[EL] ELB News and Commentary 6/21/19

Sat Jun 22 10:17:53 PDT 2019

“People Who Can’t Vote Still Count Politically in America. What if That Changes?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105722>
Posted on June 22, 2019 10:16 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105722> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT’s The UpShot<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/upshot/america-who-deserves-representation.html> reports.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“House panel backs election security bill in aftermath of 2016 Russian interference”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105720>
Posted on June 22, 2019 10:12 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105720> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Wapo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-panel-backs-election-security-bill-in-wake-of-russian-interference-in-2016/2019/06/21/d169e154-9455-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html?utm_term=.8f3d082165e3&wpmk=MK0000200>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

DOJ Signals That If States Want to Start Drawing Legislative Districts on the Basis of Equal Numbers of Eligible Voters Not People (Which Will Shift Power to Republican Party and Against Hispanics), Trump Administration Will Support It<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105717>
Posted on June 21, 2019 4:29 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105717> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

A nugget from the government’s SCOTUS filing<https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-966/103606/20190620144127047_18-966%20Govt%20opp%20to%20Mot%20for%20Limited%20Remand.pdf> opposing plaintiffs’ motion<http://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-966/102858/20190612195236397_18-966%20US%20Dept%20of%20Commerce%20v%20State%20of%20New%20York%20et%20al%20NYIC%20Respondents%20Motion%20for%20Limited%20Remand.pdf> for a limited remand in the census case (on the basis of the Hofeller evidence):
[https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2019-06-21-at-4.28.02-PM-857x1024.png]

More on the significance of this in my recent Slate piece<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/census-memo-supreme-court-conservatives-white-voters-alito.html>.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>

Latest Trump Tweet Video Echoes “President for Life” Theme<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105715>
Posted on June 21, 2019 1:29 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105715> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Watch:<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1142157838153895941>
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1142157838153895941>
[Embedded video]<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1142157838153895941>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/874276197357596672/kUuht00m_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump>
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump>
Donald J. Trump<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump>
✔@realDonaldTrump<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump>

<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1142157838153895941>

<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1142157838153895941>
242K<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1142157838153895941>
12:50 PM - Jun 21, 2019<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1142157838153895941>
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1142157838153895941>
129K people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1142157838153895941>

Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Judge: Voter Fraud Panel Emails About Potential Members Can Be Withheld, For Now”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105713>
Posted on June 21, 2019 10:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105713> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

TPM<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/muckraker/voter-fraud-commission-emails-future-commissioners-withheld>:

A federal judge is letting the Trump administration continue to withhold certain emails related to the Trump voter fraud commission while the government appeals her order that the emails be produced for a Democrat who was on the commission.

The emails have to do with discussions the commission’s vice chair Kris Kobach had with fellow members Hans von Spakovsky and J. Christian Adams about other potential candidates for the now-disbanded panel.
A previously released<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/heritage-foundation-did-not-want-dems-on-election-panel> email revealed that von Spakovsky and Adams had reached out to allies of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in February 2017, as the commission was being assembled, to complain about the plan to put Democrats and “mainstream Republicans” on the panel. The email was quickly passed along to Sessions.

According to the opinion issued Friday<https://drive.google.com/file/d/15Y3pWgf7zsV_Ot6r-6Z6ok6bPbXi3e70/view> by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, an author of one of the emails being withheld shared “concerns about pending appointments.” She revealed that the individuals on the email chain were discussing a “batch of Democratic candidates” for the commission, from which only Alan King, a probate judge in Alabama, was appointed.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>
“Will A Trump Trade Move Create An Election Mess For Overseas U.S. Voters?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105711>
Posted on June 21, 2019 10:38 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105711> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

TPM<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-trade-overseas-voters-universal-postal-union>:

The Trump administration has supported plenty<https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/texas-voter-id-reversal-doj> of moves<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-doj-ohio-voter-purge_n_5989cf05e4b0449ed505917e> to make it harder to vote. But an under-the-radar action President Trump took last year, as part of his trade war with China, may be a case of him just stumbling into that outcome, election experts fear.

Trump is threatening to withdraw from the international body that oversees global mail delivery, putting at risk the stability and reliability of the current system of sending and receiving mail internationally.
Any disruption to the international postal service, voter advocates say, could make an already difficult process of casting ballots for Americans abroad even more complicated. Among those who stand to be affected are members of the military overseas, whose ability to vote while serving their country has always been a politically sensitive issue.

The White House told TPM it’s working “diligently” to make sure that if the United States exits the 145-year-old international postal alliance, the withdrawal would be “seamless.” But the administration wouldn’t provide details about its planning, particularly as it pertains to elections, or about who exactly has been working on it. The lack of clarity is prompting anxiety in the election policy world. If the United States leaves the global mail delivery organization, it will happen just a few months before the 2020 primaries begin.

“I’ve had sleepless nights worrying what will happen for voters that won’t have the ability to return a ballot,” said Tammy Patrick, a senior advisor at the Democracy Fund who works with elections officials on voting administration issues.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Want to See How Disinformation Could Play Out in 2020? Just Look Overseas.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105709>
Posted on June 21, 2019 10:07 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105709> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Mother Jones reports.<https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/want-to-see-how-disinformation-could-play-out-in-2020-just-look-overseas/>
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Foreign spending in our elections is a threat to our national sovereignty”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105707>
Posted on June 21, 2019 9:04 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105707> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub with this WaPo oped<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/foreign-spending-in-our-elections-is-a-threat-to-our-national-sovereignty/2019/06/20/80ecb2a8-9372-11e9-b58a-a6a9afaa0e3e_story.html?fbclid=IwAR04WDqlUmQYHnfU76mIQq6WQ9G0n9GNORQxd_P7FyaXlem7YakrzputCvM&utm_term=.9286c31900c9>:

Concerns about foreign attempts to intervene in our political system date back to the founding of our republic. As chair of the Federal Election Commission, I am gravely concerned about ongoing efforts by geopolitical adversaries to undermine our democracy. It is critically important that everyone involved in U.S. politics understands the law, recognizes the threat, and confronts and contains it.

While the ban on foreign national spending in our elections is well established, unequivocal and clear on its face, a lot of people have raised good questions about the law’s scope.

It’s wide. Any amount of U.S. election spending by a foreign national is illegal. In 2012, the Supreme Court agreed <https://www.fec.gov/updates/bluman-v-fec-supreme-court/> with then-Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s conclusion that Canadian lawyer Benjamin Bluman’s proposed activity was illegal — not just his three proposed $100 campaign contributions but also merely paying to copy a flier supporting President Barack Obama’s reelection to hand out in Central Park. Bluman’s proposed activities were deemed illegal even though he hailed from a closely allied country, was lawfully working in the United States and had proposed spending only an inconsequential amount of money. That’s how broad the foreign national political spending ban is.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

--
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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