[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/6/19

Tue Nov 5 20:08:01 PST 2019

With Democrat Beshear Ahead By About 4,700 Votes in Kentucky Governor’s Race, Republican Matt Bevin Won’t Concede, Citing Unspecified “Irregularities”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107940>
Posted on November 5, 2019 7:56 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107940> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Josh Dougla<https://twitter.com/JoshuaADouglas/status/1191918051077378050>s is going to be busy.

Bevin claim:<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB/status/1191920746454536192>
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<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB>
Marcus Green<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB>
✔@MarcusGreenWDRB<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB>

 · 36m<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB/status/1191920745036832770>
<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB/status/1191920745036832770>

Replying to @MarcusGreenWDRB and 3 others<https://twitter.com/_/status/1191916798041559040>

Bevin comments:

"This is a close, close race. We are not conceding this race by any stretch." (APPLAUSE) "And here's the thing - understand this, though. Understand this: We want the process to be followed and there is a process." 1/2 #KYElections<https://twitter.com/hashtag/KYElections?src=hash>
[cid:image001.jpg at 01D59414.B9421470]<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB>
<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB>
Marcus Green<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB>
✔@MarcusGreenWDRB<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB>

"We know for a fact that there have been more than a few irregularities. They are very well corroborated and that's alright. What they are exactly, how many, which ones & what effect if any they have will be determined according to law that's well established." 2/2 #KYElections<https://twitter.com/hashtag/KYElections?src=hash>
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7<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1191920746454536192>
7:30 PM - Nov 5, 2019<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB/status/1191920746454536192>
Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB/status/1191920746454536192>
22 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/MarcusGreenWDRB/status/1191920746454536192>

And now this:<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics/status/1191921175775137793>
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<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics>
Bluegrass Politics at BGPolitics<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics>

<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics/status/1191921175775137793>

Senate President Robert Stivers raises possibility of recanvass first, then recount and then a "contested election" in Senate to determine the winner of this year's race for governor of Kentucky. State has not had a "contested election" since William Goebel in 1899 election.^JB
<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1191921175775137793>
110<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1191921175775137793>
7:32 PM - Nov 5, 2019<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics/status/1191921175775137793>
Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics/status/1191921175775137793>
192 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics/status/1191921175775137793>

[cid:image002.gif at 01D59414.B9421470]<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics>
<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics>
Bluegrass Politics at BGPolitics<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics>

<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics/status/1191922978453426176>

Correction from Stivers' spokesman: A contested election would have to be considered by both Senate and House. ^JB
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7<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1191922978453426176>
7:39 PM - Nov 5, 2019<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics/status/1191922978453426176>
Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
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See Bluegrass Politics's other Tweets<https://twitter.com/BGPolitics>

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Posted in recounts<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=50>

As Democrats Take Unified Control of Virginia State Government, Will They Kill Redistricting Reform?<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107938>
Posted on November 5, 2019 7:40 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107938> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Michael Li:<https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1191896859356225536>
[cid:image004.jpg at 01D59414.B9421470]<https://twitter.com/mcpli>
<https://twitter.com/mcpli>
Michael Li 李之樸<https://twitter.com/mcpli>
✔@mcpli<https://twitter.com/mcpli>

<https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1191896859356225536>

So far Ds have won the Virginia state senate & (for now) appear to have a good chance of winning the state house as well - thanks to a redrawing of the map.

