[EL] ELB News and Commentary 6/4/19

Tue Jun 4 20:07:13 PDT 2019

“Russia Could Unleash Fake Videos During Election, Schiff Says”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105467>
Posted on June 4, 2019 8:01 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105467> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports.<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/us/politics/russia-election-hacking.html>
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Robin Vos won’t have to testify in Wisconsin gerrymandering case for now, and may not have to at all”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105462>
Posted on June 4, 2019 3:57 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105462> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:<https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/04/robin-vos-wont-have-testify-wisconsin-gerrymandering-case/1346260001/>

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos won’t have to sit for a deposition in Wisconsin’s gerrymandering case in the short term — and might escape having to testify entirely.

A panel of appeals judges blocked a lower court order Tuesday for the Rochester Republican to take questions under oath.

The appeals judges wrote that they would decide whether Vos has to testify after the U.S. Supreme Court rules in two major gerrymandering cases from other states.

From the court order:<https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/vos.pdf>

This court construes Robin J. Vos’s petition for a writ of mandamus as a notice of appeal of the district court’s order of May 3, 2019, in case no. 3:15-cv-421-jdp in the Western District of Wisconsin. Accordingly,
IT IS ORDERED that the clerk of this court shall TRANSFER the petition to
to be docketed as a notice of appeal.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that proceedings in the appeal are STAYED pending the Supreme Court’s resolution of Rucho v. Common Cause, No. 18-422, and Lamone v. Benisek, No. 18-726. The parties shall file statements of position no later than seven days after the Supreme Court has issued its decisions in Rucho and Lamone.
IT IS FINALLY ORDERED that the district court’s order of May 3, 2019, is STAYED pending resolution of the appeal.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“A Double Blow to Disenfranchisement”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105460>
Posted on June 4, 2019 2:58 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105460> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Daniel Nichanian<https://www.appealpolitics.org/2019/colorado-and-nevada-disenfranchisement-reform/> for The Appeal:

Colorado and Nevada adopted new laws this week that will restore people’s voting rights as soon as they are released from incarceration, as opposed to doing so at later stages of the legal system (if ever).

These reforms deal a double blow to a system that excludes and marginalizes millions<https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/6-million-lost-voters-state-level-estimates-felony-disenfranchisement-2016/> of U.S. citizens, disproportionately African American, across the country. They are the latest successes in a nationwide<https://www.appealpolitics.org/disenfranchisement-states/>movement to confront felony disenfranchisement. The movement has upended the voting rights debate and opened space for bolder reforms than we have come to expect, whether ones like Colorado and Nevada’s or ones that go further <https://www.appealpolitics.org/2019/massachusetts-lawmakers-consider-restoring-voting-rights-but-organizers-are-not-waiting/> by targeting disenfranchisement altogether.
Prior to this week, just one state had passed a law to enfranchise people upon their release over the last decade (Maryland in 2016<https://www.brennancenter.org/press-release/voting-rights-restored-40000-marylanders>). Colorado and Nevada did this within a day of one another.
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Posted in felon voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>

DOJ’s John Gore Said in His Deposition That One of the Purposes of Collecting Citizenship Data on the Census Forms is To Let States Draw Districts with Equal Numbers of Eligible Voters (Which Hurts Hispanics and Democratic Voters)<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105455>
Posted on June 4, 2019 2:10 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105455> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The other day I tweeted this<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1135710509808832513>:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1027236869476573184/PFqQJu6__bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/rickhasen>
<https://twitter.com/rickhasen>
Rick Hasen<https://twitter.com/rickhasen>
✔@rickhasen<https://twitter.com/rickhasen>

<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1135710509808832513>

This is a key point and shows that whether or not DOJ borrowed from Hoefeller, the motivation was to allow states to engage in redistricting based on voter eligible persons, which would dilute the votes of Hispanic voters---precisely the opposite of what government has said.
<https://twitter.com/Tierney_Megan/status/1135706708389629952>
Tierney Sneed<https://twitter.com/Tierney_Megan/status/1135706708389629952>
✔@Tierney_Megan<https://twitter.com/Tierney_Megan/status/1135706708389629952>
Replying to @Tierney_Megan<https://twitter.com/Tierney_Megan/status/1135706708389629952>

DOJ is now suggesting that Evenwel is where Gore turned for help w/ the request, which is probably a clue that the underlying issue in that case (excluding noncitizens from redistricting) was the chief motivation for adding a citizenship question<https://twitter.com/Tierney_Megan/status/1135706708389629952>
[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/Tierney_Megan/status/1135706708389629952>

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28 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1135710509808832513>

I’ve since been pointed to pages 180-81 of John Gore’s deposition in the census case, where he appears to acknowledge that one of DOJ’s purposes early on in asking for the citizenship question to go on the census was to allow jurisdictions to draw districts with equal numbers of voter eligible persons (as opposed to total population, which would hurt<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/census-memo-supreme-court-conservatives-white-voters-alito.html> Hispanic voters and Democrats). Look especially at the last sentence of the excerpt below:
[https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2019-06-04-at-2.05.28-PM-1024x470.png][https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2019-06-04-at-2.06.48-PM-947x1024.png]

With all the debate over the Hofeller stuff, let’s not forget that there is really no credible evidence DOJ wanted the question added to the census to help Hispanic voters in Voting Rights Act section 2 cases (which the Trump DOJ has never brought). The intention is only to hurt Hispanic voters, whether or not the Hofeller evidence ever gets before the Supreme Court.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“Emails show Texas governor requested the voter purge that used flawed data”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105453>
Posted on June 4, 2019 1:58 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105453> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

San Antonio Express News:<https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Emails-show-Texas-governor-requested-the-voter-13936493.php>

In an August 2018 email from John Crawford, a top official of the driver’s license division at the Texas Department of Public Safety, to an employee, Crawford said DPS had run data of licensed drivers to compare to state voter rolls before, and “we have an urgent request from the governor’s office to do it again.”

