[EL] ELB News and Commentary 8/12/19

[Rick Hasen]

“Prominent Lawyer’s Trial Will Test Crackdown on Unregistered Foreign Agents”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106865>
Posted on August 12, 2019 7:21 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106865> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/11/us/politics/gregory-craig-trial.html>:

Not long before Christmas 2012, Paul Manafort, then a foreign lobbyist, congratulated Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer, on the release of a report that Mr. Manafort had commissioned to help Ukraine’s pro-Russian president polish his image in the West.

“Well done,” Mr. Manafort wrote in an email to Mr. Craig after the lawyer had briefed American journalists on the report, which largely justified the criminal prosecution of the Ukrainian leader’s political rival.
Government officials in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, “are especially happy with the way the media is playing it,” Mr. Manafort wrote, later adding, “You are ‘THE MAN.’”

“I am glad it went so well,” Mr. Craig replied.

Seven years later, that email exchange will be evidence in a criminal trial that has shaken Washington’s lobbying, consulting and public relations industry to its core. Mr. Craig, 74, is charged with deceiving Justice Department officials who sought to determine whether he should have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, commonly known as FARA, for work that earned his law firm more than $4.6 million.
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Posted in lobbying<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=28>


“Why Challenges to California’s Tax-Return-Disclosure Law Should Fail (Putting Aside Whether They Will)”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106863>
Posted on August 12, 2019 7:10 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106863> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New Vik Amar column.<https://verdict.justia.com/2019/08/12/why-challenges-to-californias-tax-return-disclosure-law-should-fail-putting-aside-whether-they-will>
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Posted in ballot access<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>


Salon Interviews Rep. Don Beyer on Bill to Use Multimember Districts and Ranked Choice Voting for Congress<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106861>
Posted on August 11, 2019 3:23 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106861> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

See here.<https://www.salon.com/2019/08/11/americas-elections-need-a-revolution-democrats-offer-drastic-new-plan-to-save-our-democracy/>
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Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>, redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>


“Top DHS cyber official calls paper ballot backups necessary for 2020 election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106858>
Posted on August 10, 2019 9:32 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106858> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN<https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/09/politics/dhs-cyber-paper-ballots-2020/index.html>:

The top cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security <https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/25/politics/republican-senators-block-election-security-legislation/index.html> said Friday that backup paper ballots would be a necessary part of 2020 election security.<https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/10/politics/election-security-briefing-congress/index.html>

“Ultimately when I look at 2020, the top priority for me is engaging as far and wide as possible, touching as many stakeholders as possible, and making sure we have auditability in the system,” Chris Krebs, DHS’ top cyber official, said at a DEFCON cyber conference Friday when discussing election security.

“IT, key tenant, can’t audit the system, can’t look at the logs, you don’t know what happened,” he added. “Gotta get auditability, I’ll say it, gotta have a paper ballot backup.”

Krebs said that he doesn’t “have all the answers” on election security, adding that “a lot of these policy suggestions are not my job to answer — Congress has a role here.”
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>


“Florida governor asks high court to rule on felon voting Associated Press”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106856>
Posted on August 10, 2019 9:20 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106856> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP<https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-governor-asks-high-court-171622124.html>:

Florida’s Republican governor on Friday asked the state’s high court to rule on whether convicted felons must pay all fines and fees before getting their voting rights restored in a move that competes with ongoing litigation in federal court on that same question.

Gov. Ron DeSantis asked the Florida Supreme Court justices to issue an opinion on whether felons must pay all fines and fees before they are eligible to register to vote. Requests for an advisory opinion from a Florida governor to the state Supreme Court are rare — the last one was about six years ago from then-Gov. Rick Scott.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Six Californians who shouldn’t have been registered voted last year due to ‘DMV errors’”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106854>
Posted on August 9, 2019 8:46 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106854> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Sac Bee:<https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article233729662.html>

Six California residents who were erroneously added onto the voter rolls voted in last year’s midterms, the Secretary of State’s Office confirmed Friday afternoon following a months-long investigation.

