[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/7/19

Mon May 6 21:24:59 PDT 2019

“Trump Embraces the Traditional Fund-Raising He Once Shunned”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105049>
Posted on May 6, 2019 9:21 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105049> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/us/politics/trump-campaign-fundraising.html>:

About 200 bundlers from across the country are expected to gather Tuesday at the Trump International Hotel for a series of meetings and workshops about the campaign’s new fund-raising program. Vice President Mike Pence will address the group. Brad Parscale, President Trump’s campaign manager, will play host. Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Wall Street billionaire, has R.S.V.P.’d yes.

The group will be divided into tiers, based on success in raising money. The “Trump Train” donors, or those who raise $25,000, will be given a lapel pin and access to a national retreat and leadership dinners. “Club 45” members, or those who raise $45,000, will get all of that, as well as monthly conference calls with Republican Party leaders. And the “Builders Club,” or those bundlers who raise $100,000 or more, will be given access to national campaign events.

It is the kind of traditional campaign fund-raising apparatus that Mr. Trump thumbed his nose at during his 2016 run. And it involves some donors who only grudgingly accepted him once he was the Republican presidential nominee.

“I don’t need anybody’s money,” Mr. Trump said after announcing his candidacy in June 2015<https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us/politics/donald-trump-runs-for-president-this-time-for-real-he-says.html?module=inline>. “I’m using my own money. I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using donors. I don’t care. I’m really rich.” That fall, he wrote on Twitter<https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/658653111159005184?lang=en>, “This whole Super PAC scam is very unfair to a person like me who has disavowed all PAC’s & is self-funding.”

Mr. Trump did not solicit cash for his bootstrap campaign until a year later.

The tiered bundler system that Mr. Trump’s campaign has built — modeled after President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign and complete with super PACs supporting it from the outside — is the most tangible example yet of Mr. Trump’s ceding to the reality of his second presidential race. This time, he is a candidate of the establishment, complete with bundlers who are lobbyists, even while he tries to run as if he is still the marauding outsider at the gates.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“House Democrats blast Florida’s ‘illegal poll tax’ amid federal oversight push”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105047>
Posted on May 6, 2019 9:13 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105047> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

David Smiley<https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2019/05/06/house-democrats-blast-floridas-illegal-poll-tax-amid-federal-oversight-push/> for the Tampa Bay Times:

House Democrats seeking to build a case for renewed federal oversight of election laws came to South Florida Monday and accused state lawmakers of systematically disenfranchising voters and passing legislation that would impose an illegal “poll tax” on former felons seeking to regain the right to vote.

Members of an elections subcommittee of the Committee on House Administration held a hearing on voter rights in Fort Lauderdale as part of a seven-city fact-finding tour to create a basis for an update of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. At times, the meeting felt as much an airing of grievances with Florida’s Republican-led state government as an evidentiary hearing, with Democrats ticking off a list of election-related offenses….

Over the last decade, Florida has created arduous voting lines by arbitrarily reducing early voting, been sued over the lack of bilingual voting services and repeatedly watched its elections become the source of national scrutiny. Monday’s hearing is a sign that the nation’s largest swing state is in Congress’ sights as it seeks to restore an oversight process known as “pre-clearance,” in which counties and states are forced to submit voting changes to the federal government for review.
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Posted in VRAA<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=81>

“Lower Courts Are Lobbying SCOTUS to Rein In Partisan Gerrymandering”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105045>
Posted on May 6, 2019 8:42 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105045> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Mark Joseph Stern<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/ohio-michigan-partisan-gerrymandering-supreme-court.html> for Slate.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

Thanks to Dan Tokaji for Guest Blogging While I Took a Few Days Away<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105043>
Posted on May 6, 2019 7:57 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105043> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Thanks Dan!
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Democratic Representatives in Colorado Use Quadratic Voting to Set Legislative Priorities<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105041>
Posted on May 6, 2019 7:54 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105041> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Peter Coy column<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-01/a-new-way-of-voting-that-makes-zealotry-expensive>.
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Posted in theory<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=41>

“Turkey Orders New Election for Istanbul Mayor, in Setback for Opposition”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105039>
Posted on May 6, 2019 7:52 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105039> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/world/europe/turkey-istanbul-mayor-election.html>:

