[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/8/19

Tue May 7 21:02:21 PDT 2019

“Trump Campaign Denounces ‘Dishonest’ Fund-Raising That Uses President’s Name and Picture”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105064>
Posted on May 7, 2019 9:00 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105064> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/us/politics/trump-campaign-bossie.html>:

President Trump’s re-election campaign on Tuesday denounced “dishonest fund-raising groups” that use the president’s image to solicit money that several people close to Mr. Trump said was directed at a group run by David Bossie, one of his earliest political advisers.
The unsigned statement, which was sent out from the campaign’s press office, also encouraged the authorities to investigate all unsanctioned outside groups.

No offending entity was named in the statement, though it went on to explicitly identify groups allied with the Trump campaign, including its sanctioned super PAC.

But a report by Axios<https://www.axios.com/david-bossie-presidential-coalition-elderly-donors-7b37f0c1-da94-4313-87bd-552730fea295.html> on Sunday detailed how the Presidential Coalition, a group run by Mr. Bossie, had used pictures of Mr. Bossie and Mr. Trump together to raise money it said would go to conservative candidates, but that only 3 percent of what it raised in 2017 and 2018 went directly to candidates….

Mr. Bossie, who leads the conservative group Citizens United and was the deputy campaign manager of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, has remained close to the president and has recently traveled on Air Force One.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“Alison Lundergan Grimes contests Kentucky law removing power over elections board”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105062>
Posted on May 7, 2019 8:55 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105062> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP<https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/elections/kentucky/2019/05/07/alison-lundergan-grimes-contests-law-removing-her-elections-board-power/1127680001/>:

Kentucky’s secretary of state has challenged a new state law removing her power over the State Board of Elections<https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/ky-legislature/2019/03/06/republican-bill-yank-power-away-grimes-advances/3081150002/>. Alison Lundergan Grimes claims the action by Republican lawmakers amounts to an unconstitutional infringement of her executive authority.
Grimes, a Democrat, warns that “confusion and uncertainty” will surround Kentucky’s May 21 primary election<https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/elections/kentucky/2019/04/19/kentucky-primary-election-2019-what-to-know/3518857002/> unless the law is invalidated.
Grimes filed the lawsuit Monday in Franklin County Circuit Court. It seeks an injunction blocking the law’s implementation and a ruling that it violates Kentucky’s Constitution.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Georgia high court hears appeal in election challenge”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105060>
Posted on May 7, 2019 2:51 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105060> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP<https://apnews.com/3f929f43181d46ce9877489dfd9b28c7>:

Georgia’s highest court is mulling whether to reverse a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the outcome of November’s race for lieutenant governor in a case that focuses attention on the state’s outdated voting machines.

The lawsuit says tens of thousands of votes were never recorded in the race and the contest was “so defective and marred by material irregularities” as to place the result in doubt. It contends an unexplained undervote in the race was likely caused by problems with the state’s paperless touchscreen voting machines.

Republican Geoff Duncan beat Democrat Sarah Riggs Amico by 123,172 votes to become lieutenant governor. Amico is not a party to the lawsuit, which was filed in November by the Coalition for Good Governance, an election integrity advocacy organization; Smythe Duval, who ran for secretary of state as a Libertarian; and two Georgia voters. It was filed against Duncan and election officials.

Senior Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs dismissed the lawsuit in January. The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments in an appeal of that dismissal.

The Supreme Court justices asked some pointed questions of both sides in their effort to determine whether the lower court judge abused her discretion in dismissing the case.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting technology<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>

Few Dominoes Left<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105057>
Posted on May 7, 2019 1:40 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105057> by Nicholas Stephanopoulos<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=12>

One recurring argument in the ongoing debate over partisan gerrymandering suits is that, if they can be brought, they will inundate the federal courts. Wisconsin advanced this floodgates claim in Whitford, asserting<https://campaignlegal.org/sites/default/files/Gill%20v%20Whitford%20-%20Brief%20for%20the%20Appellants.pdf> that courts would have to engage in “unprecedented intervention in the political process” if the plaintiffs prevailed. Similarly, North Carolina warned<https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legal-work/2019-02-08-Rucho%20Opening%20Brief.pdf> in Rucho of an “onslaught of litigation” if partisan gerrymandering actions were deemed justiciable.

