[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/10/19

[Rick Hasen]

“The Democratic Electorate on Twitter Is Not the Actual Democratic Electorate”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104627>
Posted on April 10, 2019 6:17 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104627> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT’s The Upshot<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/08/upshot/democratic-electorate-twitter-real-life.html>.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>


“Democrats, Stop Delegitimizing Our Elections”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104625>
Posted on April 10, 2019 6:08 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104625> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

David French<https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/democrats-stop-delegitimizing-our-elections/> for National Review has written this article, with the subhead: “Claims of voter fraud or voter suppression may excite a crowd, but our leaders are playing with fire.”
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Democratic 2020 hopefuls’ feel-good, anti-PAC pledges leave plenty of room for huge PAC benefits”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104623>
Posted on April 10, 2019 6:05 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104623> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Washington Examiner reports.<https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/democratic-2020-hopefuls-feel-good-anti-pac-pledges-leave-plenty-of-room-for-huge-pac-benefits>
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


Today’s Must-Read: Republicans Blame Democrats’ Passage of H.R. 1 Reform Bill in the House for Failure of Senate to Take Up Separate Legislation Protecting Country from Russian and other Foreign Interference in U.S. Elections<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104620>
Posted on April 10, 2019 6:00 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104620> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KC Star:<https://amp.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article229016119.html?__twitter_impression=true>

Despite clear and compelling evidence of a Russian plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election,<https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/russian-election-hacking>partisanship has all but killed any chance that Congress will pass legislation to shore up election security before voters cast their ballots next year.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress largely agree with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s finding that Russia tried to meddle in U.S. democracy — and that foreign interference remains a serious threat.
“Russia’s ongoing efforts to interfere with our democracy are dangerous and disturbing,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, after Mueller finalized his investigation last month.
But McConnell has made it clear that he’s unlikely to allow the Senate to vote on any election-related legislation for the foreseeable future.

Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, who chairs the Senate Rules Committee that has jurisdiction over election security legislation, blames House Democrats for McConnell’s hardline stance. Blunt said Democrats overreached in January when they passed H.R. 1,<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/house-democrats-take-aim-at-money-in-politics-with-reform-bill> a sweeping measure focused on voting rights, campaign finance, and government ethics….

David Popp, a spokesman for McConnell, said he could provide “no guidance” on whether an election security bill authored by Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma might be able to gain traction in the Senate. But Blunt said McConnell will not even bring a GOP-led election bill to the floor for fear Democrats might try to amend it.

“The House action on election legislation has actually made it even less likely that that bill could possibly be on the Senate floor,” Blunt said in an interview. “Their (H.R. 1) bill was a combination of everything that Democrats have wanted to do over the past 20 years all put into one big bill … That bill’s just not going to go to the floor. Neither is any other bill that opens the door to these issues. Leader gets to decide that and he has made it clear.”
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


North Carolina: “Fix proposed so student IDs can be used for voting”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104618>
Posted on April 10, 2019 5:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104618> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WRAL<https://www.wral.com/fix-proposed-so-student-ids-can-be-used-for-voting/18315594/>:

Legislation meant to work around a problem the state has had getting college IDs approved for voting identification was filed Tuesday.

Lawmakers had been promising this fix. Most of the state’s universities failed to satisfy legal requirements<https://www.wral.com/no-voter-id-approval-for-12-unc-campuses-including-chapel-hill/18263233/> set out by the General Assembly to get their campus IDs approved, and a deadline to do so for the 2020 elections passed last month.

House Bill 646 would tweak those rules<https://www.wral.com/nc-universities-haven-t-signed-off-on-student-ids-for-voting/18218427/> in several places. No longer would the colleges have to take the pictures themselves, potentially allowing campuses that let students submit selfies for their IDs get those ID cards approved for use at the polls.

A requirement that campus officials sign off, under penalty of perjury, on a series of ID requirements would also be dropped under the new language.

(h/t Doug Chapin<http://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2019/04/10/nc-lawmakers-propose-fix-to-student-id-voting-issue/>)
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voter id<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>


“Hush-Money Probe Gathered Evidence From Trump’s Inner Circle”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104616>
Posted on April 10, 2019 5:53 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104616> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WSJ:<https://www.wsj.com/articles/hush-money-probe-gathered-evidence-from-trumps-inner-circle-11554897911>

The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office has gathered more evidence than previously known in its criminal investigation of hush payments to two women who alleged affairs with Donald Trump, including from members of the president’s inner circle.