That’ll give them a trifecta for 2021 redistricting. Key q will be whether they now kill redistricting reform. #fairmaps<https://twitter.com/hashtag/fairmaps?src=hash>
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141<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1191896859356225536>
5:55 PM - Nov 5, 2019<https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1191896859356225536>
Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
<https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1191896859356225536>
36 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1191896859356225536>

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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

Ranked Choice Voting, Extended Lobbying Ban Apparently Coming to NYC<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107935>
Posted on November 5, 2019 7:32 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107935> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/05/us/elections/results-new-york-general-elections.html>
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Posted in alternative voting systems<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>

“Dissonant Referendum Design and Turmoil in Representation”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107933>
Posted on November 5, 2019 7:16 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107933> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jacob Eisler has posted this draft<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3378642> on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

The fruit of a referendum should be political clarity. The people have spoken; the state will act in accordance with their wishes. Yet the Brexit referendum had the opposite effect. After a majority of the UK electorate who voted in the referendum indicated a preference to leave rather than remain in the European Union, the representative government fell into divisive conflict over what policy should be adopted as a response to the expression of popular will. This is the antithesis of the clarity that a referendum should produce. Why has this happened? This Essay argues that, beyond the political and social complexities of Brexit, the subsequent instability can be traced to the humble realities of referendum question design. The referendum pitted a concrete proposal with clear legal consequences (Remain) against a question of principle with no explicit indication of subsequent government action (Leave). In doing so, the Brexit referendum deviated from well-established principles of referendum design by presenting voters with two non-comparable alternatives. Damningly for post-referendum governance, the result of the referendum offered the government little clear legal guidance, but rather simply constrained its policy-making flexibility. Such a referendum outcome forces representative government to exercise general policy-making discretion, but with a constrained palette of policy options which specifically exclude the first-choice preference of many voters. This Essay uses classical tools of political science to interpret this confusion in democratic governance, and draw forth general lessons regarding the interaction between referendum design and representative politics. Specifically, it applies spatial modelling of political competition to identify how flawed referendum design upsets the relationship between representatives and voters.
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Posted in direct democracy<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=62>

UK: “Johnson delay on Russia dossier helps Putin, says Litvinenko widow”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107931>
Posted on November 5, 2019 7:13 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107931> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Guardian:<file:///private/var/folders/st/wth389f12_194cwb9ynlr5_r0000gr/T/com.microsoft.Outlook/Outlook%20Temp/Johnson%20delay%20on%20Russia%20dossier%20helps%20Putin,%20says%20Litvinenko%20widow%20_%20Politics%20_%20The%20Guardian.html>

The widow of Alexander Litvinenko has said Boris Johnson should not have suppressed the parliamentary report on Russian interference in British politics, saying the delay helps the Kremlin and feeds suspicions of a cynical government “cover-up”<https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/04/no-10-blocks-russia-eu-referendum-report-until-after-election>.
Marina Litvinenko said the prime minister was in danger of making the same “mistake” as Theresa May, who as home secretary refused to hold a public inquiry into her husband’s murder in 2006 by polonium poisoning in central London.
“I’m very disappointed. We saw the same thing in my husband’s case,” she said, as the deadline passed for clearing the keenly awaited intelligence and security committee (ISC) report on Russia<https://www.theguardian.com/world/russia> for publication before the general election.
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Problem with new election equipment delays voting in Georgia counties”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107929>
Posted on November 5, 2019 7:10 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107929> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AJC:<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/problem-with-new-election-equipment-delays-voting-georgia-counties/vxltEshk0grck0uJiWA5RM/>

A glitch with Georgia’s new voter check-in computers caused delays in most of the six counties testing it, causing some precincts to stay open late to accommodate voters who left without casting their ballots.

The problem occurred in at least four of the six counties where the new voting system<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/georgia-bets-new-voting-system-amid-high-stakes-election/XVR7Jw5i1J7MiZ11O8xUZK/> was being tested<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voters-finish-first-test-new-georgia-voting-machines/cbt6ywPxQibHFFcwMqBWLM/> Tuesday before it’s rolled out statewide to 7.4 million registered voters during the March 24 presidential primary. Most Georgia voters were still using the state’s 17-year-old voting technology Tuesday.
Poll workers weren’t able to create voter access cards on new voting check-in computers manufactured by KnowInk. Those cards activate touchscreen voting machines so that they display the ballot associated with the jurisdictions where voters are registered.
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Posted in election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Georgia bets on new voting system amid high-stakes election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107927>
Posted on November 5, 2019 10:12 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107927> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AJC:<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/georgia-bets-new-voting-system-amid-high-stakes-election/XVR7Jw5i1J7MiZ11O8xUZK/>

With a presidential election on the line in 2020, Georgia is switching to a new voting company, Dominion Voting Systems, that state evaluators ranked second-best and that critics said will leave elections vulnerable.