At first glance, recent developments seem to show the floodgates opening. Over a span of just ten days in late April and early May, federal courts struck down numerous congressional districts on partisan gerrymandering grounds in Michigan<https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/michigan-gerrymandering.pdf> and Ohio<https://www.scribd.com/document/408562889/Ohio-Redistricting-decision>. The actual upshot of these decisions, though, is almost exactly the opposite. Now that courts have invalidated congressional districts in Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, there are very few remaining plans that could successfully be challenged. If the Court permitted partisan gerrymandering claims to proceed, the ensuing volume of litigation would thus be more like a trickle than a flood.

Consider the congressional maps that were used in the 2016 and 2018 elections. The single most asymmetric plan in effect in 2016, Pennsylvania’s<https://planscore.org/pennsylvania/#!2016-plan-ushouse-eg>, was struck down by a state court and replaced by a far more balanced<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=97606> remedial map. Similarly, three of the four most pro-Republican plans in effect in 2018 (Michigan’s<https://planscore.org/michigan/#!2016-plan-ushouse-eg>, North Carolina’s<https://planscore.org/north_carolina/#!2016-plan-ushouse-eg>, and Ohio’s<https://planscore.org/ohio/#!2016-plan-ushouse-eg>), were invalidated by federal courts, as was one of the two most pro-Democratic maps (Maryland’s<https://planscore.org/maryland/#!2016-plan-ushouse-eg>). On the pro-Republican side, only South Carolina’s<https://planscore.org/south_carolina/#!2016-plan-ushouse-eg> plan is about as biased as the stricken maps but has not yet been attacked. On the pro-Democratic side, only Massachusetts’s<https://planscore.org/massachusetts/#!2016-plan-ushouse-eg> plan is highly skewed but has not yet given rise to a lawsuit.

Moreover, under the legal standard that was adopted by the Michigan, North Carolina, and Ohio courts, partisan intent and a large and durable partisan asymmetry are not enough for the plaintiffs to succeed. They must also demonstrate that the challenged map’s bias is greater than expected given the state’s political geography and nonpartisan redistricting objectives. However, computer simulations for South Carolina and Massachusetts show that both states’ plans are about as skewed as thousands of randomly generated maps. It’s therefore unlikely that either plan would be legally vulnerable under the test around which the lower courts have converged.

Accordingly, claims of an “onslaught” of lawsuits, resulting in “unprecedented” judicial intervention, appear hugely overblown. If the Supreme Court leaves the door open for partisan gerrymandering suits, there may actually be no meritorious cases left to file at the congressional level. This is because litigants have already targeted almost all of the egregious plans around the country. It’s also because, under the lower courts’ test, there simply aren’t that many unlawful maps in the first place.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Prosecutor: Proof of election fraud in US House race in Va.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105055>
Posted on May 7, 2019 1:06 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105055> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP<https://wtop.com/virginia/2019/05/prosecutor-proof-of-election-fraud-in-us-house-race-in-va/>:

A special prosecutor in Virginia said Monday that he’s presented two indictments of election fraud against someone who worked on a failed re-election campaign for a Republican congressman last year.
Special prosecutor Donald Caldwell said his investigation into Scott Taylor’s 2018 campaign in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District is still ongoing.

Caldwell released a lengthy statement that offered fresh details on a months-old ballot-fraud scandal that clouded, if not doomed, Taylor’s bid for a second term in the district along Virginia’s coast.

The scandal started after some of Taylor’s campaign staffers were accused last summer of forging voter signatures to place a third-party “spoiler candidate” on November’s ballot.

The strategy was widely viewed as an effort to draw votes away from Taylor’s Democratic opponent, now a congresswoman, who had the backing of national Democrats.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Prosecutors drop voter fraud charges in Canton case. Man had spent a month in jail.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105053>
Posted on May 7, 2019 10:36 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105053> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Clarion Ledger reports<https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/06/voter-fraud-case-charges-dropped-canton-mississippi-manslaughter-sherman-matlock/1094457001/>.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Same-day registration: A simple solution to protect voter rights”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105051>
Posted on May 7, 2019 7:05 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105051> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Brian Miller and Miles Rapoport oped in The Hill<https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/442224-same-day-registration-a-simple-solution-to-protect-voter-rights>.
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Posted in voter registration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=37>

--
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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