[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/14/19

[Rick Hasen]

“Trump pledges to reject dirt from other countries on 2020 foes”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105122>
Posted on May 13, 2019 9:07 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105122> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Roll Call<http://www.rollcall.com/news/trump-pledges-no-foreign-dirt-2020>:

President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to reject any dirt on his 2020 opponents that originates in a foreign country, just a week after his personal attorney canceled a trip to Ukraine allegedly to search for just that.

Trump also threatened to slap tariffs on even more Chinese-made goods as the two economic powerhouses barreled toward a full-scale trade war as markets around the globe dropped significantly.

“Well, I never did use [it]. As you probably know, that’s what the Mueller report was all about. They said, ‘No collusion,’” Trump told reporters. “And I would certainly agree to that. I don’t need it. All I need is the opponents that I’m looking at. I’m liking what I see.”…

During the 2016 campaign, Trump used part of a televised press conference to urge Russia to locate missing emails from a private server Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton<https://www.rollcall.com/members?7201&utm_source=memberLink?utm_source=memberLink> used as secretary of state under former President Barack Obama<https://www.rollcall.com/members?7612&utm_source=memberLink?utm_source=memberLink>. And he frequently praised Wikileaks for releasing Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee emails during the election.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D105122&title=%E2%80%9CTrump%20pledges%20to%20reject%20dirt%20from%20other%20countries%20on%202020%20foes%E2%80%9D>
Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Supreme Court requests response from Ohio and Michigan gerrymander challengers”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105120>
Posted on May 13, 2019 9:03 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105120> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Roll Call<http://www.rollcall.com/news/supreme-court-issues-first-response-challenge-ohio-michigan-congressional-maps>:

The Supreme Court on Monday gave the challengers of congressional maps in Ohio and Michigan until May 20 to respond to requests from state officials to stop court-ordered redrawing of district lines. Lower courts found the maps were partisan gerrymanders, an issue the high court is now considering in two other cases.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D105120&title=%E2%80%9CSupreme%20Court%20requests%20response%20from%20Ohio%20and%20Michigan%20gerrymander%20challengers%E2%80%9D>
Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“How the 2020 Election Could Go Off the Rails in Three Easy Steps”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105118>
Posted on May 13, 2019 9:01 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105118> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jeff Greenfield<https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/13/2020-election-contested-donald-trump-226869> in Politico.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D105118&title=%E2%80%9CHow%20the%202020%20Election%20Could%20Go%20Off%20the%20Rails%20in%20Three%20Easy%20Steps%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Albany’s Still-To-Do Election Reforms”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105116>
Posted on May 13, 2019 8:56 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105116> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jerry Goldfeder and Myrna Perez<https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2019/05/09/albanys-still-to-do-election-reforms/> in NYLJ.
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D105116&title=%E2%80%9CAlbany%E2%80%99s%20Still-To-Do%20Election%20Reforms%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Texas Is Talking Tough About Election Fraud, But Here’s What It Really Looks Like”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105114>
Posted on May 13, 2019 11:00 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105114> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Huffpost<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-is-talking-tough-about-election-fraud-but-heres-what-it-really-looks-like_n_5cd5a9f0e4b054da4e88dff6?guccounter=1>:

Paxton has emphasized prosecuting election fraud in a political climate in which President Donald Trump has made unsubstantiated claims<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-23/trump-says-democrats-encourage-voting-by-undocumented-immigrants> about noncitizens voting, and as the Hispanic electorate is growing. Despite Paxton’s intense focus on this issue, his office does not appear to have secured convictions proving widespread election fraud since increasing attention to the issue in 2018 — but he has continued to aggressively pursue prosecutions<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/texas-voter-fraud-molina-edinburg.html>.

Paxton’s office had 75 active election fraud investigations and 15 cases pending as of last month<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-voter-fraud_n_5cb105cfe4b098b9a2d3d766>.

“The sheer number of prosecutions brought by our office, and convictions secured by our office, should be enough to confirm that Texans are being deprived of their legal voice by the casting of illegal ballots,” Paxton’s office wrote in a letter<https://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/athena/files/2019/04/15/5cb497e6e4b0ffefe3b418b3.pdf> to House Democrats last month.

Paxton touts that his office prosecuted 33 defendants in 2018, a statistic The New York Times<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/texas-voter-fraud-molina-edinburg.html> has repeated twice<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/texas-voting.html>. In reality, 30 of those cases resulted in prosecution diversion programs — a clear sign they were relatively minor cases, HuffPost previously reported<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-voter-fraud_n_5cb105cfe4b098b9a2d3d766>. Of the three cases with the most serious punishments on Paxton’s 2018 list, one involved a Mexican woman<https://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Mexican-national-pleads-guilty-to-illegal-voting-13228190.php> who was sentenced to jail for stealing the identity of a U.S. citizen and voting illegally. She was slated for deportation. An attorney who represented her did not respond to HuffPost’s multiple requests for comment. There was no available transcript for her case, according to a county clerk.

The other two cases are those of Gonzalez and Flores. They committed election crimes involving mail-in ballots, something Texas tightly regulates<http://access.tarrantcounty.com/content/dam/main/elections/EV/BBM_assistance.pdf>.

Here is an earlier part <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-voter-fraud_n_5cb105cfe4b098b9a2d3d766> of the Huffpost investigation. And here is a tweet thread<https://twitter.com/srl/status/1127949750844755971> from Sam Levine, one of the authors:
View image on Twitter<https://twitter.com/srl/status/1127949750844755971/photo/1>
[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/srl/status/1127949750844755971/photo/1>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/843962466539208704/JM49BrmS_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/srl>
<https://twitter.com/srl>
Sam Levine<https://twitter.com/srl>
✔@srl<https://twitter.com/srl>

<https://twitter.com/srl/status/1127949750844755971>


Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's (R) office made a striking claim: The "sheer number" of voter fraud prosecutions it has brought in the last year is evidence that voter fraud is a problem in Texas. https://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/athena/files/2019/04/15/5cb497e6e4b0ffefe3b418b3.pdf …<https://t.co/2qIdjUxjjo>
<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1127949750844755971>
85<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1127949750844755971>
7:52 AM - May 13, 2019<https://twitter.com/srl/status/1127949750844755971>
<https://twitter.com/srl/status/1127949750844755971>
80 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/srl/status/1127949750844755971>

Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
[Share]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D105114&title=%E2%80%9CTexas%20Is%20Talking%20Tough%20About%20Election%20Fraud%2C%20But%20Here%E2%80%99s%20What%20It%20Really%20Looks%20Like%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>



--
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/>
[signature_1346317656]


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20190514/f2c3116a/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2021 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20190514/f2c3116a/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 55350 bytes
Desc: image002.jpg
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20190514/f2c3116a/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2795 bytes
Desc: image003.jpg
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20190514/f2c3116a/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 92163 bytes
Desc: image004.png
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20190514/f2c3116a/attachment-0001.png>