[EL] ELB News and Commentary 9/19/18

Wed Sep 19 12:44:07 PDT 2018

Filling in for Rick today.
“‘Race-blind’ Va. political map offered to replace one deemed racial
gerrymander” <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101220>
Posted on September 19, 2018 11:53 am
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101220> by Dan Tokaji
<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

WaPo: “With a court-ordered deadline looming Oct. 30, Republican leaders of
the House of Delegates on Tuesday backed a ‘politically neutral, race-blind
remedial redistricting map’ that they said would satisfy the court while
causing minimal disruption to existing legislative district lines.”
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Posted in redistricting <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>
“The Dance of Partisanship and Districting”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101218>
Posted on September 19, 2018 11:27 am
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101218> by Nicholas Stephanopoulos
<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=12>

Here’s the abstract for a new paper
<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3252063> of mine,
forthcoming in a Harvard Law & Policy Review symposium on representation,
power, and corruption:

Academic studies of redistricting tend to be either doctrinal or empirical,
but not *both*. As a result, the literature overlooks some of the most
important aspects of the mapmaking process and its judicial supervision,
like how they relate to the broader American political context. In this
symposium contribution, I try to fill this gap. I first observe that the
half-century in which federal courts have decided redistricting cases can
be divided into two periods: one lasting from the 1960s to the 1980s, in
which voters and politicians were both comparatively nonpartisan; and
another reaching from the 1990s to the present day, which amounts to
perhaps the most hyperpartisan era in our country’s history. I then explore
how redistricting law has responded to the ebbs and flows of partisanship.
In the earlier timeframe, courts (properly) focused on nonpartisan
line-drawing problems like rural overrepresentation and racial
discrimination. In the hyperpartisan present, on the other hand, courts
have (regrettably) refrained from confronting directly the threat, partisan
gerrymandering, that now looms above all others. Instead, courts have
either shut their eyes to the danger or sought to curb it indirectly
through the redeployment of nonpartisan legal theories.

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Posted in Uncategorized <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“The Cyberthreats That Most Worry Election Officials”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101216>
Posted on September 19, 2018 4:33 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101216>
 by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

WSJ
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cyberthreats-that-most-worry-election-officials-1537322820>:
“Hoping to quell fears about foreign hackers and repel potential threats,
many states and counties are beefing up their plans to deal with
cyberattacks.”
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Posted in election administration <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
“Georgia district is ordered to redo primary election after voting errors”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101214>
Posted on September 19, 2018 4:22 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101214>
 by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

CNN
<https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/18/politics/georgia-legislature-district-voting-election-errors-primary-republicans/index.html>:
“A judge said he will order a Georgia Legislature district to redo a
primary election between two Republicans because errors in voter data
called the results into question.”  It’s quite uncommon for a court to
order this type of remedy.  Not yet clear whether there will be an appeal.
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Posted in Remedies <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=57>
“Securing The Election Industry” <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101212>
Posted on September 19, 2018 4:15 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101212>
 by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

NPR’s Morning Edition
<https://www.npr.org/2018/09/19/649432705/securing-the-election-industry> on
the role that private companies, including one whose largest investor is
reportedly a Russian oligarch, play in running our elections.
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Posted in election administration <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
“Here’s how newspapers could help you register to vote”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101210>
Posted on September 19, 2018 4:07 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101210>
 by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Josh Douglas and Adam Eichen in WaPo
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/heres-how-newspapers-could-help-you-register-to-vote/2018/09/18/6bc42102-bb5c-11e8-9812-a389be6690af_story.html?utm_term=.acffaef2e4b4>
urging
that newspapers follow the *Ithaca Times*‘ example by printing voter
registration forms on their front page on National Voter Registration Day
<https://nationalvoterregistrationday.org/about/> next week.
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Posted in voter registration <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>
<https://electionlawblog.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=101210&action=edit>
<https://electionlawblog.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=101210&action=edit>
<https://electionlawblog.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=101210&action=edit>
*“Why the right to vote is not enshrined in the Constitution”*
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101208>