Prosecutors interviewed Hope Hicks, a former close aide to Mr. Trump and White House communications director, last spring as part of their campaign-finance probe, which ultimately implicated the president in federal crimes.

They also spoke to Keith Schiller, Mr. Trump’s former security chief. Investigators learned of calls between Mr. Schiller and David Pecker, chief executive of the National Enquirer’s publisher, which has admitted it paid $150,000 to a former Playboy model on Mr. Trump’s behalf to keep her story under wraps.

In addition, investigators possess a recorded phone conversation between Mr. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen and a lawyer who represented the two women.

The prosecutors’ campaign-finance investigation is based on the theory that the secret payments to keep women quiet were illegal contributions, because they were intended to influence the election. New details of the investigation—gleaned from interviews with 20 people familiar with the probe and from nearly 1,000 pages of court documents—show prosecutors had gathered information about Mr. Trump’s alleged involvement in the payments weeks before Mr. Cohen asserted it in open court….

What federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York might do with the information they’ve gathered on Mr. Trump couldn’t be determined. The office has proceeded in adherence to a Justice Department policy that sitting presidents can’t be indicted. Prosecutors have given no indication they would seek to charge Mr. Trump after he leaves office.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


Douglas: Vote for US – The Reforms<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104601>
Posted on April 10, 2019 5:50 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104601> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The following is the second of three guest posts<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104599> by University of Kentucky Law Professor Josh Douglas <http://law.uky.edu/directory/joshua-a-douglas> about his new book, Vote for US: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting:<https://www.amazon.com/Vote-US-Elections-Change-Future/dp/1633885100/>

Yesterday I highlighted some of the amazing individuals I profile in my new book, Vote for US: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting<https://www.amazon.com/Vote-US-Elections-Change-Future/dp/1633885100/>. These inspiring people are promoting positive voting rights reforms in their local and state communities. Today I’ll say a little bit about some of the reforms themselves.

Most of these election ideas are probably well known to most readers of this blog – but I learned a lot of details and nuances during my research, bringing the reforms to life.

For instance, I discuss the origins of automatic voter registration, started statewide in Oregon largely thanks to some innovative thinking by Steve Trout, the elections director, and Kate Brown, then the secretary of state who became governor. That reform is now spreading throughout the country. I devote a chapter to disabled voters and the use of a voting machine that all voters can use, which can reduce the stigma of having a disability. I talk about the adoption of ranked choice voting in numerous local elections and then Maine’s statewide implementation last year, highlighting both the reformers who made it happen and the reasons why the system can improve our elections. I go in-depth about Michigan’s constitutional amendment to create an independent redistricting commission and also highlight similar local measures, such as in Sacramento. There’s a discussion of incorporating “action civics” into our classrooms and why local journalism is so important to our democracy.

The book purposefully highlights local reforms. Justice Louis Brandeis once said that states are laboratories of democracy: “a state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” If states are laboratories of democracy, then I like to think of cities and localities as “test tubes of democracy” that can try out reforms on an even smaller scale. The best ideas will then spread to other localities and eventually to states. That’s the case for many of these election reforms.

Importantly, the book focuses on reforms actually working in state and local elections already. The book is less concerned about major changes to our constitutional structure, like abolishing the Electoral College. Those ideas are important, of course, and I discuss some of them in the Epilogue, but the point of this book is to highlight and promote electoral changes that are already in force – with positive results – in states and localities all over.

Moreover, while pushing back against voter suppression is vitally important, it can’t be our only strategy to improve our democracy. That’s the message of the final chapter, “The Perils of Only Playing Defense.” We also need to focus on positive voting rights reforms. The goal is much higher turnout and an election process that is more inclusive and convenient for all voters.

Tomorrow I’ll discuss a few of the local organizations dedicated to these efforts and the resource I provide in the Appendix to find them, no matter your location.
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Organizers pull the plug on proposal ditching electoral college in Ohio”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104614>
Posted on April 9, 2019 7:41 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104614> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Cleveland Plain Dealer:<https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/04/organizers-pull-the-plug-on-proposal-ditching-electoral-college-in-ohio.html>

Organizers have aborted their attempt to change Ohio’s constitution to award the state’s presidential electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of who wins Ohio.