Dominion, based in Denver, must rush to install<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/threats-georgia-elections-loom-despite-new-paper-ballot-voting/c5blwnfcwaGh8yTRQSn2uJ/> 30,000 voting machines for 7 million Georgia voters before the March 24 presidential primary, the largest rollout of elections equipment in U.S. history. Most voters in Tuesday’s local elections will cast ballots on Georgia’s 17-year-old machines, and voters in six counties are testing<https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voters-critique-georgia-new-voting-machines-test-run-begins/Ax5aTgIBvqgMKeFiLWfyHK/> Dominion’s machines.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“New report: Digital Disaster — The failures of Facebook, Google, and Twitter’s political ad transparency policies”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107925>
Posted on November 5, 2019 7:34 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107925> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Issue One:<https://www.issueone.org/new-report-digital-disaster-the-failures-of-facebook-google-and-twitters-political-ad-transparency-policies/>

Issue One’s latest report, “Digital Disaster: The failures of Facebook, Google, and Twitter’s political ad transparency policies,”<https://www.issueone.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Issue-One-Digital-Disaster-Report.pdf> reveals how piecemeal, voluntary approaches by the largest social media platforms to stop disinformation campaigns fail to protect our political system from foreign interference.

As the report<https://www.issueone.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Issue-One-Digital-Disaster-Report.pdf> shows clearly, the companies’ political ad transparency policies are a mess, and they do not measure up to the existing standards governing political ads on broadcast television and radio or the guidelines set by the bipartisan Honest Ads Act. The databases of political ads that they’ve created to help the public monitor digital ad spending in U.S. elections are also deeply flawed.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>

“‘Deep fake’ videos could upend an election — but Silicon Valley may have a way to combat them”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107922>
Posted on November 5, 2019 7:08 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107922> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

LAT:<https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-11-05/deep-fakes-2020-election-silicon-valley-cure>

Election officials and social media firms already flummoxed <https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-09-18/states-protect-elections-against-outside-interference> by hackers, trolls and bots are bracing for a potentially more potent weapon of disinformation as the 2020 election approaches — doctored videos, known as “deep fakes,” that can be nearly impossible to detect as inauthentic.
In tech company board rooms, university labs and Pentagon briefings, technologists on the front lines of cybersecurity have sounded alarms over the threat, which they say has increased markedly as the technology to make convincing fakes has become increasingly available.
On Tuesday, leaders in artificial intelligence plan to unveil a tool to push back — it includes scanning software that UC Berkeley has been developing in partnership with the U.S. military, which the industry will start providing to journalists and political operatives. The goal is to give the media and campaigns a chance to screen possible fake videos before they could throw an election into chaos.
The software is among the first significant efforts to arm reporters and campaigns with tools to combat deep fakes. It faces formidable hurdles — both technical and political — and the developers say there’s no time to waste.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>

“The Cybersecurity 202: Feds and police are war-gaming all the ways an election can be hacked”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107920>
Posted on November 5, 2019 6:55 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107920> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo reports.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-cybersecurity-202/2019/11/05/the-cybersecurity-202-feds-and-police-are-war-gaming-all-the-ways-an-election-can-be-hacked/5dc0a27b88e0fa10ffd20b60/>
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Posted in chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Amid troubles, Trump has huge cash advantage for 2020; But Democrats have already raised $700 million from small-dollar donors giving $200 or less”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107918>
Posted on November 5, 2019 6:53 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=107918> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Kate Ackley for Roll Call<https://www.rollcall.com/news/trumps-huge-cash-advantage-might-not-matter-for-democrats>.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

--
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>
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http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>

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