Turkey’s electoral authorities wiped away a crushing defeat<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/world/europe/turkey-erdogan-election-loss.html?module=inline> for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, ordering a rerun of the race for mayor of Istanbul won by the opposition and heightening the prospect of social unrest and a new economic crisis.
The decision by the High Election Council was immediately condemned by the opposition party as a capitulation to Mr. Erdogan and a blow to the democratic foundations of the country, which have drifted closer to authoritarianism under his 18 years in power.
Mr. Erdogan has jailed journalists, isolated adversaries and conducted mass purges<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/magazine/inside-turkeys-purge.html?module=inline> of the police, the military and the courts. He has strengthened his powers<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/world/europe/turkey-election-erdogan.html?module=inline> under the Constitution. Now, critics say Mr. Erdogan has managed to invalidate what had been a humiliating defeat for his party in Istanbul, the country’s largest city, commercial capital — and the president’s hometown.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Sen. Kamala Harris Claims, Without Evidence, That Voter Suppression Cost Stacey Abrams 2018 Ga. Governor’s Race and Andrew Gillum the 2018 Fl. Governor’s Race<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105037>
Posted on May 6, 2019 7:48 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105037> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Disturbing trend:<https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1125199779481436160>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1093306247766515712/MBaqSY2M_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris>
<https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris>
Kamala Harris<https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris>
✔@KamalaHarris<https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris>

<https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1125199779481436160>

Let’s say this loud and clear - without voter suppression: @staceyabrams<https://twitter.com/staceyabrams> is Governor Stacey Abrams. @AndrewGillum<https://twitter.com/AndrewGillum> is Governor Andrew Gillum. #NAACPDetroit<https://twitter.com/hashtag/NAACPDetroit?src=hash>
<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1125199779481436160>
10.5K<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1125199779481436160>
5:45 PM - May 5, 2019<https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1125199779481436160>
Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
<https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1125199779481436160>
3,744 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1125199779481436160>

[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D105037&title=Sen.%20Kamala%20Harris%20Claims%2C%20Without%20Evidence%2C%20That%20Voter%20Suppression%20Cost%20Stacey%20Abrams%202018%20Ga.%20Governor%E2%80%99s%20Race%20and%20Andrew%20Gillum%20the%202018%20Fl.%20Governor%E2%80%99s%20Race>
Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Michigan’s New Voting Rules<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105035>
Posted on May 6, 2019 1:33 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105035> by Dan Tokaji<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

The Detroit News<https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/06/michiganians-enjoy-new-voting-rights-may-election/3652132002/> reports on the implementation of same-day registration and other new rules in tomorrow’s elections, taking place in 65 of 83 Michigan counties. Secretary of State (and former Election Law Prof) Jocelyn Benson says: “The May 7 election will be the first time Michigan citizens can take advantage of the sweeping new voting rights instilled in our constitution as a result of the Promote the Vote constitutional amendment enacted last fall.”
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Posted in voter registration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>

“Ahead Of 2020, Microsoft Unveils Tool To Allow Voters To Track Their Ballots”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105033>
Posted on May 6, 2019 1:22 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105033> by Dan Tokaji<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

NPR<https://www.npr.org/2019/05/06/720071488/ahead-of-2020-microsoft-unveils-tool-to-allow-voters-to-track-their-ballots>: “In an effort to improve confidence in elections, Microsoft announced Monday that it is releasing an open-source software development kit<https://www.techopedia.com/definition/3878/software-development-kit-sdk> called ElectionGuard that will use encryption techniques<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u938JuPmKs> to let voters know when their vote is counted. It will also allow election officials and third parties to verify election results to make sure there was no interference with the results.”
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>

CLC/Axios Report “Can I Count on You?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105031>
Posted on May 6, 2019 8:37 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105031> by Dan Tokaji<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Axios<https://www.axios.com/david-bossie-fundraising-presidential-coalition-3bf22829-8a89-4a10-84b7-7310e02c2ef2.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twsocialshare&utm_campaign=organic>:

A political organization run by David Bossie, President Trump’s former deputy campaign manager, has raised millions of dollars by saying it’s supporting Trump-aligned conservative candidates — but has spent only a tiny fraction of that money supporting candidates.

Instead, federal records suggest the Presidential Coalition has spent nearly all its money — raised mostly from small-dollar donations — on more fundraising, as well as administrative costs, which include Bossie’s salary, according to a new report produced by the Campaign Legal Center<https://campaignlegal.org/document/can-i-count-you-how-presidential-coalition-has-capitalized-its-leaders-ties-president-and> (CLC) in collaboration with Axios….
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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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