Posted on September 19, 2018 3:54 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101208>
 by Dan Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Vox has this interview
<https://www.vox.com/2018/9/17/17842890/constitution-day-voting-rights-gerrymandering-lichtman>
with
Allan Lichtman, discussing what he thinks was the Framers’ biggest mistake.
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Posted in voter id <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>
Breaking: Supreme Court Rejects Stay in Crossroads Campaign Disclosure Case
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101205>
Posted on September 18, 2018 11:30 am
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101205> by Rick Hasen
<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

With no noted dissents
<https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/1042117485829472256>, the Supreme
Court has turned down Crossroad GPS’s request for emergency relief from an
order that will require disclosure of more of its donors who are
contributing money to influence federal elections.

As I wrote <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101171> last week, “With 4
Justices strongly in favor of disclosure on the Court, I would guess that
this results in an eventual denial of the stay, either by a majority vote
or a 4-4 split (which keeps the lower court decision in place), unless this
is held long enough for Judge Kavanaugh to join the Court.”

This is an important decision which will help insure that voters have
valuable information they need in evaluating advertising which is
unquestionably aimed at trying to influence how they vote in elections. It
does not solve all of the current disclosure problems, but this is a
victory for transparency.
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Posted in campaign finance <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Supreme
Court <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Campaign Donor Disclosure Fate May Hinge on Kavanaugh Vote”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101203>
Posted on September 18, 2018 7:56 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101203>
 by Rick Hasen <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ken Doyle <https://about.bgov.com/news-articles/#/?suid=PF90356JTSEE> for
Bloomberg:

The continued secrecy of donors to campaign spending groups may depend on
whether and how quickly the Senate can confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett
Kavanaugh.

Chief Justice John Roberts reinstated in a brief order issued over the
weekend a federal rule that allows campaign spending groups to keep their
donors secret. Roberts said his order was temporary, suggesting the full
court would consider the matter soon, though he provided no timeline.

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Posted in campaign finance <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Supreme
Court <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“Independent Spending in State Elections, 2006-2016”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101201>
Posted on September 18, 2018 7:00 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101201>
 by Rick Hasen <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CFI Release:
<http://www.cfinst.org/Press/PReleases/18-09-18/Working_Paper_Independent_Spending_in_State_Elections_2006-2016.aspx>

In the years before the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in *Citizens United
v. Federal Election Commission (CU)*, independent expenditures (IEs) in
state elections were dominated by formal state and local party
organizations and labor unions. In the years since then, IEs have increased
while state parties and labor unions have fallen dramatically in their
relative position. Among the ascendant have been national, party-affiliated
organizations (such as the Republican and Democratic Governors
Associations) and – most dramatically – single-issue organizations funded
by wealthy mega-donors.

These conclusions appeared in a working paper
<http://cfinst.org/pdf/state/Malbin-et-al_APSA2018_Paper_IE-State-2006-2016_working-paper.pdf>
released
today by the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) <http://www.cfinst.org/>, a
division of the National Institute on Money in Politics
<http://followthemoney.org/>. The paper was originally presented on August
30 at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. The
authors are: Michael J. Malbin (CFI’s Director and Professor at the
University at Albany, SUNY), Jaclyn Kettler (Boise State University),
Charles R. Hunt (University of Maryland), Brendan Glavin (CFI) and Keith
Hamm (Rice University).

The paper also examines two proposals that are intended to offset the
effects of *Citizens United* by removing the limits on contributions to
candidates and political parties. By leveraging comparative state data, the
paper finds that proposals such as these are not likely to turn the donors
who underwrite ideological and issue groups toward funding the candidates
and parties. The complete abstract for the paper is reproduced below.

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

Daniel P. Tokaji

Associate Dean for Faculty | Ebersold Professor of Constitutional Law

The Ohio State University | Moritz College of Law

55 W. 12th Ave. | Columbus, OH 43210

614.292.6566 | tokaji.1 at osu.edu
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