J. Corey Colombo, a Columbus elections attorney working for the organizers behind the proposal, wrote a brief letter to Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Tuesday saying the group is withdrawing its petitions. The letter (click here<https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5810137/Frank-LaRose-Letter-Regarding-Petition.pdf> for a PDF) did not offer an explanation, but Colombo’s law firm later issued a statement citing time constraints and the large number of signatures required to get the issue on the ballot.
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Posted in electoral college<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>


Today’s Must-Read: John Myers’ “Hackers attacked California DMV voter registration system marred by bugs, glitches”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104612>
Posted on April 9, 2019 11:03 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104612> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

LA Times:<https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-motor-voter-problems-investigation-20190409-story.html>

California has launched few government projects with higher stakes than its ambitious 2018 program for registering millions of new voters at the Department of Motor Vehicles, an effort with the potential to shape elections for years to come.

Yet six days before the scheduled launch of the DMV’s new “motor voter” system last April, state computer security officials noticed something ominous: The department’s computer network was trying to connect to internet servers in Croatia.

“This is pretty typical of a compromised device phoning home,” a California Department of Technology official wrote in an April 10, 2018, email obtained by The Times. “My Latin is a bit rusty, but I think Croatia translates to Hacker Heaven.”

Although the email described the incident as the DMV system attempting “communication with foreign nations,” a department spokesperson later insisted voter information wasn’t at risk.

The apparent hacking incident was the most glaring of several unexpected problems — never disclosed to the public — in rolling out a project that cost taxpayers close to $15 million.

The Times conducted a four-month review of nearly 1,300 pages of documents and interviewed state employees and other individuals who worked on the project — most of whom declined to be identified for fear of reprisal. Neither the emails nor the interviews made clear who was ultimately responsible for the botched rollout, though an independent audit is expected to be released in the coming days.
The emails present a picture of a project bogged down by personnel clashes, technological hurdles and a persistent belief among those involved that top officials were demanding they make the “motor voter” program operational before the June 5 primary, so that it could boost the number of ballots cast.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Bibi Goes Full GOP, Sends Activists to Polling Stations to Monitor Arab Precincts”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104610>
Posted on April 9, 2019 10:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104610> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Josh Marshall:<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/bibi-goes-full-gop-sends-activists-to-polling-stations-to-monitor-problem-arabs>

In recent years we’ve witnessed the increasing ideological marriage of the Israeli Likud and the American GOP. Nor is it just ideological and cultural. There is increasingly transnational cooperation, with longtime Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu frequently intervening in US politics on Republicans’ behalf. But Likud took a big step today adopting more or less wholesale GOP ‘voter fraud’ tactics to suppress minority voters.

Today is election day in Israel, an election the right again seems likely to win by a narrow but decisive margin. But the big story of the day in the Israeli press is Likud sending party activists to Arab majority precincts with hidden cameras to monitor “voter fraud.” The party reportedly distributed 1200 hidden cameras to activists.

The action appears to be clearly against the law<https://www.timesofisrael.com/likud-admits-hiding-cameras-at-polling-stations-to-monitor-problem-arabs/> and an official at the election authority has ordered Likud to remove the equipment. Police appear to have confiscated at least some of the cameras that were installed by right-wing activists by right-wing activists in polling stations in Arab communities. What’s less clear is whether any of the activists will be charged with a crime. Other reports suggest there has been no determination that the activists committed a criminal act.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>


“‘We can’t confirm him,’ Pat Roberts warns of potential Kobach nomination for DHS”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104608>
Posted on April 9, 2019 10:52 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104608> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

KC Star:<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article229015409.html>

One of the GOP senators from Kris Kobach’s home state said Tuesday that the Senate would not be able to confirm the Kansas Republican if President Donald Trump tapped him for a cabinet post.

Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state,<https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article215374130.html> has been mentioned as a potential candidate<https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article229013464.html> for an array of immigration-related positions since President Donald Trump pulled his nominee for the director of Immigration Customs Enforcement and announced the departure of Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.

But Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said he doesn’t believe the Republican-controlled Senate could confirm his fellow Kansan, who has gained national notoriety <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/us/politics/who-is-kris-kobach.html> for championing stronger restrictions on immigration.
“Don’t go there. We can’t confirm him,” Roberts whispered to The Kansas City Star when asked about Kobach Tuesday on his way into a Senate vote.

“I never said that to you,” Roberts added, despite the fact that another reporter was present and The Star had not agreed to an off record conversation.

…

A former Trump adviser told The Star last week that Trump “knows that keeping the Senate is vital to passing his agenda next term or stopping the Dem agenda.” Making Kobach an adviser on immigration would help Trump keep the Senate in GOP hands and also help the president pursue his immigration agenda, the adviser said.
Such a sub-cabinet post, if it were run out of the White House, would not be subject to confirmation.
“It’s a win win.”
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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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