At a three-day hearing in federal court in San Antonio, none of the state’s witnesses ever mentioned that Abbott had pushed for the program when questioning turned to the origins of the program, which some officials called “routine.”

But the emails show Abbott applied pressure to officials at DPS to provide data that the Secretary of State could use for voter list maintenance.

From the emails, it appears employees from DPS and the Secretary of State’s office had been working on voter purge information since March 2018.

You can find the released emails here<https://campaignlegal.org/document/texas-lulac-et-al-v-secretary-state-david-whitley-public-document-production-dps> at CLC.

Michael Barajas<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas/status/1136006438818603008>:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1036710363478208514/VNh1txH0_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas>
<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas>
Michael Barajas at michaelsbarajas<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas>

 · 6h<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas/status/1136006238687379465>
<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas/status/1136006238687379465>

Replying to @michaelsbarajas @GregAbbott_TX<https://twitter.com/_/status/1136006097939116032>

. at GregAbbott_TX<https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX> clearly deserves much of the blame for this fiasco. He’s been screaming “voter fraud” since he was AG, pushed for the purge, then gave his boy a golden parachute after bungling the operation just weeks on the job https://www.texastribune.org/2019/05/31/former-secretary-state-david-whitley-back-greg-abbotts-office/ …<https://t.co/0JSFYUp7E3>
<https://t.co/0JSFYUp7E3>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1134594824974344193/mDT8PA7i?format=jpg&name=600x314]<https://t.co/0JSFYUp7E3>
Former Secretary of State David Whitley back at Gov. Greg Abbott's ...<https://t.co/0JSFYUp7E3>

Whitley had resigned as secretary of state just before he would have been kicked out of office without a confirmation vote.<https://t.co/0JSFYUp7E3>
texastribune.org<https://t.co/0JSFYUp7E3>

[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1036710363478208514/VNh1txH0_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas>
<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas>
Michael Barajas at michaelsbarajas<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas>

Also consider the timing of @GregAbbott_TX<https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX>'s “urgent request” to move forward w/ the botched purge. That email was sent in late August, just days after Tea Party and True-the-Vote types started warning about thousands of “illegals” voting in the midterms https://www.texasobserver.org/how-tea-partiers-fueled-texas-latest-voter-fraud-freakout/ …<https://t.co/hji8WhYj5l>
<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1136006438818603008>
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1:26 PM - Jun 4, 2019<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas/status/1136006438818603008>
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How Tea Partiers Fueled Texas’ Latest ‘Voter Fraud’ Freakout<https://t.co/hji8WhYj5l>

Election-related crimes are rare, but activists like Aaron Harris have become both a legal and political weapon in Texas Republicans’ war on election fraud.<https://t.co/hji8WhYj5l>
texasobserver.org<https://t.co/hji8WhYj5l>

<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas>
See Michael Barajas's other Tweets<https://twitter.com/michaelsbarajas>

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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

Tweet of the Day (from Nate Persily)<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105450>
Posted on June 4, 2019 11:17 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105450> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Read the thread, starting here<https://twitter.com/persily/status/1135973410117341184>:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000656029658/6e4bffa836470b5037bb08246e57ddc4_bigger.jpeg]<https://twitter.com/persily>
<https://twitter.com/persily>
nathaniel persily at persily<https://twitter.com/persily>

<https://twitter.com/persily/status/1135973410117341184>

Needless to say, I am outraged that my work is being misrepresented by the DOJ in its most recent filing in the census case before the SDNY.
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11:15 AM - Jun 4, 2019<https://twitter.com/persily/status/1135973410117341184>
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<https://twitter.com/persily/status/1135973410117341184>
327 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/persily/status/1135973410117341184>

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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“Top U.S. House judiciary panel Republican urges hearings into Russian election meddling”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105448>
Posted on June 4, 2019 10:37 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105448> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Reuters reports.<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-congress-collins/top-u-s-house-judiciary-panel-republican-urges-hearings-into-russian-election-meddling-idUSKCN1T52B1?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28Reuters+Politics+News%29>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“The Crooked Path to Women’s Suffrage The Senate ratified the 19th Amendment a century ago. What took so long?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105446>
Posted on June 4, 2019 10:29 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105446> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Susan Schulten NYT oped.<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/opinion/the-crooked-path-to-womens-suffrage.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage>
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Posted in voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>

“2020 Census Could Lead To Worst Undercount Of Black, Latinx People In 30 Years”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105444>
Posted on June 4, 2019 9:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105444> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Hansi Lo Wang<https://www.npr.org/2019/06/04/728034176/2020-census-could-lead-to-worst-undercount-of-black-latinx-people-in-30-years?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social> for NPR:

Challenges threatening the upcoming 2020 census could risk more than 4 million people to be missing from next year’s national head count, according to new projections by the Urban Institute<http://apps.urban.org/features/2020-census/>.

The nonpartisan think tank found that the danger of an inaccurate census could hit some of the country’s most difficult-to-count populations the hardest. Based on the Urban Institute’s analysis, the 2020 census could lead to the worst undercount of black and Latinx people in the U.S. since 1990<https://www.census.gov/dmd/www/pdf/understate.pdf>.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>

“With 2020 Looming, Parties Fight State by State Over Voting Access”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105442>
Posted on June 4, 2019 9:24 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105442> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports.<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/us/voting-rights-states.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share>
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
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rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
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