According to Secretary of State Alex Padilla’s office, all six individuals voted in the primary and two of them also cast ballots in the 2018 general election. Their records have since been canceled and they are not being charged with a crime.

After a through review, Padilla concluded they were inadvertently registered through the state’s Motor Voter program “due to DMV errors.” The residents live in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

Padilla’s office said the six people had no prior voting history but it could not determine whether they met registration eligibility requirements. It noted that none of the people were undocumented immigrants applying for AB 60 licenses.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Nearly 84,000 duplicate voter records found in audit of California’s ‘motor voter’ system”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106852>
Posted on August 9, 2019 3:48 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106852> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

LAT<https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-09/duplicate-voter-records-audit-california-motor-voter-system>:

California’s ambitious effort to automate voter registration at Department of Motor Vehicle offices produced almost 84,000 duplicate records and more than twice that number with political party mistakes, according to an audit released Friday by state officials.

The analysis covered just the first five months of the new “motor voter” program, which was launched in April 2018. It found a wide array of problems with the rollout of the DMV system, including a limited amount of testing as well as inconsistent and confusing lines of communication between the state agencies involved in its creation. Many of the findings align with documents reported by the Los Angeles Times in an investigation earlier this year of the motor voter program<https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-motor-voter-problems-investigation-20190409-story.html>.

Auditors reviewed more than 3 million voter registration files, comparing the records from both DMV and California’s secretary of state. They found 83,684 duplicate voter registration records, a mistake attributed to inconsistencies in what was listed for voters’ political party preferences.

“This action resulted in no impact to voter eligibility,” Keely Martin Bosler, director of the state Department of Finance, wrote in a letter on Friday to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Cabinet secretary.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Census Bureau Plays Coy On Major Voting Rights ‘Dispute’”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106850>
Posted on August 9, 2019 3:43 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106850> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

TPM reports<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/census-bureau-response-dillingham-pressley-citizenship-apportionment>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


John Gore Leaving DOJ: “DOJ Official Behind Failed Census Citizenship Question To Leave Department”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106848>
Posted on August 9, 2019 7:10 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106848> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NPR:<https://www.npr.org/2019/08/08/749573662/doj-official-behind-failed-census-citizenship-question-to-leave-department>

John Gore, the main Justice Department official behind the Trump administration’s failed push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, is set to leave the department Friday.

A person familiar with the matter tells NPR Gore plans to spend time with his family while he is “discerning next steps.”

Gore, who has been serving as the principal deputy assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, is among the administration officials currently facing allegations of providing false testimony<https://www.npr.org/2019/07/16/742259233/trump-officials-face-cover-up-allegations-after-failed-citizenship-question-push> and concealing evidence as part of the lawsuits over the citizenship question. In a recent court filing<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6239356-Aug-3-2019-Exhibit-Index.html#document/p91/a516128>, Gore denied the claims made by advocacy groups represented by the ACLU, New York Civil Liberties Union and the Arnold & Porter.

Gore did not immediately respond to an email and a phone call requesting comment.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, Department of Justice<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>


“A Better Hope for Campaign Finance Reform”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106846>
Posted on August 9, 2019 7:03 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106846> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ed McCaffery has posted this draft on SSRN<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3431204>. Here is the abstract:

There is too much money in American politics, and too much of it comes from too few citizens. Mega-donors like Sheldon Adelson or Tom Steyer make $100 million political expenditures every election cycle. Attempts to limit such large political contributions have failed at every level: judicially, legislatively, and administratively. Much of the academic literature has joined the real world’s sense of despair. This Article takes a new tack. By changing our tax system from an income to a consistent progressive spending tax, the true cost of political expenditures by mega-donors could increase tenfold. By using a strategy of taxing that has been applied to such “bads” as alcohol and cigarettes for centuries, and by identifying high-end spending or consumption in general as such a social “bad,” this Article offers hope for solving what seems to be a hopeless problem.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

--
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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