[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/12/19

Fri Apr 12 09:01:58 PDT 2019

“After Arrest of Julian Assange, the Russian Mysteries Remain”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104658>
Posted on April 12, 2019 8:58 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104658> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/us/politics/julian-assange-wikileaks-russia.html>:

In June 2016, five months before the American presidential election, Julian Assange made a bold prediction during a little-noticed interview with a British television show.

“WikiLeaks has a very big year ahead,” he said, just seconds after announcing that the website he founded would soon be publishing a cache of emails related to Hillary Clinton.

He was right. But an indictment unsealed on Thursday charging Mr. Assange<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/world/europe/julian-assange-wikileaks-ecuador-embassy.html?module=inline> with conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer in 2010 makes no mention of the central role that WikiLeaks played in the Russian campaign to undermine Mrs. Clinton’s presidential chances and help elect President Trump. It remains unclear whether the arrest of Mr. Assange will be a key to unlocking any of the lingering mysteries surrounding the Russians, the Trump campaign and the plot to hack an election.

The Justice Department spent years examining whether Mr. Assange was working directly with the Russian government, but legal experts point out that what is known about his activities in 2016 — including publishing stolen emails — is not criminal, and therefore it would be difficult to bring charges against him related to the Russian interference campaign.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Early fundraising by 2020 Democrats shows they are in for a long, drawn-out fight”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104656>
Posted on April 12, 2019 8:51 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104656> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/early-fundraising-by-2020-democrats-shows-they-are-in-for-a-long-drawn-out-fight/2019/04/11/4100114e-5bbe-11e9-842d-7d3ed7eb3957_story.html?utm_term=.20a58c7eedf8>:

The limited early fundraising hauls announced by Democratic presidential hopefuls<https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/2020-presidential-hopefuls/?tid=a_inl_auto> show that no clear front-runner has yet emerged in the race, and portend a drawn-out and divisive primary slog before the party unifies against President Trump.

The overall sum raised by nearly 20 Democratic presidential candidates so far is on par with the amount raised by a much smaller field at this point in 2007, a sign that candidates are struggling to break through in a crowded contest that remains wildly unpredictable.

The first-quarter fundraising reports that will be made public next week are typically seen as a key early measure of viability for primary candidates. But the figures trickling out from the campaigns show Democratic voters don’t yet know where to channel their anti-Trump energy — and money.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“Inside the Russian effort to target Sanders supporters — and help elect Trump”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104654>
Posted on April 12, 2019 8:48 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104654> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-russian-effort-to-target-sanders-supporters--and-help-elect-trump/2019/04/11/741d7308-5576-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html?utm_term=.1172073e77c9&wpmk=MK0000200>:

While much attention has focused on the question of whether the Trump campaign encouraged or conspired with Russia, the effort to target Sanders supporters has been a lesser-noted part of the story. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, in a case filed last year against 13 Russians accused of interfering in the U.S. presidential campaign, said workers at a St. Petersburg facility called the Internet Research Agency were instructed to write social media posts in opposition to Clinton but “to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.”

That strategy could receive new attention with the release of Mueller’s report, expected within days.

Sanders told Vermont Public Radio<https://www.vpr.org/post/sen-bernie-sanders-russia-we-knew-what-we-knew-when-we-knew-it> last year that one of his campaign workers figured out what was going on, alerted the Clinton campaign and told them, “I think these guys are Russians.” But Sanders said he never knew, and he later backed off his suggestion that his staff did. A spokesman referred questions to 2016 campaign manager Jeff Weaver, who said in an interview that Sanders “misspoke a little bit and conflated a few of the facts. . . . He did not know, I did not know, none of us knew” that Russia was behind the efforts.

Only recently, with the latest analysis of Twitter data, has the extent of the Russian disinformation campaign been documented on that social media platform.

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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>

Webinar: The Citizenship Question Presented: The Census Case Reaches the Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104652>
Posted on April 12, 2019 8:41 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104652> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

ACS<https://getinvolved.acslaw.org/component/events/event/268>:

On April 23rd, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Department of Commerce v. New York, a case that raises questions of administrative and constitutional law, and that has the potential to affect the accuracy of the 2020 Census, thereby impacting congressional representation and federal funding decisions.

Join ACS for a discussion with experts about whether the addition of a citizenship question to the census violates the Administrative Procedures Act and/or the Constitution’s enumerations clause, and whether the trial court had the authority to order the deposition of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to ascertain the motive for the question’s inclusion.

Featured Speakers:

Jennifer Nou, Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School

Daniel Tokaji, Associate Dean for Faculty and The Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Professor of Constitutional Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

Kara Stein, Vice President of Policy and Program, ACS, moderator
Thursday, April 18th 3:30pm ET

This event is approved for 1 hour of California MCLE credit.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

D.C. Circuit, on 2-1 Vote, Upholds FEC Donor Disclosure in John Doe v. FEC Case<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104650>
Posted on April 12, 2019 8:40 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104650> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can find the majority and partially dissenting opinion at this link<https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/09233FBEB5806B92852583DA004DDB3F/$file/18-5099-public-op.pdf>.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Texas defies congressional request for information on voter roll review”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104648>
Posted on April 11, 2019 2:59 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104648> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Texas Tribune:<https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/11/texas-says-it-wont-give-congress-voter-roll-review-documents/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_content=1555019616&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter>

Facing an investigation over the state’s botched efforts to screen its voter rolls for noncitizens, the Texas Attorney General’s Office is declining congressional leaders’ request for information about the review.

In a Thursday letter<https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/admin/2019/Press/image2019-04-11-142220.pdf?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=> to top officials with the House’s main investigative committee, Jeffrey Mateer, the state’s first assistant attorney general, indicated the state was brushing off a request for documents and communications from the Texas secretary of state and attorney general because the committee lacks “oversight jurisdiction.”

Instead, Mateer wrote, the state will treat the congressional inquiry as a public information request under state law, which grants the Texas attorney general’s office broad control over what information can be withheld from the public.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

Florida: “DeSantis wants Secretary of State to ensure access to Spanish-language ballots”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104646>
Posted on April 11, 2019 1:56 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104646> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Tampa Bay Times reports<https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/2019/04/11/desantis-wants-secretary-of-state-to-ensure-access-to-spanish-language-ballots/>.
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Posted in Voting Rights Act<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

“New Study: Automatic Voter Registration Increases Registration Rates Across the Board”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104644>
Posted on April 11, 2019 9:31 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104644> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Brennan Center:<https://www.brennancenter.org/press-release/new-study-automatic-voter-registration-increases-registration-rates-across-board>

Automatic voter registration has led to a spike in average registration rates in every state where it’s been implemented, according to a new analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. In the first study of its kind<https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/avr-impact-state-voter-registration>, the Brennan Center analyzed the effects of automatic voter registration (AVR), a system in which eligible citizens are automatically registered to vote at agencies like the DMV unless they opt out.

Controlling for all other factors, the study shows that AVR has successfully increased voter registration rates in seven states and the District of Columbia. In short, automatic voter registration<https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/automatic-voter-registration> has chipped away at the antiquated obstacles to registering eligible citizens to vote.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voter registration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>

--
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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