20%E2%80%9CLOL%E2%80%9D%20to%20ACLU%20Request%20to%20Publicize%20Voter%20Help%20Line%20for%20Dodge%20City%20Voters>
> Posted in election administration <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The
> Voting Wars <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
>
>
> “Redistricting Reform and the 2018 Elections”
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101760>
> Posted on October 26, 2018 8:32 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101760>
> by *Richard Pildes* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=7>
> The Harvard Law Review blog is running a Symposium on legal issues related
> to the 2018 election. Here’s my contribution
> <https://blog.harvardlawreview.org/redistricting-reform-and-the-2018-elections/>,
> which analyzes the different measures on the ballot to change the
> redistricting process in Utah, Missouri, Michigan, and Colorado. An
> excerpt:
>
> *Underlying the entire issue of redistricting is the question of what
> constitutes a fair map. The issue is not just whether voters will endorse
> independent redistricting commissions, but what substantive criteria those
> commissions will be instructed to use. This is not as straightforward a
> question as many people intuitively think. As a conceptual matter, there
> are two fundamentally different approaches to answering that question, and
> it is worth noticing the distinct approaches these various ballot measures
> embrace.*
> *The first approach is what I have called
> <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/10/13/what-comes-next-in-the-fight-against-partisan-gerrymandering/?utm_term=.af93f5001a90> a
> process-oriented one. Redistricters would be instructed to take a set of
> criteria into account that reflect appropriate democratic values for
> designing districts, but that do not include partisan political
> considerations. Thus, in “partisan-blind” redistricting, districts would
> be designed to meet standards like equal population; compliance with the
> Voting Rights Act; keeping pre-existing political units (like towns,
> cities, and counties) together, to the extent possible; respecting
> communities of interest; and keeping districts reasonable compact and
> contiguous. Under this approach, a “fair” map would reflect these
> criteria, and whatever partisan political consequences resulted from such a
> process would not affect the fairness of the plan.*
>
> *The second approach is instead focused on exactly those consequences: it
> is an outcome-oriented approach that would seek to ensure a map is “fair”
> in the sense that the likely outcome of elections under the plan would be
> that each political party would end up with roughly the same percentage of
> seats as the percentage of votes it received. Under this approach, many of
> the values listed above would be of secondary importance to the primary
> goal of seeking to design a map that would generate partisan outcomes that
> match each party’s share of the overall statewide vote. The
> “process-oriented” and “outcome oriented” approaches define two poles of
> the spectrum; one can imagine approaches that try to merge these
> approaches, though doing so risks becoming a muddle that leaves
> redistricters with a great deal of discretion unless the proper tradeoffs
> between these different objectives are identified with precision. But
> having these two distinct conceptual frameworks in mind is helpful in
> evaluating the different ballot initiatives. . . .*
> *No other country
> <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/08/07/the-supreme-court-will-soon-consider-gerrymandering-heres-how-changes-in-redistricting-could-reduce-it/?utm_term=.4c4fcbdbd7ee> with
> single-member election districts like ours leaves the power to draw these
> districts in the hands of the most politically self-interested actors, the
> politicians whose power and seats will be affected. . . . But shifting to
> commissions cannot avoid the fact that substantive choices must still be
> made about how we ought to define fair maps and what criteria commissions,
> or any other redistricting body, ought to follow in order to design fair
> maps.*
>
> *The proposals on the ballot in these four states agree that redistricting
> should be taken out of the hands of self-interested state legislatures. But
> they show that on the deeper question – what makes a map fair – there
> remain differences of view.*
> <image001.png>
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D101760&title=%E2%80%9CRedistricting%20Reform%20and%20the%202018%20Elections%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
> http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
> http://electionlawblog.org
> <image007.png>
>
>
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