[EL] ELB News and Commentary 1/11/19

[Rick Hasen]

“Older People Shared Fake News on Facebook More Than Others in 2016 Race, Study Says”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103146>
Posted on January 11, 2019 8:19 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103146> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/us/politics/facebook-fake-news-2016-election.html>

When it came to sharing fake news on Facebook during the 2016 election, no age group was quite as active as those aged 65 and older, according to a new study.

The study, published Wednesday in Science Advances<http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaau4586#F1>, quantifies how aggressive seniors were in spreading misinformation, though the findings suggest that sharing such stories was relatively rare.

On average, American Facebook users aged 65 and older posted seven times as many articles from fake news websites as adults 29 and younger, according to the study. And that was true regardless of ideology, education level or political affiliation: Older users just tended to share misinformation more.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“Will 2019 bring an end to partisan gerrymandering?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103144>
Posted on January 11, 2019 8:16 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103144> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Tony Pugh<http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2019/01/11/will-2019-bring-an-end-to-partisan-gerrymandering/> for The Newsroom.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Trump’s Whataboutism on Campaign Finance”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103142>
Posted on January 11, 2019 8:06 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103142> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs<https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/trumps-whataboutism-campaign-finance>.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


“Commission recommends machine-marked ballots for Georgia”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103140>
Posted on January 10, 2019 5:47 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103140> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/commission-recommending-machine-marked-ballots-georgia-60291986>

After Georgia’s 2018 election<https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/Elections>s focused stinging criticism on the state’s outdated election system, a study commission voted Thursday to recommend the use of machines that record votes and print a record.

Members of the panel tasked with considering potential replacement equipment chose that option over hand-marked paper ballots favored by cybersecurity experts.

The Secure, Accessible and Fair Elections, or SAFE, Commission voted 13-3 for a draft of a report to be sent to lawmakers, who are expected to decide on criteria for a new system during the legislative session that begins Monday. The commission includes lawmakers, political party representatives, voters and election officials.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Early Voting and Other Election Reforms Coming to New York”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103138>
Posted on January 10, 2019 5:36 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103138> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/nyregion/voting-reform-election-ny.html>
But with Democrats now in control of both chambers of the State Capitol and the governor’s office, things are about to change. Legislative leaders said they intend to pass a voting reform package on Monday to overhaul the state’s voting laws, among the more restrictive in the nation.

The voting reforms are a veritable wish list for those who have blamed New York’s laws for driving down voter turnout. The measures include allowing early voting, preregistration of 16- and 17-year-olds and consolidating state and federal primary elections, which are now held in different months.

Lawmakers also plan to pass bills to allow vote-by-mail and same-day voter registration, though those proposals will also require voter referendums — and passage by the next Legislature, scheduled to be seated in 2021 — as they change the State Constitution.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“Trump Campaign in Legal Jeopardy Over Manafort’s Sharing Data with Russian Agent”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103136>
Posted on January 10, 2019 9:19 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103136> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Paul Ryan:<https://www.justsecurity.org/62201/trump-campaign-legal-jeopardy-manaforts-sharing-data-russian-agent/>

According to a court filing earlier this week<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/us/politics/manafort-trump-campaign-data-kilimnik.html>, former 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared presidential campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian citizen with ties to Russian intelligence. If the data Manafort shared with Kilimnik was used to materially guide spending by Russian nationals to influence the 2016 presidential election, then the Trump campaign seemingly received an “in-kind contribution” from the Russian nationals in the form of “coordinated expenditures” in violation of multiple federal campaign finance laws. A key link in the “coordination” here is the revelation of Manafort’s actions.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“New ‘Testing the Waters’ Report Examines How Presidential Candidates Ignore Campaign Finance Laws & Regulators Let Them”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103134>
Posted on January 10, 2019 8:55 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103134> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Release<https://www.commoncause.org/press-release/new-testing-the-waters-report-examines-how-presidential-candidates-ignore-campaign-finance-laws-regulators-let-them/>:

Today, Common Cause released a new report on the many ways presidential candidates bend and break campaign finance laws as they barnstorm early primary states, fundraise, evade contributions limits, and build their campaign teams while denying they are running for office. “‘Testing the Waters’ or Diving Right In?<https://www.commoncause.org/resource/testing-the-waters/>” is part of Common Cause’s 2020 Candidate Watch<https://2020candidatewatch.org/> project through which the organization will watchdog candidate compliance with and government enforcement of campaign finance laws during the current election cycle.

The report, which should serve as a useful resource for reporters’ ongoing coverage of the 2020 presidential election, outlines how for decades candidates in presidential elections have pushed legal boundaries in the early stages of campaigns. But things reached a new level of absurdity in 2015, when Jeb Bush spent the first half of the year raising more than $100 million in illegal-to-candidates funds for a super PAC he set up, while denying that he was a candidate. He then announced his candidacy, the super PAC spent the funds supporting his candidacy, and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) let him get away with it.

The report concludes with a recommendation that the FEC repeal its regulation exempting presidential candidates from certain campaign finance laws while they are “testing the waters” of a campaign.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


--
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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